If you're a keen public engager who'd like to know how to make your presentations more impactful then this is the session for you. We've invited Anna Ploszajski, an award winning communicator, to join us for this multidisciplinary engagement masterclass on taking your presentations to the next level. We're especially encouraging those who are signed up to take part in the Resonate Festival of Science and Technology to come along to this session with their planned presentations in mind.

This session will cover

• Public engagement and tailoring to your audience
• Introduction to Storytelling for Researchers
• Presentation skills

About the session lead

Dr Anna Ploszajski is an award-winning materials scientist, writer, and storyteller based in London. She’s a materials generalist, equally fascinated by metals, plastics, ceramics, glasses and substances from the natural world. Anna channels her passion for storytelling about materials through writing, podcasting, presenting and training scientists and engineers in the art of storytelling. Her first book, Handmade: A Scientist’s Search for Meaning Through MakingLink opens in a new window, is out now. In her spare time, Anna plays the trumpet in a funk and soul covers band and is an ultra-endurance open water swimmer. Oh, and it’s pronounced “Por-shy-ski”.

You can find out more about her on her websiteLink opens in a new window.

Quotes from past participants

"This workshop fantastic, very interactive and well facilitated by Anna, who guided us in a very compelling and well structured way into the art of storytelling. Her knowledge of story arcs and other elements coupled with her ability to relate these to scientific writing was exceptional, and I came away armed with several tactics for improving my own presentation and writing structure and style. Very highly recommend she comes back again!"

"This was honestly one of the most useful (if not the most useful) skills training sessions run by any of the universities I've worked at over the past 10 years. Usually academic skills sessions are so generic that they're of minimal use. This session was anything but. All of what was presented was super useful, and I can see how it will have a tangible impact on how I present. Anna was wonderful - I guess it's to be expected that her presentation skills are fantastic, but she also created a lovely, warm atmosphere in the room. She established this in the first session (which was more present-y), which made the afternoon session (more workshop-y) flow really well: the atmosphere was warm, trusting and supportive, which is so helpful when publicly practising presentation skills. I've been to similar public engagement workshops before when employed at a different institution and this was far far better. I could have happily carried on for another few hours."