Empowering and equipping researchers with the skills required to communicate confidently and clearly about their work to diverse audiences in different contexts is a high priority for Exciton Science and contributes to the achievement of the Centre’s strategic goals.
While regular attendance at in-person training has been encouraged and on-site delivery of sessions arranged at annual workshops in the past, the COVID-19 pandemic did not prevent this important focus area from being prioritised in 2020.
The Centre partnered with facilitator Science and Technology Australia (STA) to provide access to three varied, engaging and highly professional learning opportunities.
The first of these, titled ‘Communicating with Influence’, was delivered by Fiona Heseltine of Happiness Concierge, a world-class workplace culture consultancy.
Fiona and her colleagues provided members with the tools to package their experience in a way that feels authentic to them, made them comfortable articulating their expertise, and helped them to learn techniques to communicate influentially through non-verbal body language.
Attendees learned how to communicate their expertise to enable others to see their value, and they ended the session with a personal elevator pitch to confidently introduce themselves and their work to leaders and decision-makers in any sector.
They were also provided with a template to communicate their expertise in a way that can be refined as they add to their experience in the future.
The second workshop, ‘Working with the Media’, featured Joe Milton, a former evolutionary biologist turned journalist who works for the Australian Science Media Centre.
This session took members through the basics of high-quality media engagement, and was pitched for an audience of varying experience levels, ranging from students to senior academics.
It took them through the way journalists and news organisations approach news, their imperatives, and mindset. Joe talked about what makes science news, what frames and angles work for science stories to get strong media pickup, how to identify a lead, and tips on how to pitch it and seek communications team support to do so.
The session also covered how to communicate clearly and without jargon, with thought-provoking practical examples that stimulated debate and discussion between attendees.
The final module facilitated by STA, titled ‘Video Made the Science Star’, was delivered by Andrew Meares, a multi-award-winning photographer and senior Australian media and political communicator.
This session took the cohort through how to arrange their set-up to look and sound better on camera.
This is an especially handy set of insights given the frequency of interviews by video call technology during the COVID-19 pandemic – and for researchers and science teams working in remote locations.
The session took attendees through useful tips on equipment, camera angles and positioning, audio quality, where to have their eyeline, and how to present for video and TV via remote technology.
Following the STA-facilitated sessions, a small number of Exciton Science members were invited to participate in a media training workshop organised and delivered by the communications specialists employed directly by Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence.
Consisting of two three-hour sessions held over two days, these intimate workshops were organised by and featured members of the Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEX), the Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS), the Centre of Excellence for Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology (CBNS), the Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), the Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science (Exciton Science) and the Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis (CoETP).
During these sessions, facilitators focused on helping attendees to develop the skills to get their message across, gaining confidence during media interviews, and learning how to speak simply and authoritatively about their work.
They were equipped with the tools to build a narrative, how to effectively use the ‘and-but-therefore’ approach to storytelling, how to describe what they do, deal with pressure, think on their feet, and how to control an interview.
Participants were encouraged to appreciate the complimentary value of these skills in preparing for job interviews, preparing fellowship applications, delivering presentations and writing articles.
A highlight of these sessions was a series of mock broadcast interviews that illustrated the challenges posed and opportunities presented when attempting to communicate with journalists about specialist research.
High rates of attendance justified replicating these sessions across two months, and significant positive feedback was received from participants.