Be The Eloquent Woman: Women and Public Speaking Workshop, 2 April 2014, Trinity College, Oxford
 

• Women report fearing public speaking more than men do - and they may have more reason than just nervousness.
   
• Women are more frequently “talked over” in meetings or their points are ignored, then claimed by male participants.
   
• Women working in the public sphere often find journalists focus on their appearance, rather than their message.
   

This workshop is designed to help women executives and politicians improve their public speaking.
 

You will acquire strategies for succeeding as a speaker, whether you do most of your public speaking in meetings and on conference calls, or in the public arena.
 

Public speaking confers many advantages in business and politics, allowing the speaker to influence audiences and raise her profile.

Participants will learn:
 

• Techniques for overcoming the fear of big occasions
  
  
• How to prepare a script
   
• Strategies for reading or speaking without notes
   

• Advantages women bring to public speaking and how to bring them to the fore
   
• Lessons from outstanding American women
   
• Putting together a “message wardrobe” to be prepared for any speaking situation
   
• How to get more speaking opportunities and make the most of them
   
• What conference organisers are looking for in speakers, and what’s preventing women from achieving parity on conference podiums
   
• How women speakers are perceived, in public settings and in the workplace and how you can subvert expectations
  

Denise Graveline, a Washington DC-based speaker coach and author of The Eloquent Woman, will lead the workshop.

Graveline is a former journalist and communications leader who has coached speakers for the TEDMED conference as well as for Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 corporations, nonprofit organizations, universities and the U.S. federal government.

She chaired the 2013 European Speechwriter Network conference in Brussels.

TESTIMONIALS FROM PREVIOUS WORKSHOPS

"How good is Denise as a speech coach? I would call her a professional's professional. You can be in the business 25 years and still learn a lot from her, in part because she herself is always learning and growing. As an added bonus, she's really fun to work with."

Marcus Webb, Chief Storytelling Officer, TEDMED

"I found her instruction clear and insightful, her tips useful and her presentation style engaging....Denise can offer you practical guidance that you'll be able to put into practice immediately. I particularly appreciated her emphasis on understanding a speaker's needs and motivations in order to help them deliver the best possible presentation."

Rachel Coker, director of research advancement, Binghamton University  

"Denise helped me immensely with my TEDx talk, providing edits to the content and expert coaching on my delivery, stage presence, and tone. She also had lots of very practical advice and tricks-of-the-trade that I'll be able to use for future presentations."

Megan Moynahan, Case Western Reserve University

"Denise is a top-notch communications advisor - always on top of the latest trends and able to provide practical advice to a wide variety of audiences. She provides excellent counsel in both individual settings as well as with groups. And mixed in with all the expertise is a great sense of humor."

Ann Davison, Managing Director and Senior Partner, VOX Global

"I went straight from wearing a suit and meeting with Congressional aides to wearing field pants and talking to town managers and kids on the beach! The communication tips and message that you (and the workshop participants) helped me develop were extremely useful. After the workshop, I felt much more confident talking to people about my research..."

Allison Leidner, Universities Space Research Association.

This is part of pre-conference training for the European Speechwriter Network conference. For more details of the conference, go to http://www.oxfordspeechwriters.eventbrite.com