How to be confident and persuasive in academia!

... that was the topic of our first two-days soft skill course in 2021 given by Barty Warren-Kretzschmar from Golin Wissenschaftsmanagment.

Unfortunately we still had to do it in an online format but nonetheless it was an enjoyable experience. After a short discussion on the question “What is a good talk?” we learned how to communicate our research and got to know certain strategies to structure and prepare a talk. Furthermore, we learned how important body language is and how to use it not only to present our content in a confident and persuasive way but also to establish a connection to our audience. Since digital conferences most likely will remain part of our research life, we also got some tips on how to present ourselves in an online format.

Besides learning how to communicate our research in talks, we also practised elevator speeches and poster presentations. On the second day each participant had the opportunity to give a short talk on his or her own research and got feedback from the audience, including the teacher. The workshop ended with some more tips on how to network and do small talk on conferences as well as cope with difficult situations.
Summarizing, we all enjoyed a great and interactive workshop in which we learned a great many things about being confident and persuasive in our daily research life.
A big thank you to our trainer Barty for the instructive workshop and for the fun we had while learning about those possible improvements. Certainly we all will implement one thing or the other and use the newly learned features to become a more confident and persuasive researcher!