Background
In October 2018, Impact Presenting was invited to hold an in-house presentation skills course in Brussels for the communication and lobbying consultancy, Instinctif Partners .Brussels, home to the EU, is widely considered the “Capital of Europe”.
At this 1-day class, 5 international experts specializing in political intelligence, lobbying, consulting, and education came together to learn how to give better talks in public. we covered how to give impactful presentations about any subject to any audience , whether it be government officials, industry groups, or internally within their own company.
Brussels is an international place, so audience members probably speak English as a 2nd or even 3rd language. Presentations had to be created with this in mind, as well as considering the obstacles when communicating any specialized subject matter.
Key content of a presentation skills class:
Here were some key takeaways for presenting to international audiences:
Keep the language basic and clear to avoid misunderstandings. Jargon is great for small team meetings but don’t let it slip when speaking to mixed audiences.
Don’t assume the audience know what you’re talking about. Before giving a talk, make sure everyone understands the background of your subject before going into depth. If someone doesn’t know what you are talking about, they might not raise their hand to ask.
Stories work, even internationally. People want to hear about the experience, not only the data. Bring a human face to every data point you want to present. People remember the story in the presentation much longer than the bullet points.
Most importantly, we learned how to put away the slides, speak to the audience freely, give examples, pull the audience in with engagement, and everyone realized PowerPoint is a PART of the presentation, not THE presentation (summed up nicely by the photo above).
Client reference:
“I met Eric at his public speaking training. Great experience! He helped each participant to deliver impactful presentations and make the best out of individual potential. I particularly appreciated his guidance in building up the narrative behind each speech. I am making a great use of his advice! Highly recommended :)”
EU Affairs, Instinctif Partners / European Health Parliament
Later on Lucia and I had a conversation about her journey into public speaking, what she has been doing since the class, and how its been working for her and recorded it for our Impact Presenting podcast, episode 3. You can listen to it here or on
here you can also check out our other podcasts about public speaking, executive communication, cross-culture, and presentations
If you are located in the BeNeLux area ask about booking us, in your office, for a custom in-company class. If you are the only one (or with a friend) visit one of our open classes, see below. We offer our presentation skills course in Brussels and Amsterdam regularly see our course schedule https://impactpresenting.com/#OEPSC
