Spotlight on Science Online – Engaging people with your research through video

Are you interested in widening the audience for your scientific research but not sure where to start? Then join us for a Spotlight on Science presentation skills workshop ran by Screenhouse Media. Over two half days, you will be guided by professionals to speak with confidence and transform your research into a TEDx style talk to captivate your audience, raise your profile and involve the public in your research. At the end of the training you will work with the Public Engagement Team to record your talk ready for the big Spotlight on Science release in Autumn 2021. 

1. Effective Personal Presentation Skills with Victoria Pritchard. Half day showing how to raise impact and engage audiences with personal communication skills. The group will work in pairs and together, with individual feedback from Victoria. The session will cover eye contact, body language, use of hands, speaking too quickly, face reddening, getting rids of “erm” and “so”, while being the most authentic, confident and engaging version of yourself. 

These skills are not only essential for presenting on video, but for every day of professional life, engaging anyone from funders, grant panels, conferences, lecture theatres, meetings, the media and the general public. 

Victoria has delivered this training at the Royal Society, Cambridge Stem Cell, Imperial, UCL, King’s, St George’s, MRC- Hammersmith, Radcliffe School of Medicine, Weatherall Institute and many more. 

2. Preparing to tell your research story on video with Paul Bader. Paul is a former research scientist, turned award-winning factual TV executive producer. He’s currently producing filmed inserts for BBC1 The One Show, on science, history and popular factual themes, as well as factual content for other channels. 

In this half day module, Paul will show you how to think like a TV producer competing to hold your audience’s attention. You’ll look at your research through the eyes of the viewer, find the best story to tell in the most compelling way. By the end of the session, all of the group will present and record their 1-minute video trailer. Paul will look at each person’s research, giving expert advice on how best to construct your longer video, using additional content such as interviews, stills or other video content to best. You will consider sound quality, backdrop, copyright. Again, these are all skills which will be invaluable on any future research project, recording experiments, team work, raising impact and communicating research to audiences and to the media. 

Delegates will need to complete a short questionnaire ahead of the day, with a brief biography and outline of the research they’d like to feature in the video and their target audience. 

Read more about Screenhouse Media here: https://www.screenhouse.co.uk/ 

The course will take place online on Zoom. 

Contact Carol Shiels or Sebastian Fuller for more details.

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