“It’s not just a matter of Science!” Tips and clues from the acting world to improve your communication skills

Our first aim as scientists is definitely to carry out meticulous and challenging research, as much as possible. Anyway, even the best research work could not spark interest in the audience of conferences, meetings, and public speeches if the communication is not incisive. Today, communication is everything: while, in the last century, scientists could peacefully work in their labs without any contact with the outside world, today society rightly requires us to be more transparent, social, and engaging. Moreover, the dissemination activity of a scientist is often a matter of judgment by boards and committees for the evaluation of possible work candidates and the funding of projects. For these reasons, delivering a presentation cannot be limited to a mere assembly of slides and graphs, accompanied by an incoherent speech. During this talk, we will explore the logical process behind the preparation of a presentation and learn how to answer these simple questions: 1. What is the message? Which story would I like to tell? 2. Who is my audience? 3. Which communication skills should I implement in my talk to deliver the message effectively? Finally, we will dive into some techniques borrowed from the acting world that can help us make our communication engaging and increase awareness and control of our body and voice.