TOYBOX Presentation Skills Workshop

Presenter, Anthony Ferens

On March 21and 28, the TOYBOX research assistants and community members had the opportunity to learn more and hone their presentation skills. This two-part workshop was facilitated by actor, instructor, director, and painter, Anthony Ferens. During the first session, the TOYBOX team learned the importance of preparation, the elements of a good presentation, and effective communication skills, both verbal and non-verbal. At the second session, the TOYBOX Team and Anthony reflected on the previous session and then used those learnings to dive into preparing for surprises, overcoming anxiety, and making personalized visually-appealing slide decks for various audiences.

Wynonna's Reflection

"It takes seven seconds for someone to form an opinion of you". Those words that Anthony said at the first session shocked me. Whether that be upon entering the room, or up in front of a crowd, that first impression matters. It allows for something essential for sharing our work: Relationship. It made me realize that the 'who' and the 'why' that are in an introduction pave way for 'What can I do for YOU?' and 'What can we do here, together?" Which is exactly what I believe TOYBOX is: a community.

Stretching It Out!

During the first session I also greatly enjoyed the warm ups that Anthony taught us. Our voices and our bodies are key to delivering an effective presentation as well as preventing injuries. Doing the warm-ups also helped me be in the moment and think about how I communicate. I tend to talk with my hands and the so the arm stretches were very welcome!

It also showed how important preparation is. We learned how to structure our presentations, how to hold ourselves in front of a crowd, and things to (not) do in order to keep people's attention so that we may deliver our message. I learned that what we have to say is deserving of preparation, and that we also put in this effort because we respect ourselves, our work, and the people whom we are presenting to.

Callie's Reflection

Putting our Skills into Practice!

In our second meeting with Anthony Ferens, we began by asking Anthony on his expertise in certain presentation circumstances. For example, one of the questions I asked him was what to do when presenting to young children who are not parentally supervised as this may be the case in our TOYBOX presentations occasionally. After the Q&A session, we performed our vocal warmups that we were taught last week including shoulder rolls, yawning practice, stretching, and making sure we have used all of the pitches in our voices to avoid voice-cracks. The team had a lot of fun with this exercise! After a quick pizza break for our crew, we delved into collectively editing a presentation slide deck that we have used in previous presentations before. Questions arose such as: What is the purpose of this slide? What are we conveying to our varying audience types (i.e. early childhood educators vs child audiences)? Is that message going to be received based on what we say and the supplementary material on the slide? It was so interesting to hear the unique perspectives of newer friends on our team as well as the aid from Anthony himself. Some of the ideas and questions people brought up gave me that “oh yeah, that makes total sense when you put it that way” kind of reaction. It felt like our team really came together on where we can evolve from these slides into action when presenting in the future! I think we were all impressed with how far we came in our presentation knowledge and hopefully applicability in the future.

Thanks for joining us Anthony.

Written by: Wynonna and Callie