1. A thousand conversations:
what’s so great about
face-to-face communication?
Sylvia Link,
Communications and Stakeholder Management,
Early Learning Division, Ontario Ministry of Education
Jim Grieve,
Assistant Deputy Minister,
Early Learning Division, Ontario Ministry of Education
2. A thousand conversations: what’s so
great about face-to-face communication?
When face-to-face communication is crucial:
culture major new bad relationship building
change program/ news building trust
initiative
Create a strategic face-to-face communication plan
to support organizational needs/goals, including:
• site visits
• individual or small group meetings
• focus groups
• town hall meetings
• community forums
• workshop style presentation
• keynote style speeches to large audiences
+ Plan your speech/presentation
Establish the presentation goal/purpose—after hearing the presentation:
• what will the audience know? (inform)
• what will the audience believe or feel? (persuade)
• what action will the audience take? (call to action)
Know your audience—do an analysis of your audience to determine:
• what is their current level of knowledge about the topic?
• what is their attitude or perception about the topic?
• so what? how is the topic relevant for the audience? what is the benefit to the audience?
• how do they prefer to receive information?
Use a variety of strategies to research your audience
• online survey
• interviews with representative audience members
• proxies
• “intercept” surveys
• secondary research
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3. Keep in mind the following “brain” rules:
ZZ 10
Z
we don’t pay the brain needs a visual trumps
attention to change of pace all other
boring things every 10 minutes senses
Brainstorm to plan how your presentation will:
• grab attention
• create meaning
• be relevant to your audience
• add value for the audience
• be memorable
• be fun
• tell a story
• lighten up, by using humour
+ Create engaging presentation material
Write an attention-grabbing presentation title and descriptor.
Prepare the components of your presentation:
• speaking notes
• audience handouts
• audience participation activities
• presentation visuals
Audience handouts can take many forms:
• reading material in advance
• print material on each chair/table before audience arrives
• “ushers” hand materials to audience members as they arrive
• “placemat” or workbook for audience to fill in their notes
• takeaway that’s given out at conclusion of presentation
• electronic documents emailed to audience or posted on intranet/internet
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4. + Resources
Books
• Boring to Bravo: proven presentation techniques to engage, involve
and inspire your audience to action, by Kristin Arnold
• Slide:ology: the art and science of creating great presentations, by Nancy Duarte
• Made to Stick: why some ideas survive and others die, by Chip and Dan Heath
• Brain Rules, by John Medina
• The Book of Awesome, by Neil Pasricha
• Presentation Zen: simple ideas on presentation design and delivery, by Garr Reynolds
Idea starters for your presentation/visuals
• The periodic table of visualization methods
http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html
• www.slideshare.net
• www.ted.com
Web-based resources
• www.polleverywhere.com – instant audience polls
• http://docs.google.com or www.surveymonkey.com – free online surveys
• http://youtubedownload.altervista.org – download and convert YouTube videos
• www.mentalfloss.com and www.brainpickings.org for speech material
• www.vsotd.com (Vital Speeches of the Day) for free speech of the week, blog
• www.ragan.com for free speechwriting news, tips
Photos/images
• www.google.ca – Search for “public domain images”
Contact us
Sylvia Link, Communications and Stakeholder Management, Early Learning Division,
Ontario Ministry of Education
416-326-1987
sylvia.link@ontario.ca
www.linkedin.com/in/SylviaLinkAPR
www.twitter.com/SylviaLink
Jim Grieve, Assistant Deputy Minister, Early Learning Division,
Ontario Ministry of Education
jim.grieve@ontario.ca
www.linkedin.com/in/JimGrieveADM
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