WORKSHOP
Inspirational Presenter
Inspirational Presenter is an award-winning course designed to help you become a more confident, engaging and effective presenter. Through practical techniques, participation and feedback, you’ll learn how to present with greater passion and impact, handle nerves and challenging audiences, think confidently on your feet, and communicate effectively both face to face and virtually.
From competent to compelling
Presentations matter when something needs to happen:
- A decision
- Support for a proposal
- Confidence in a strategy
- A client saying yes
- People understanding what changes next
Most experienced presenters already know the basics. They can prepare slides, organise their points and stand up without falling apart.
Inspirational Presenter starts from there.
This practical two-day in-house programme develops three capabilities together:
Structure
Shape your material so people follow, remember and respond.
Deliver
Use voice, physical presence, story, emotion and your own style to bring the material to life.
Interact
Read the room, involve the audience, handle questions and respond well when the unexpected happens.
Twenty+ years of developing presenters
We’ve refined Inspirational Presenter through repeated use in organisations including British Energy, P&G, The AA, Brook Street, Grant Thornton, Metro, Coty, IIED, Radisson and Total Logistics.
P&G introduced the programme in 2002, and within a year it was named P&G’s best training course. In 2007, P&G licensed our programme for worldwide internal use.
As we’ve developed the course, it’s always retained its central question:
What takes a presentation from competent to compelling?
Why organisations use Inspirational Presenter
We can all easily spot weak presentations and competent presenters who are wasting their opportunity.
The content is sound. The slides are neat, albeit wordy. The presenter gets through the material… And not much happens.
Inspirational Presenter develops a wider range. Participants shape their material to their purpose, strengthen their personal presence, and make the most of what happens with their audience.
You can apply these practical skills to:
- leadership and strategy presentations
- pitches and proposals
- technical and specialist communication
- project and programme updates
- presenting recommendations to senior colleagues
- conferences and larger meetings
- important internal conversations where people need to understand, decide or act
The aim is for each speaker to find their most effective style.
Preparation becomes the basis for spontaneity.
1. Structure
Find the shape to fit what you need to say
Many presentations default to the same structure: a sequence of points, usually reflected in a sequence of slides.
There are many more possibilities. Participants experiment with a practical toolkit of structures for different purposes, including:
- a single organising idea
- contrast, dilemma and before-and-after
- news structures
- story
- metaphor
- logical argument
You’ll identify the shape of material and choose structures that serve it.
A strong structure also creates freedom. Once you know where you are going, you can pay more attention to the audience instead of clinging to a script.
Preparation becomes the basis for spontaneity.
2. Deliver
Holding their attention
You communicate more than words. Participants explore what changes when they vary:
- voice and pace
- physical presence
- openings and endings
- story and personal material
- emotion
- props and visuals
- use of the space
- timing
- the relationship between the message and the way it is delivered
You learn the crucial distinction between message and meta-message: what you say, and what the audience picks up from how you say it.
The course includes practical voice work, short presentation experiments, observation of skilled presenters via impactful video examples, and plenty of feedback.
Participants can use their own phones to record during the programme, including their final presentation, so they can see and hear the difference for themselves.
3. Interact
Present with the audience, not simply at them
This is where Inspirational Presenter supersedes conventional presentation training.
While presenters prepare, audiences improvise. You get an unexpected question or comment. The previous speaker runs over. Technology fails.
We use practical improvisation techniques to develop the ability to:
- notice and adapt to what is actually happening
- respond without losing the thread
- use audience contributions and handle questions fluently
- change direction spontaneously when that serves the purpose
- stay comfortable with the unexpected
You learn presenting by presenting
Inspirational Presenter is intensely practical. You’ll be on your feet, having a go, receiving constructive feedback to use next time.
Skipping a long trainer slide deck, you’ll engage with:
- a practical participant workbook
- short illustrative clips
- live demonstrations
- individual and small-group practice
- presentation experiments
- observation and feedback
- improvisation activities
- participants’ own real material
The Big One
Each participant brings the elements together in **The Big One: a substantial final activity **based on a presentation, pitch or proposal they need to make at work.
Participants prepare to apply the course structures and techniques, then present to the group and receive focused feedback from colleagues and tutors.
The feedback pays particular attention to what already works and what the presenter can usefully do more of, with one or two choices worth experimenting with next.
Participants leave with:
- a wider range of presentation structures
- delivery techniques tested in practice
- greater ability to interact and improvise
- individual coaching and feedback
- experience applying the learning to real work
- a personal action plan and workbook as an ongoing resource
- recordings of selected presentations
The point goes beyond performing well on the course: it’s to change what happens next time they stand up at work.
The P&G story
From competent to inspirational
When Inspirational Presenter was introduced at P&G, the issue was not poor presenters. The company already had plenty of capable people making logical, well-prepared presentations.
The problem was that too many were predictable: linear arguments, word-heavy PowerPoint and little real interaction with the audience.
Richard Pascoe and Jonathan Brown brought Inspirational Presenter into P&G in 2002 as an advanced alternative.
The programme combined four elements that were unusual at the time:
- improvisation and the ability to use the unexpected
- a wider toolkit of presentation structures
- close attention to how audiences engage and remember
- encouragement for presenters to bring more of their own personality
Within a year it had been named P&G’s best training course.
In 2007, P&G licensed Inspirational Presenter for worldwide internal use and PJA worked with its trainers on the programme transfer.
It’s a good test of an in-house course: can the organisation use what people learn long after the trainers have left?
What participants and clients notice
“I’ve enjoyed this 2-day program more than ANY other I’ve ever taken.”
Martin
Executive Coach
“Calm, confident, creative and compelling – loved it all. I will definitely use the structure elements of the course for future presentations.”
Liz Carlile
Director of Communications, IIED
“This course filled a much needed ‘different perspective on presenting’.”
Ingrid Lucas
Consultant, Total Logistics
“Variety + interaction. Demonstration of what can be achieved without slides.”
Kenneth Porter
Partner, Total Logistics
P&G Geneva participant evaluation: 4.71/5 overall; 4.86/5 for effectiveness and impact.
Who is it for?
Inspirational Presenter works particularly well for people who already present as part of their work.
The common factor is that participants have enough presentation experience to recognise that the standard rules are a stepping stone, not the whole answer.
- senior leaders and managers
- specialists and technical experts
- consultants
- client-facing teams
- researchers and academics
- project and programme leaders
- people preparing for a particularly important pitch, conference or internal presentation
Two days, in person, in your organisation
The full two-day programme offers space for participants to explore the ideas, experiment repeatedly and integrate them into a substantial final presentation.
We tailor examples, practice topics and emphasis to the organisation and the presentation situations participants currently face.
The programme can also form part of a wider leadership, communication or talent-development initiative.
Typical group: approximately 8–12 participants
Format: in person
Length: two days
Location: at your organisation or an agreed venue
Course materials: participant workbook and supporting resources
For larger groups, we add tutors or coaches so that participants still get substantial practice and individual feedback.
Other ways to work with the material
You can select elements of the programme for:
- a one-day in-house workshop
- a conference or leadership-session contribution
- a presentation masterclass
- small-group preparation for an important event
- individual presentation coaching
Is this the right presentation course for your organisation?
Tell us:
- Who needs to present better, and in what situations?
- What would you like audiences to do differently as a result?
- Is there a forthcoming presentation, pitch or organisational event we can work towards?
From there we can decide between the two-day Inspirational Presenter programme or a shorter or more focused intervention.
Bring us a real presentation challenge
Individual presentation coming up?
If your need is one person and one important presentation rather than an organisational programme, presentation coaching may be a better starting point.