my tips on becoming a great presenter

so i went to Toastmasters yesterday evening for a gander on how they improve presentation skills. Enjoyed listening to all the talks, except the last one, which was delivered in a pitch that only dogs and bats could bear.

So you can go to Toastmasters for months. Or you can watch and action this 5 minute vid.

Your choice! Let me know how you get on!

for those of you who want to practice with me in the flesh, I'm holding an Art of Presentation session from 5-7 at The Hub in London on 19th august from 7-9. Call to book - 01273 724050.

Yay!

Woohoo (punches sky!) We got a new grant, we got a new grant! So excited! Awards for All have given us a grant that kick starts our Putting Soul Into Education conference!

It's been a dream of mine for four years to have an event that brings together the most cutting edge, effective, engaging and meaningful work in the education field and show cases and shares it for the sector to learn from and celebrate. With Parliament recently passing ( like yesterday), legislation to enable the setting up of free schools, with Home Education increasing by 300% over the last year here in Sussex alone and with the debates ranging about Academies and the value and cost of a degree, this couldn't have come at a better time!

My vision is to create a conference that runs in real time as well as being virtual - so people all over the world can participate from their desks - both as speakers/workshop leaders and as participants. Luckily for me, Brighton is rich with the kind of geek that can make this happen!

How often do we connect education with soulfulness? And when we do, how much of that is tempered with fear and anxiety about religion/newage/heebeyjeebey not-the-place-for-it worries? But there are pioneers, who are bringing:

A deepening relationship with nature
A sense of freedom, fun and creativity
An exploration of meaning and purpose
A youth led curriculum

into their schools and environments.

Imagine what a soulful school would look and feel like? Maybe not for everyone, but very exciting to me!

Does anyone have any examples of practitioners, educational organisations, teachers, who ought to be on the rostra? Answers on a postcard!

Thanks Awards for All! x

Power Hour Launch

So on Monday we had our launch event for our Power Hours - one hour, high energy trainings that give creatives professional skills. We've been a bit under the radar with regard to creative and media companies in Brighton and we felt it was time to introduce ourselves and what we do.

The event was held at I-Crossing's gorgeous meeting room on Black Lion St, which has a roof terrace and lots of glass boards to replace flip charts ( the modern take on the paperless office it seems). We had 30 people signed up and eventually 15 in the door, which, for a free event on a very sunny day, in a seaside town, is good going.

We started off with tools to make meetings work. Only 2 people confessed to actually falling asleep in a meeting. One woman described how the man next to her actually thumped his head on the desk as his eyelids fell! There was general agreement that competing priorities, agendas and politics, as well as having a few too many people round the table, could all cause complications.

We split into groups and used the 6 hats technique to plan the agenda for our respective meetings. In a real Power Hour, you would then run that meeting, with everyone practicing keeping the right hat on - for those unfamiliar with the hats:

Blue - control hat - why are we here?
White - information - what do we need to know about this?
Red - feelings - what do we feel about this?
Yellow- positive -what is positive about this?
Black - critical - what risks do we need to consider?
Green - ideas - what solutions could we come up with.

Meetings start and end with Blue. You don;t need to use all the hats. The secret is that everyone puts on the same "Thinking Hat" at the same time, so critical thinkers learn to be creative and not impede the creative process and everyone takes the same approach to the conversation, making decision making a lot more structured and timely. Everyone benefits from the opportunity to have their say at every stage.

Then we whizzed into the Art of Persuasion - tools for improving pitching and presentation skills. There was a great moment, where I worked with Angela, from Wired Sussex, who can seem a little nervy in her presenting - same for lots of us. We had a go at using long pauses to add gravitas and help you stay calm. The transformation in under 5 minutes as she presented her ideas with clarity and calm to a rapt audience and a round of applause!

The result - two strong leads to pursue offering this work in exciting, creative organsations and a decision to pilot open courses for freelancers to drop in and build their skills. Exciting!

I'd really recommend a launch/intro event for any new business or business relaunch - it's a great way for people to touch and feel what you do, especially important if you work with intangibles.

Off to the Cotswolds to celebrate this weekend, but quite a few proposals to write before then - glad to be busy again! Phew!

Erica x

How to get funding, The Hunger Project and clever conversations

This week ….
Went to see Sally at Funding Central. Funding Central is such a great website - it combines a funding search with listings of tenders, contracts and loans available to the Third Sector and aims to educate the sector in partnership working, variations in financing and strategic planning as well as making the life of anyone involved in funding that little bit easier. They’ve got lots of interactive tools like this one: http://www.fundingcentral.org.uk/page.aspx?sp=6347
That help you think through your strategy.

Looks like we’ll be making a film for them to make using the site a little less daunting for the many staff in the voluntary and community sector who are intimidated by Internet and IT. That certainly isn’t everyone, many people are great with technology, but the sector does have a large number of smaller groups who may not even have a website. It’s worth spending 15 minutes on your profile though, once it’s done it’s done and then you get weekly updates on grants that meet your criteria – bit like internet dating!

Met with Helen Guiness, chair of The Hunger Project on Friday. The Hunger Project has been delivering empowerment training through local volunteers across several continents for over 30 years, ending persistant hunger by empowering women and communities to better address their needs and solve problems. Very inspiring work. Helen is now taking their Leadership training, Vision for Action, out into the world. The one day training helps transform a vision into an action plan that all staff can commit to. We’ll be having a training session to get to grips with the process here at TLP, but if you’d like one of your own, please contact her on helen@vision4action.co.uk. I’ll report back once we’ve had one!

Inpsiring chitter chatter on the web front with the guys from The House , discussing how we forgive Apple their mistakes but not Microsoft – interesting to reflect on how the personality of an organisation makes you more or less forgiving. Brands are almost like character traits now aren’t they? We see Microsoft as “a bit up itself”, whilst Apple is “ a bit chaotic but so exciting and sexy.”

Note to self, if you can’t be clever, or have the right connections, try being exciting and sexy.

Friday night drinks in Highgate woods café with my dear friends Josef www.uniteddiversity.com and Gloria ( www.kidsfirsttrust.org.uk) Aside from being delighted that the week was over, I got a speed download education in the Industrial Provident Society and Development Trust. I finally understand what these things are and how useful they are. Basically, members buy shares in a local service like a farm or a school or a local shop or pub, but there are restrictions – like it doesn’t matter how many share you have, you still only have one vote. Very interesting - basically a very old school form of crowd funding. Wonder what we can do with this…

Big lecture from Grandma because I don’t document my workshops and she says I need to. My Russian Grandma is a PhD physicist so she is a big believer in an evidence base. She says I could have a publishable report by now if I’d documented the 250 workshops and consultancy projects I’ve done over the last 4 years. She’s right. I am abashed! I’ll start with tomorrow.

Power Hour Launch Event

Top tips for interview sucess!

If you are having trouble landing that job or you have a really important interview coming up then take a look at then take a look at this video.



Good Luck xx