Honing members’ communications skills: Media and presentations training

Participants in the workshop developed confidence for future interviews and learned how to get their message across with the media and the general public or in job interviews.

Communications fundamentals included how to build your narrative, how to control the interview, and how to deal with and master ‘difficult’ questions. There were hands-on group exercises with delegates from the other centres and mock interviews to practise their skills.

While the focus was on communicating with media, the same skills are also key for job interviews, outreach activities, speaking to the public, TV and radio interviews, fellowship applications, pitching ideas to companies, and delivering presentations.

Training was conducted via Zoom, allowing participation of researchers from all four Centres across NSW, Victoria, Queensland and WA.

Breakout rooms allowed plenty of time for small-group discussions and practice, which the following evaluation indicated was extremely valuable.

The workshop was a joint event between FLEET and the ARC Centres for Climate Extremes (CLEX), Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS) and Fragment-Based Design (CFBD). The participation of such a diverse group of researchers was extremely valuable in pitch practice, reinforcing the need to avoid ‘in-house’ jargon.

Presenters and content creators were the communications coordinators at the four Centres of Excellence, who brought decades of combined experience in media (print, TV) and communications.