2 new partnerships to announce (and celebrate)

Both of these new initiatives are dialed in perfectly to the best way to build programs.

The first partnership: Resonance at VPDI

This program is with a new institute at McGill called the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Institute of Genomic Medicine (VPDI). I'll be working primarily with late-stage PhDs. It kicked last month with three workshops focused on content, visuals, and delivery—and all of them put the "work" in workshop.

In each of the 2.5 hour evening sessions, I spoke for less than 45 minutes. The majority the researchers were working in small groups with handpicked post-doc leaders.

Part 2 of this program is in 2 weeks. I'll be doing individual coaching session with a twist, they do them in pairs. This way they get to learn from watching and listening to someone else being coached.

And Part 3 is an intra-institute presentation. Everyone form the institute will be invited. I t will be an event to learn more about what other researchers are doing and how they do it.

What makes Resonance unique?

Unlike with so many other presentation prep programs, these participants are preparing talks to give to other researchers. But here's the catch: those researchers won't be in their field, and the topic is not their research.

Instead, the researchers are honing in on one methodological process, statistical analysis, or technology that underlies their research, something that is essential to their work and hard to explain. They then present it including a case for its importance in less than 5 minutes.

For example, let's say a researcher in human genetics is explaining a genome chip process to people working in legal policy. They'll have to explain the process itself and why people in the legal field should care about understanding it.

We'll pick up again in spring when they'll be working on full-length conference talks. At that point, we'll have built a level of trust and understanding in the cohort. This will help the impact really land when we do three more workshops focused on content, feedback on visuals, and delivery tips like, "See if you can explain this with a prop or a gesture, rather than a slide."

At the end of the Spring term, they'll be more than ready to give their talks in April, May, and June on the national and international conference circuit.

The second partnership: Pitch training for The MIF Competition

This one involves one of my favorite activities: working with professors when they're pitching their products to venture capitalists (VCs) in the start-up space. Through a combination of workshops, practice pitches, and 2 rounds of feedback, I'll be helping McGill professors prepare to pitch their start-up ideas for the annual McGill Innovation Fund (MIF) competition.

A bit of background:

The MIF has been designed to provide seed funding for new technologies coming out of McGill that need investment to get off the ground. Projects can receive three levels of backing ($25,000, $50,000, and $100,000) depending on how advanced they are.

Last year, I co-led a 2 hour workshop with the director of the MIF so we could get to know each other. Then, last spring he came to the McGill Clinical Innovation Competition (CLIC) where I've been the lead speaker trainer for years. He saw firsthand the work I do coaching professors in the medical innovation space. He then went away and secured the funding to be able to bring me to the MIF.

The Program:

First I'll lead a 90 minute workshop that explains why the participants need to be able to talk about their start-up without relying on their deck.

Next, we'll do a full day of practice pitches where I'll give the participants feedback. Then we'll then have a week for one-on-one coaching sessions.

After that, they'll do a second practice pitch to apply the things they've learned. This iterative process gets them ready for the following week, when they'll be in front of the VCs who form the investor panels at the MIF competition.

Want to know more?

If you want to learn more about the programs, follow the links below:

The VPDI's Resonance public speaking training program

The McGill Innovation Fund website

And, if you want to know more about my work and the results they bring for researchers at every stage of their career, hare's a calendar link to chat.