Speaker Coaches

Public speaking always seems to rate highly on lists of people's worst fears, right up there with sharks, snakes and large, hairy spiders. A few lucky people have a natural talent for it, but most regard talking in front of an audience as the stuff of nightmares.

Which probably isn't the best introduction for my request for speakers for next year's conference. However, we now have a team of speaker coaches ready and willing to help first-time, apprehensive speakers, who would like some expert advice on presenting their talk. This advice might come in the form of how to get your message across, how to construct a power point or slide show, or maybe just a big confidence booster. These coaches are 8 IPPS members who between them have vast experience with conference presentations both here and overseas. The concept is a new initiative brought about to encourage all you members who have lots of interesting things to speak about, but for whatever reason have not put your hand up to get on stage yet. Our illustrious lineup of speaker coaches comprises Eddie Welsh, Chris Barnaby, Cathy Hargreaves, Malcolm Woolmore, Nicola Rochester, Terry Hatch, Ken Davey, and Ian Duncalf. All of them familiar faces on our conference speaker lists.

How do you get to speak at conference? The first step would be to email me, and from there we would look at the subject you want to speak about and decide who out of the coaches would best suit your subject and the style in which you want to present it. You would make that decision. Sometime after that point you would contact the coach of your choice. I am also available to give advice on writing up your paper for publishing in the Combined Proceedings.

So think about giving this a go if you've never presented a paper before. We might not have the experts to help you swim with sharks or handle snakes and spiders, but we do have experts willing to help you step up and actually enjoy a spot of public speaking - and besides, remember you would be speaking amongst friends; IPPS members make pretty good audiences too.

Jill Reader,
Editor NZ region
jill@currantaffairs.com