Hello and welcome to Confident Speaking at Meetings. My name is Margaret Collins.

So what is it, that I think that would be of most value to you?

Today, I want to make it simple. I'm going to explore what you want to say, how you want to say it, and how to feel good while you're saying it.

If I express this in the standard way of learning objectives for a program, then you will learn how to:

• Structure and deliver a presentation or a contribution at a meeting.
• Communicate confidently.
• Manage the "presentation stress", the anxiety that comes up when we know that we're going to be watched while we speak.

I hope these are what you want to learn and that you're keen and ready to learn.

For most of my career, I have been a researcher and an academic. I've worked in research institutes and universities, in the UK and in Europe and I've actually lost count of the hundreds, actually the 1000s of hours that I have spent in meetings.

If I'm honest, in the first part of my career, I really didn't get the best out of the meetings that I participated in. Some of them I was a willing participant, but I didn't know how to use them well. And some of them well, I really didn't know what I was there for. I've taken over 20 years experience and distilled it into the content of this workshop for you today.

All of these are goodies and all of them are yours. Jump in and enjoy.

You can mark each lesson as done so you can keep track of your progress.