For best experience please turn on javascript and use a modern browser!
You are using a browser that is no longer supported by Microsoft. Please upgrade your browser. The site may not present itself correctly if you continue browsing.
Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research (AIHR) AIHR

Presentation skills

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