Join VOX Coaching for Communicate with Confidence, a practical and engaging full-day development event designed to help researchers strengthen their communication skills across interviews, presentations, meetings and networking situations.
The event is open to FBMH researchers across all disciplines and career stages. Join us for the full session, or for the specific parts of the day that are of interest to you.
Through four focused sessions—Excellence at Interviews Masterclass, In the Spotlight: Excellence at Presentations, Personal Presence: Authority and Authenticity, and Confident Networking—participants will explore how to communicate with clarity, authority and authenticity, manage nerves under pressure, build rapport with different audiences, and make a stronger impression in academic and professional settings.
Delivered in a supportive environment by VOX Coaching, the day will equip researchers with practical techniques to present ideas with confidence, engage listeners effectively and develop a compelling personal communication style.
Agenda
• 9:00am-9:30am: Arrival (Registration/Refreshments)
• 9:30am-9:45am: Welcome and Introduction – Andy Trafford (Vice Dean for Research and Innovation)
• 9:45am-11:00am: Session 1 (Excellence at Interviews Masterclass)
• 11:00am-11:20am: Break
• 11:20am-12:45pm: Session 2 (In the Spotlight: Excellence at Presentations)
• 12:45pm-13:30pm: Lunch
• 13:30pm-14:50pm: Session 3 (Personal Presence: Authority and Authenticity)
• 14:50pm-15:10pm: Break
• 15:10pm-16:30pm: Session 4 (Confident Networking)
• 16:30pm: Event Close
Outline of sessions
Excellence at Interviews Masterclass
A major interview can have a profound effect on an academic’s career, so thorough preparation is vital. This means working on style as well as content. The way candidates conduct themselves, present ideas and respond to questions has a powerful influence on the way they are perceived. This highly practical session will help you develop a clear, authoritative interview style that suits your personality and allows your ideas to shine through. It will also bring out the personal leadership qualities that assessment panels are often looking for. You’ll learn how to manage nerves and remain confident under interview pressures. You will achieve greater vocal and physical presence, so that what you say carries more weight and makes a stronger impression.
In the Spotlight: Excellence at Presentations
Even if you’ve done so many times before, it can be daunting to speak in front of people— whether in a presentation, interview, or meeting—and open yourself to scrutiny. Many people worry about their ability to hold an audience’s attention or feel exposed when questioned. As well as the challenge of managing nerves, there’s the need to make an immediate connection with the audience, and to convey your message with clarity and impact. This stimulating and involving course, run by VOX Coaching, will help you gain confidence and speak compellingly in front of any audience. It will equip you with practical techniques for engaging, informing and influencing. You’ll explore your presentation style in a supportive atmosphere and discover ways of enhancing it. The course will stand you in good stead now and in your future career.
Personal Presence: Authority and Authenticity
How can we speak so that others want to listen? Maybe it is a formal or more familiar meeting - either in person or on screen, external or internal to the University - how can we be relevant and accessible to different audiences in a range of different contexts? How can we build rapport, engagement and influence, particularly when we don’t have positional authority? What you say matters, of course, but so does how you say it. If your communication style isn’t up to scratch, your message may be lost. Communication that is clear and compelling has a positive impact on the way audiences perceive both you and the institution. This lively session, delivered by VOX Coaching, will enable you to communicate confidently, authentically and compellingly to any listener or audience.
Confident Networking
Most of us feel our confidence slip as we move beyond the familiar. We may be relaxed and outgoing when we’re in the company of people we know but put us among strangers and we’re much less comfortable. That’s why live networking occasions can feel more like nightmares than opportunities to find interesting and useful connections. Luckily there are ways of learning to thrive outside our comfort zone – to engage constructively with people whose background, status and world view may be very different from our own. We will equip researchers with skills that will be of value to them whether they remain in academia or make the transition to business or industry.
