These are the notes contributed by Anne-Marie.  She conducted the icebreaker activity at the opening and ran a workshops on fleshing out concepts and brainstorming topics.

We’re going to be spending the day together, and talking about a topic that is very important to all of us, so we want to get a chance to hear everyone speak. We thought we’d do this by getting right into the process of public speaking — the process involves preparation.

For the next five minutes we’d like you to write down three sentences, telling us who you are, and why you are here today. Afterwards, we’ll share what you wrote with each other. The idea is to make you think carefully about what you choose to talk about and also get you to think in terms of time limits since you will have to deal with time restrictions in public presentations.

How to go from factual recitation to meaningful, coherent, and engaging talk?

Think about speakers that you’ve really connected with —

Who were they, what made their talks memorable?

A memorable talk will be more personal, and will draw the audience in to be part of your world — the wall between speaker and listener will be removed for a little while.

What are the key ideas you want to get across?

Use history, quotes, anecdotes, photos, videos/dvd’s, posters, artifacts.

Can research turn up some materials?

Do you have anything at home? A memento, heirloom, etc.

A family photo you would share?

Use anecdotes, but choose them well.

Have a point, and draw them together with your theme. Try not to ramble and tell stories.

Are there questions you can ask your audience to draw them in?

Have you ever heard of…

Who has had the experience of…

What would you say if I told you…

Can you guess…

Are there shared experiences that will make your audience connect or understand?

Movies — Schindler’s List, Diary of Anne Frank

Sometimes we tell facts, sometimes we speak from the heart.  How do you let your audience know that what you are saying is important to you?  to them?

Often, your topic is chosen for you, when you are asked to speak. Sometimes you can choose. Sometimes, even when the topic is chosen, you can choose a subtopic that you want to focus on. E.g., you’re given the topic of "The second generation of the Holocaust". As a subtopic, you might focus on "what are common experiences that 2G’s have identified", or "how are 2G’s transmitting their parents stories to the third generation". Or, you may simply discuss an overview on the topic "Second generation and the Holocaust.

What are some of the topics you have spoken on?

Brainstorming, what are other topics you might choose?

How might the topic vary by whom you are speaking to(this encompasses the question asked on the registration form).

ROLE PLAYING — READING AND SPEAKING

A demonstration was done using text in regular font, paragraph style; large font with bullet style; and just prompts.  Volunteers read the different formates and the audience noted the differences in the presentations.  The easier to see the better the presentation.  Putting notes on only the top half of the page makes it easier to look up and not keep reading down the page until contact with the audience is lost.