Storytelling and Research: presenting your work in 3 minutes

In this 1-day workshop, we will use storytelling and presentation techniques in an interactive workshop to help each participant find an engaging way to communicate his or her research. At the end of the day, you will have prepared a 3-minute talk about your work that you will have practiced and refined. After an introduction into mixing storytelling and research, we will work to define the hook, the arc, and the take-home message of each participant’s research story. These will then be developed into a brief text. The rest of the afternoon will focus on refinement, presentation skills, and practice for each participant’s 3-minute talk. In this section, each participant will get both the trainer’s and the group’s feedback on their talk, and they’ll be able to take home a video of their own talk.

Three-minute talks like these are tailored for international competitions such as 3MT (English), FameLab (English), FallingWalls (English) or MT180 (French). They are an excellent exercise in distilling one’s work down to its essence and learning how to be a good presenter. Additionally, they also allow researchers to inject joy, comedy, and artistry into the explanation of their work, making the presentation experience much more fun! The work done in this workshop can be re-used in many other contexts: anytime where you must explain the value of your research to the general public or to anyone outside your field.

Held at CUSO, by Adria LeBoeuf