WFWP UK - David Rennie's Public Speaking Seminar via Zoom

Mr. David Rennie, husband of WFWP UK Secretary General, Mrs. Christa Rennie, and honorary WFWP member, gave a presentation on Public Speaking via Zoom call to on average 12 people.

David gave a detailed and informative PowerPoint, interspersed with anecdotes and helpful hints on how to improve one’s public speaking abilities.

How important Appearance is, how to vary one’s voice to keep the audience’s attention - high, low tone - how to put across the point, by emphasising, changing your position, keeping eye contact, speaking slowly or fast. And what not to do, giving examples of things he had experienced and how he overcame situations to become better at public speaking. The slides were filled with encouraging information and guidance for each of us to give our best talk.

After a short break, during which we could prepare a two-minute talk on the topic of Peace Starts with Me, we took it in turns to speak. Two minutes goes fast maybe, but we found it a challenge to fill the time with worthwhile content and to keep the audience with us.

After each of us talked, David gave us a critique of our performance. He said some things we did well and some ways we could improve, based on his experience in public speaking and as an audio-visual engineer.

Sometimes we overlook the importance of the technical side, like how to hold a mic, how near to hold the mic and how to do the optimal lighting on our screens, or to dress best for the audience.

David said that we are there for the audience. And to prepare to give the best experience, by dressing well and preparing mentally beforehand and through the words we use.

We were all very grateful to attend this webinar and want to thank David for giving us the precious gift of his time and experience. We look forward to putting into practice in the future what we learned on the webinar.

Report compiled by: Helena Stout