The Health Foundation funding includes training for presentation skills; I accessed the first of these sessions mid-June.  The session was delivered as a small group session with an excellent facilitator.  It was a tiring and adrenaline filled day but extremely informative - its value (as seen as improvement in my presentation skills) remains to be revealed.  With little ado we were all very quickly having to stand up in front of the rest of the group and present ourselves to the other group members - this was the opening for initial comments on our body language and style etc.  Instruction and practise followed all day with a clear improvement in the presentation skills of all those present.

Not only did I learn about how I should stand in front of an audience but also several key factors to try and remember about what to do and what NOT to do!  Practise, practise, practise is the key - PowerPoint use should be minimal and should only back up the presentation and not be the presentation.  Tools on how to structure the presentation are fundamental - a beginning, middle, end - with the middle structured in 3 parts; this format underpins the presentation so that it is logical and the structure should help me as presenter to always be able to keep the presentation on track.

Once I have gained some presentation experience I will access the follow-up course to develop my presentation skills further.