Student Alpha

So the Youth Alpha team are more excited than usual at the moment because they're on the brink of releasing a new online resource called 'Youth Alpha talkbuilder'. They're using a lot of expressions like 'tailor made course', 'break it up', 'know your audience' and 'keep it snappy'.

We at Student Alpha, have a sneaking suspicion that the Youth Alpha knowledge may be relevant for delivering talks to audiences of all ages, so we took some notes. Just for you.

1. 'Start wide' - yes we weren't sure what they meant at first either, but what they are referring to is that you want to start off by being inclusive of everyone who has come to hear your talk. This could mean that if you are talking to a student audience about 'stress', for example, you might start your talk by saying 'what are the things that make us stressed? Perhaps it's course work deadlines or exams?....' - so everyone in the room is hopefully now engaging with what you are saying because they can relate to the topic. They are all now listening.

If you had said 'what are the things that make us stressed? Perhaps it's commuting to work or getting the children to school on time?' then your audience of students will, in all likelihood (and we realise that people are students in all stages of life, but you know what we mean for the sake of this point), not be able to relate to those scenarios and you will not have engaged with them.

2. Think 'what is my take away point'? So if someone was asked, after hearing your talk, 'what was that talk all about?', they should be able to sum it up in one sentence. This is what you return to throughout your talk, so as you make each sub point, you bring it back to that main point.

3. Keep it snappy and break it up. Think about when you have listened to a talk. How long can you pay attention for, before your mind wanders? We all zone out and back in, it's normal, so you need to pitch your talk in easily digestible bits, a bit like the retro cheese and pineapple cubes on cocktail sticks that we used to have at our birthday parties when we were 5. Don't deliver your talk in one great whack of information. That's like expecting somone to eat a pineapple with an entire block of cheddar in one go. There's no cocktail stick large enough for a start.

And have a think about what picks up your attention in a talk. We don't often bet, but if we were to for the purposes of this blog, then our horse would be called 'stories about yourself' and we'd be backing it all the way. Personal stories, analogies, relevant and current articles are all great things to include in your talk and to emphasise your points. So if you're doing, say, a 30 minute talk, then aim to have one of these at least every 5 minutes.

Thanks Youth Alpha, we appreciate the tips.