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Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research (AIHR) AIHR

Presentation skills | OPEN

Giving an audience-focused presentation

As a PhD researcher you are immersed into your research subject every day, but how do you bring across your research to a large public? In this course participants are taught to give an audience-focused presentation, instead of a content- or screen-focused presentation. Based on the premise that in oral information transfer everything should be focused on the receiver, we will work on five aspects: content, expression, relation, appeal, and visual aids.

Course description

All theory will be practiced in exercises and is obtainable on video. The teacher acts as a stage director and gives each participant personal stage directions, that will be applied to their own subject content. The training is intensive and sometimes confronting, but also a perfect chance to learn the tricks of the trade under professional guidance.

After the course, participants will be able to:

  • structure the content in a way that the audience will remember it better;
  • use their body, voice and hands more consciously;
  • keep the attention of the audience more, by making the information that you deliver clearly audible, visible and tangible, establish good contact with the audience;
  • make effective slides and present them audience-focused, instead of screen-focused;
  • deal with tension and present with confidence

Group set-up

The course consists of two plenary sessions with max 15 participants, two group sessions with max 5 participants and two/ three meetings with a peer, to be scheduled by yourselves. 

Please check the dates of the plenary and group meetings carefully! You are expected on both plenairy meetings and the group meetings.

Course dates & Registration | Spring 2025

Lecturer

The course will be taught by Karin Herrebout, Moile Moile. Karin has a background in theatre and professional storytelling, and is specialised in teaching presentation skills.

Thanks to Karin and my fellow participants, the course helped me to see myself as a presenter from a different perspective. Now I am more aware of my body posture and how it can assist in building self-confidence. Also, I pay more attention to the visual, audio, and kinesthetic channels of forwarding my message to the audience. The most valuable ideas for me are the Golden Sentence, the Song-strategy and the appeal to the audience. Karin is an experienced professional instructor who paid close attention to each of us and gave adequate feedback. I have learned a lot. Participant from last year