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A report from a rather loud but truly interesting BTSWN workshop.
On Friday 16 March, 21 people gathered in the Hot House Suite at Adastral Park to explore the as yet undiscovered potential of their voice. The small crowd of 20 women and one man were taking the opportunity offered by the BTSWN to participate in a 6-hour workshop entitled ‘Voice for Business - Building Confidence in Communication’. And what a great success it was. The workshop, led by Priscilla Morris, managing consultant of Loud and Clear Communication Skills, proved to be highly interactive and practical. It provided the participants plenty insights in the potential of their voice, how to look after it, how to use it, and included a good range of practice sessions.
"Priscilla Morris amply displayed her expertise in this all-day workshop, which covered all aspects of improving one's voice communication techniques for business. She packed a lot of information into the presentation which, through plenty of member participation, was both instructional and fun. We all came away not only with plenty of ideas to put into practice, but also the enthusiasm to continue to improve.
"This was the first BTWN event I have attended and I was very impressed. I must admit I have never really thought about how important my voice is nor taken into account just how much I use it (although I am sure my husband would have a few things on say on this point). The course made me reflect on this and also taught me techniques which will allow me to make more effective use of my voice as well as protect it from damage. It is now up to me to practice these techniques until they become habitual. As well as being informative the day was great fun."
Exploitation Team, BT Group.
"Finding your business voice! What a fabulous opportunity to explore our vocal ranges within a controlled and friendly environment. Being able to express ourselves freely through our voices was liberating. I now take the breathing exercises to a new level. I can also take what I learned to members of the speakers clubs I am a member of so they too can benefit from this experience: Speak Easy @ Martlesham and Ipswich Electrifiers It was a day well spent with friends and new acquaintances. Thanks."
Innovation Showcase Manager, BT GCTO.
"An excellent day - lead by an external consultant who demonstrated very effective communication skills. She provided a good mix of 'theory' and 'practice'. For those who have a business need to have a message 'heard', this workshop is invaluable. She demonstrated attention grabbing techniques using pitch and pace variations. She also emphasised the important principle that a presentation is a 'performance' to ensure we equal attention to style as well as content. Very useful indeed."
NMS Solution Design Authority, BT Global Services.
"Learning about how the voice works has really make me think how I use my voice and how to preserve it. Just this awareness has been invaluable so far. I have yet to put all the learning into practice, as it was a lot to take in, but I shall look forward to practising some of the techniques. It was a fun and interesting day and a good opportunity to meet new people."
OneIT Project Manager.
"The workshop was insightful because it made me aware of how to project my voice and give meaning to the words so they carry the maximum impact. I especially enjoyed the exercises where we had to create a sound similar to a word e.g. trot, jump, brisk, glide, creep. I have tried to modulate my voice when I'm speaking on audio calls and carry out the skills I learnt in practice and it definitely captures the audience's attention. Thank you for organising the day, I would recommend it to future attendees."
Business Manager, BT Global Services.
"The training was one of the most useful training sessions that I have done this year. It has really changed how I think about approaching presentations. I now realise I need to think about how I use my voice to make the presentation authorative, lively and entertaining. It was useful that the training was very practical, which helped you to practice the new skills.",
Reuters and Extranet Product Management, BT Global Services
"The voice workshop was enlightening. It was of great pleasure to learn from Priscilla Morris on how our voice works and to use our voice properly and the various ways to protect it from daily use. We learned a great deal on how vocal and breathing exercises can help us better project our voice. We even put them into practise! I find the exercise on how to train our tongue to speak consonants lour and clear particularly interesting. A big THANK YOU to the organisers who give us the opportunity to learn from Priscilla."
Exploitation Manager, BT Group.
We all collected together, and could have spent the time chatting. But then the course started. It was “Voice for Business” run by Priscilla Morris and the attendees were so keen to learn that listening and participating was what the day was spent doing. Key points for me are so many they won’t all fit into a paragraph. The main ones were: Keep voice lubricated (- the whole physicality of voice was fascinating), Look after your voice, Don’t shout, but project, Think about Clarity-( Edinburgh accent helps here ), Modulation and Range. I certainly gained a lot and I will approach presentations with much more practice and knowledge.
Business Analyst, BT GCTO.
"This was an excellent event and unlike any other training event I have been on. I helped book the venue: at first we thought we were going to have to make do with a meeting room in Orion. Fortunately the hothouse team in OneIT were able to help out and we used the hothouse suite on the top of Antares building: I say, fortunately, because if you have ever done voice exercises I think we might have been involving everyone around us in Orion by default! It also meant that we were away from the work environment and had a chance to really benefit both from the event and from the unusual experience of being almost all women together. The atmosphere and company made this event created a great learning experience and I think we all got a lot out of it. Indeed I was on the train from London yesterday, and someone sitting over the aisle from me took the trouble to lean over and tell me how much the workshop had helped her with a presentation made the week after the workshop. That's real benefit!"
New Prospects Manager, IPR Exploitation, BT GCTO.
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