Speaking out at CSfD

Summary

Pelican was engaged to design and deliver ‘speaker training’ to the chief executive and three of his senior team to improve public speaking skills and confidence.

The client

CSfD is a leader in management software offering a range of integrated IT & software solutions to support the food, wholesale and distribution marketplace.

Tell me more

The organisation had the opportunity to develop the business to the wider European market, however, the chief executive had a dread of public speaking and others in the team had no formal training – none were skilled or confident in ‘selling’ through this approach.

Pelican was tasked with designing and delivering a one-day speaker training workshop tailored to the individuals. This would provide a good foundation in the design and delivery of a presentation that would be relevant, memorable and valuable to its audience. After the session, the chief executive would need to be ready to deliver a presentation to a number of senior European CIOs of a major international food distribution company.

The Pelican approach

This type of event can fill participants with anxiety, especially when presenting to colleagues and suffering low self-confidence. The first step was for Pelican’s expert in speaker training to design a day that would be fun and interactive, but still challenging.

The day was split into two parts; a morning session to assess skill and confidence levels, and an afternoon session to ‘fill the gaps’ and make improvements.

The participants came armed with a pre-prepared talk previously given or ready to give at the forthcoming event. This was presented to the group, filmed and feedback given along with top tips for improvement by Pelican. Following a session on ‘tricks of the trade’, including slide design, projection and how to make content memorable and influential, the presentations were reworked, re-presented and filmed again.

Following the training, participants were sent their individual videos to review personal improvements from the day as well as have material to continue to build upon.

The chief executive asked Pelican to rework the presentation slides to make them more memorable and easier to use. Armed with a new found confidence and a new approach, he went on to use the new presentation, delivering a vastly improved talk which was extremely well received.

The results

Immediate feedback on the workshop was positive from all participants. Each commented on how much they had taken from the day and really enjoyed something they had feared would be embarrassing and outside their comfort zone.

Don’t just take our word for it…

“Thanks to Cheryl’s training, I now no longer dread the thought of public speaking…but rather see it as a great opportunity to sell my own passion for our business. Cheryl did a fantastic job for us and I can wholeheartedly recommend her to any company or individual that requires the skills to excel in a public speaking or presenting environment.” – Peter van der Merwe CEO CSfD.

Pelican Communications is a specialist in the environment & CSR, food, packaging & logistics and trade association sectors and offers a range of services such as strategy, design,  content creation,  public relations and people development.

Contact us for marketing and communications expertise.