EPEC1 | Communication 101: From your first  conference to your first press release

EPEC1

Communication 101: From your first  conference to your first press release
Conveners: Nimisha Verma, Thibaut Roger, Aurelie Van den Neucker, Jules Bourdelle de Micas
SUN-WS1 |
Sun, 07 Sep, 13:30–16:30 (EEST)
 
Room Triton (room 24)
Sun, 13:30
May it be with peers, with the public or with stakeholders, the duties of a scientist require them to develop soft skills in communication. This workshop will follow the path of a scientist from their first conference, to their first press releases, and we will discuss practice some of the essential communication skills along that path. Intended to offer an overview rather than an in-depth training of a specific skill, this workshop will tackle various topics such as abstracts writing, networking with peers, poster efficiency and interactivity, talk preparation and stress management, interacting with the public at event (and how to deal with science deniers or sceptics) or with stakeholders, how does a press release work and how to interact with the media, etc. The workshop will be punctuated with exercises which do not require preparation beforehand.

This workshop is open to everyone, not just early careers.

FAQ:

How long will the workshop be?

The while workshop will be approximately 2h15-2h30 with 15 minutes break in the middle. It will finish on time for attendants to be able to join the Ice Breaker session of EPSC-DPS. 

 

My flight is too late and can’t reach for the beginning of the workshop – can I join mid-way? 

Definitely yes! As the workshop goes skill by skill, you can still join during the workshop and will not need the beginning to follow along!

 

Can I attend online? 

Most likely not, we will check the technical possibilities but the exercises will not be possible online for sure.

 

Is this for early-career scientist only?

Definitely not! Although early-career might have less experience and might benefit further from this workshop, advanced career scientists can still beneficiate from some refresher and update on tools, etc. Furthermore, this workshop might help supervisors identify key elements that have become intuitive with experience – so they can better help their students in developing their communication skills.

 

Do I need to prepare anything for the workshop?

No at all. All exercises require only your brain and no other material.

That being said – it might be useful for you to get a copy of your abstract or poster to think about how to improve them along the workshop.

If you want to volunteer, you can send a pdf of your poster beforehand at thibaut.roger@unibe.ch and we might use for exercises. The goal is not to comment the design nor the content but only to provide feedback on how to make the poster more interactive.

 

Will I be able to deliver a perfect talk or poster afterwards?

Definitely not! Any workshop pretending the contrary is scamming you – there is not a unique way to do communication. Appreciation of a talk or poster is very subjective for several aspects and thus you can never make something that everyone will like. Yet, there are objective elements we will discuss and that you can take into account when designing a poster or talk, such as accessibility, etc.

 

Will this workshop improve my communication skills?

Definitely yes! Even when being a natural for communication, practice never hurts to improve even further.