ABSTRACT
In 1992, we ran a workshop on media skills for 12 agricultural scientists in Rockhampton in north Queensland, Australia. Since then, we have conducted over 1700 sessions to train scientists in communication and have expanded our courses to cover presentation skills, writing skills, and planning communication, and run courses in over 20 countries across the world.
If their work is to be effective, scientists need to explain what they do and why it is important. Our workshops give them the skills and confidence to talk to journalists, to stand in front of different audiences, and to think in terms of the audience when discussing their work. We have changed and developed our workshops over time, as feedback and different circumstances suggested there was a better way of organizing the content and exercises. We have developed workshops on new topics such as social media. But some things have never changed: a focus on the practical, the involvement of working journalists and guest speakers, and a hollow-square set-up to encourage interactive discussion.
