Under 35s Development Course Event - Commuication and Public Speaking
The fifth installment of the Under 35s Development Course took place on Saturday 11th February 2012 with Harvey Thomas. Covering the topic of ‘Communication and Public Speaking’ the CCF was delighted to welcome Harvey back to address the Class of 2012. Harvey was the Head of Communications for the Conservative Party when Margaret Thatcher was leader in the 1980s and was the opposite number to Peter Mandelson from the Labour Party.
Harvey began the session by outlining what he called the ‘Ten Basics’ of personal presentation. These included areas such as: needing to understand the purpose and objective of any given speech, delivering speeches with integrity and avoiding “putting on a show”. Following this there was a Question and Answer session, and then Harvey went on to set the participants a practical task, a speech.
Each participant was given a copy of a Conservative Party manifesto pledge from the 2010 General Election and asked to deliver a two-minute speech as if they were an elected Member of Parliament seeking re-election. Specifically, Harvey asked the participants to address the audience on how well, and if, the pledges had been achieved. Topics included defense, immigration and energy among others.
This was a challenging assignment in itself, but the activity also allowed the participants to review their performance, as each presentation was recorded. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching each individual’s speech, offering constructive feedback to help participants improve on their communication skills and praising existing good presentation skills.
