Today, to refresh the atmosphere, we changed the meeting place, which this time took place in a “green house” – a separate building next to the Pod Różami restaurant. We had a few minutes for ourselves, during which we exchanged our thoughts about first day of the training DO MORE. And these were certainly positive. However, we knew that today we will have more work, the results of which we will have to present later. The training have started by professor Carsten Thornhøj. We focused today on methods of effectively reaching content with the recipient. This was to help us to best promote the idea of workshops during school presentations, which we planned to carry out as ambassadors. We wanted as many people as possible to learn about the foundation, as well as about soft skills, which are extremely important, and few people are aware of it. We started by watching a short film. Surprisingly, it was a movie about nature from the National Geographic series (you can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkqzH1TovRQ).
Are you wondering how such a movie relates to the topic of the training? We also wondered. Professor Carsten gave us the answer – a leopardess attacks an impala because it has a purpose – he must take care of the extension of the species and feed his young. That is her need. And just as potential customers have their needs, so we need to properly reach them and satisfy them.
The NABC scheme was supposed to help us in this. It looks like this:
Each letter concerns a different issue, which should necessarily be included in the presentation to make it good and complete. This scheme is designed to help you prioritize and organize your prepared material. Consideration should also be given to such issues as: the purpose of the speech, its context, the audience to which we speak and accepted patterns. Of course, do not forget about an interesting, attractive introduction and apt, concise summary.
Another issue related to this is cooperation between presenters. To this end, Professor Carsten used this film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRdcy5P-3sg.
The collaboration between Ed Sheeran and Beyoncé was an example for us. We had to be as harmonious in our presentation as these two musicians – to skillfully divide roles among themselves and at the same time complement each other.
The time has come to translate the acquired knowledge into practice. We’ve been matched in pairs. Our task was to create a presentation template for schools, based on the NABC scheme, examples and news from yesterday. Each of us received an additional briefcase with all necessary promotional materials, such as leaflets, posters and letters to schools. And what is important – our speeches had to be in English!
We have started working on the presentations Each group found a quiet place for themselves to be able to prepare and practice their presentation there. Time was short, but that did not stop us and was only an additional element of the challenge. We had a break for dinner, after which we merged with other groups to receive feedback after presentation and to improve it, if needed.
I think everyone felt a little stressed. Even with such a small group, and yet during visits to schools we would come into contact with a much larger audience. That’s why it was important to be able to test yourself now. To be honest, I didn’t see myself there before everyone and I was afraid that it would not work. But we did it! Each pair presented themselves very well and fulfilled their task. I have to admit that thanks to this I gained a lot of confidence and became convinced that speaking English is not so scary …
After a short break, each group received feedback from Natalia and she was positive. We also got valuable tips, thanks to which we could correct minor shortcomings. Our next task was to create a “Book of answers” – a complete list of questions and answers that could appear during presentations at schools. We wanted to be prepared as much as possible. So we collected ideas for all possible questions, and then passed them on to our mentors so that they could prepare answers for us. It was also time to discuss all organizational aspects related to the planned trip to Copenhagen.
Our two days Do MORE of what MATTERS training has ended. We left Jedlnia-Letnisko equipped with all information, materials and, above all, knowledge that we will definitely need during the presentation of workshops at schools. It was very useful but demanding time. We are glad that we can support the My Future foundation with our efforts, thanks to which more and more young people gain knowledge and experience in the field of soft skills and, while educating themselves, strive steadily towards their dream career.
