Stand out from the crowd
A practical workshop with Mark McGuinness
Introduction
Presentation skills training with a creative twist.
Many people (audiences included) dread presentations. Public speaking is one of our biggest fears, and ‘death by PowerPoint’ is so common it’s become a cliche.
When the spotlight is on you, it’s easy to forget the purpose of a live presentation and hide behind your material, reading out slides full of bullet points that overwhelm the audience with information.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
By taking a creative approach to designing and delivering your presentations, you can boost your confidence and actually enjoy the whole process. You’ll also stand out from the crowd and be a refreshing — and memorable — change for your audience.
With a little imagination and preparation, you can design and deliver a truly original presentation. The kind that lingers in people’s minds long after the event and gets them talking. The kind that changes minds and inspires action.
You don’t need to speak like a trained actor or produce slides like a professional designer.
You don’t need to deliver the whole thing word perfect.
You don’t even need to know everything there is to know about your chosen topic.
You just need to connect with your passion and the audience’s interests — and inject a little creativity into your preparation.
Creative Presentation Skills is a practical workshop that will teach you simple principles of presentation design and delivery, unlocking your creativity and releasing your natural speaking voice.
I will teach you how to:
- Approach your presentations with enthusiasm (not dread)
- Have fun applying your creativity at the preparation stage
- Express your passion for your subject
- Create beautiful, memorable slides
- Present with confidence and presence
- Be a speaker people remember — for all the right reasons
- Learn to love the limelight!
Linus Gregoriadis, Research Director, Econsultancy
Use the tabs at the top of the page to learn more about the workshop, and to enquire about booking Creative Presentation Skills for your organisation.
Who for?
Creative Presentation Skills is for anyone who wants or needs to be a better presenter. And these days, that includes most of us.
The bad news
Whatever your line of work, making a powerful connection with a live audience is critical for success – in team meetings, and at conferences, auditions and client pitches.
However good your work is, it won’t always speak for itself. At some point, you’ll have to get up on your hind legs and persuade people of its value – and get them to take action.
And like it or not, they will judge you – and your product/service/organisation – based on the impression you create when you stand in front of them and open your mouth.
So the ability to present your work and ideas confidently and fluently is a critical skill for career success.
And when you’re representing your company, brand or organisation, the quality of your presentation could be the difference between success or failure in a major venture.
No pressure. 
The good news
Becoming a confident, persuasive presenter is a learnable skill.
And the fact that there are so many mediocre presentations out there makes it relatively easy to stand out from the crowd by taking a different approach.
Not only that, when you start applying your creativity to your presentations, the whole process becomes fun as well as effective.
(Don’t worry if you don’t see yourself as ‘creative’ – trust me, you are. Or you can be, if you give yourself the chance.)
I’ll take you through the process step-by-step, showing you how to build a compelling presentation from scratch on any subject. Once you know the process, you’ll be able to use it for any presentation you ever have to deliver.
And once you know you can do this well – and that your presentation style will be a breath of fresh air for your audience – it will give your confidence a tremendous boost.
You’ll be able to take full advantage of the opportunities that come your way, by capturing audiences’ attention and persuading them of your point of view.
In the context of your career or business, that means getting more people to say ‘yes’ to your proposals, pitches, requests and bright ideas.
Something worth learning?
Topics
This presentation skill training will teach you the three skills that are essential to creating a compelling presentation:
1. Structure
You will learn to organise your material into a logical structure that makes it easy for you to remember and deliver – even if the worst happens and the projector breaks down and the dog eats all your notes!
The same organising principles will make it easy for your audience to grasp your ideas and remember them.
2. Story
A captivating presentation appeals to the emotions as well as logic – and stories are one of the most powerful ways to engage your audience emotionally and persuasively.
Even if you don’t consider yourself a natural storyteller, I’ll show you how to dream up stories that will resonate for your audience, and tell them in an engaging way.
3. Speech
Once you have your material, it’s time to concentrate on delivery. I’ll teach you how to get into the right frame of mind to present, by tapping into your natural enthusiasm.
I’ll also show you how to add some verbal polish by using some simple but powerful rhetorical patterns. And I’ll help you handle stage nerves and deal with challenging audiences.
And that’s it for the essentials – you don’t need PowerPoint slides to give a great presentation, so we leave them until the end, as an option you can use to enhance your delivery.
4. Slides
Most PowerPoint slides are monstrosities – crammed full of bullet points, text in tiny fonts, hideous clipart, and ill-advised corporate logo templates. Don’t go there.
I’ll show you how to create stunning slides that illustrate your presentation and help you make an impression on your audience. Even if you’re not a graphic designer (I’m not), you can create beautiful and memorable slides – and take a lot of satisfaction in doing so.
During the workshop you will design and deliver a short presentation about a subject that matters to you — ideally one that you will have the chance to deliver as part of your work.
How it works
How the workshop works:
Tell me what you want to learn – I’ll e-mail you some questions about your current challenges and what you want to learn.
Based on this feedback, I’ll tailor each workshop to address the challenges that are most relevant to the group.
- Practical skills you can start to use immediately
- Stories and real-life examples
- Activities to help you apply the ideas to your own work
- Questions and discussions – ask me what you want to learn!
I’ll give you access to the online version of the workshop, giving you a summary of the ideas and activities, for you to refer to as you put the material into practice and refine your presentations over time.
Having this reference means you don’t need to take a lot of notes during the live workshop, leaving you free to concentrate on practising your skills.
About Mark
Mark McGuinness
I’m a coach and trainer for creative people and innovative organisations.
I’ve been coaching and training for over a decade, and have worked with organisations including the BBC, Channel 4, The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, Arts & Business, Cockpit Arts and the University of Warwick.
When I’m not in front of an audience or working with coaching clients, I’m usually writing. I’m the author of a string of successful ebooks, and write two of the most popular creativity blogs in the world: LateralAction.com and WishfulThinking.co.uk
Sian James, Project Manager – Create KX
In the course of my career I’ve given hundreds of presentations, as a trainer, lecturer and conference speaker.
My audiences have included executives, corporate teams, artists and creatives, students, healthcare practitioners and wedding guests (I’ve given three Best Man speeches and am about to do a fourth!).
Topics I’ve spoken on include creativity, management, entrepreneurship, psychotherapy, communication skills, time management, personality types, marketing, motivation – and of course, presentation skills.
As well as the usual presentation formats, I’ve given live readings of my own poetry, delivered podcasts and audio seminars over the internet, and presented my work in a television documentary for the Discovery Health Channel.
In the process, I’ve made just about every mistake in the book – and found practical solutions to all of the major challenges facing public speakers.
I’ve created this presentation skills training to give you the benefit of what I’ve learned – and to make the process quick and easier for you than it was for me. 
Sean Kirkegaard, Development Executive – BBC Children’s Television
Clare Hudson, Creative Industries Manager – Creative Leicestershire
Book
Book this workshop for your organisation
Creative Presentation Skills is available as a one-day or half-day workshop to help your people become more confident, fluent and persuasive in delivering presentations.
To enquire about booking this workshop for your organisation, please contact me using the form below, and I’ll be in touch very shortly to discuss your requirements in confidence.
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