Public Speaking Workshop

“Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.” 

          -Richard Branson

 

 The students and faculty of The Bhawanipur Education Society College came up with an idea to organize an event namely Public Speaking Workshop to give the students knowledge about one of the most important pillars of success, which is communication and how to communicate while speaking in public. The workshop took place over a time of 5 days from 21st March 2022 to 25th March 2022, 2 p.m. onwards in the college society hall. There were around 100+ students who took part in the workshop. 

The event commenced with Dr. Pinki Saha Sardar, V.P Admin & V.P Science Department, introducing the workshop to the audience after which Prof. Dilip Shah, Dean of Student Affairs, who himself was one of the speaker in the workshop took over to felicitate the guest of honors and the speakers for the workshop, Dr Suman K Mukerjee, CA Amar Agarwal, Mr . Chayan Pant and Mr Suvobrata Ganguly. 

Day 1 began with Dr. Mukerjee giving the students some advice on how to start Communication. He says that , “facts and rumours are a conversation starter, teach and cherish teaching without any selfish interests (teaching is the best way of adapting to public speaking, teaching a kid is even better as it will help your explanation skills), be happy where you are accept your circumstances(help your words seem more real when you talk to people), communicate your thoughts, emotions and suggestions”. Further he shares some techniques with which one can actually influence by their words, the TTT approach- which says Tell what you gonna, Tell what you have to say and Tell them what you have told them. He also talked about some exercises for nervousness, glottis control, perfect diction, debating etc. 

Day 2 began with Prof Dilip Shah, Dean of Student’s Affair giving the students some important knowledge on confidence building. He spoke about how public speaking is about creating an illusion by mesmerising people in your words. He said, “Your statement need Not always be right, but you have to be confidence in your words, don’t say something which will be taken as gibberish by the other person, accept if you are not aware of something.” He ended the day 2 workshop with an interactive session with the students where he answered the doubts and gave solutions to the problems faced by the students while communicating. 

Day 3 started with Mr Amar Agarwal telling students about small steps to become a fluent public speaker like engaging in group discussions, teaching children, reading books which will help to create an imaginative mind and expands one’s creative side. He also said, “Talk about things which sells, to make people interested in what you are talking. Also sell what you are talking.” He advised the students to use their devices right (to use phones and read at least one article or any factual script to expand knowledge instead of consuming random content that isn’t fruitful). He ended with a Q&A session with the students. 

Day 4 had Mr. Suvobrata Ganguly who talked about how to make conversations interesting for others and understanding the audience or the Know Your Audience theory where you need to know the demands of the audience and what exactly do they want to hear. He also taught the students about adding humour to your speech and why is that an essential element to become a good speaker. 

Day 5, the final day of the workshop had in store Mr. Chayan Pant also known as the Toastmaster taught the audience about the word toastmaster and who are they. He also told the students about what a toastmaster’s club is and why are universities like IIM and ISB, also companies like Google, Delloite and many other MNCs are having it. He further spoke about how one shall be expressive in his/her conversations by adding to extra bit of little details, one should be able to make their audience imagine what they talk about. He ended the workshop by taking feedbacks and suggestions from the students on what they can do to improve. He also announced that a toastmaster’s club is starting in the college for the students very soon. 

The workshop was a huge success, and the students are looking forward to more such interactive and fun events. 

Report by – PRERONA GUPTA