Description
Presentation training for engineers (and other humans)
Let’s face it. Lots of presentations are terrible. The speaker doesn’t want to be there. The audience are not sure why they came. Everyone reluctantly plays a role. On stage we trot out old formulae for public speaking that someone told us about years ago. And in the audience, people have begun scrolling.
But what if, instead, everyone was glad they were there? The speaker, on stage, feels alive, is curious about what is going to emerge. Wondering about the energy in the room. And the audience are drawn in. What’s about to happen? Where is this going to take me? I’m happy I’m here. I’m glad I came.
This two-day, in-house, face-to-face training programme explores how to create presentations that people actually want to listen to.
Drawing on Oliver Broadbent’s experience as a trainer, facilitator and performer — including training in physical theatre at École Philippe Gaulier — this workshop explores presentation not simply as the delivery of information, but as the shaping of attention, atmosphere and human connection.
The course is designed for engineers and other professionals who want to communicate complex ideas more clearly, hold the room with greater confidence and create presentations that genuinely move people to thought or action.
Hosted in a theatre space, the workshop combines practical exercises, reflection and live presentation practice.
Participants will explore questions such as:
- How to work with the space that you have
- How to arrive on stage
- How to use moments of tension and release to pull people in
- How to work with the feeling in the room
- How to structure content
- How to make an audience feel safe to participate
- How to recover when things go wrong… or go right but in a way you didn’t expect.
Course content
The exact shape of the course will evolve in response to the participants and the challenges they bring, but topics are likely to include:
- Holding the room
- Structuring a compelling talk
- Naming what is happening in the room
- Presence, pacing and silence
- Working with audience attention
- The role of humour and surprise
- Using slides without hiding behind them
- Presenting technical information clearly
- Creating safety and trust with an audience
- Handling difficult moments and uncertainty
- Working with vulnerability rather than against it
- Q&A as conversation rather than defence
- Developing your own presentation style
In detail
At Constructivist we take a problem-based learning approach to training.
Rather than teaching a fixed formula for presenting, we help participants identify and work with the real communication challenges they face in practice.
The process typically involves:
- establishing a framework for understanding presentations as human experiences
- identifying personal strengths and challenges
- introducing tools and techniques
- practising in front of others
- reflecting on performance and audience response
- iterating and trying again
Participants will spend time both presenting and observing, developing a deeper understanding of what helps audiences feel engaged, connected and willing to act.
The course draws on techniques from facilitation, storytelling, theatre, workshop design and live performance, but remains grounded in the realities of professional communication.
The aim is not to turn participants into performers.
It is to help them become more present, more intentional and more human in the way they communicate.
The final section of the workshop is showtime: participants deliver short presentations in the theatre space and receive structured feedback from the group.
About the trainer
Oliver Broadbent is an author, speaker, facilitator and award-winning design educator specialising in creative thinking and regenerative design for engineers and other humans.
He is the founder of Constructivist and the Regenerative Design Lab, and author of The Pattern Book for Regenerative Design. His work brings together systems thinking, facilitation, storytelling and live performance to help people communicate complex ideas more clearly and more humanly.
Over the last decade Oliver has delivered workshops, keynote talks and training sessions for audiences ranging from small leadership teams to large conferences, working across engineering, sustainability, design and policy.
Alongside his professional training work, Oliver has studied physical theatre at École Philippe Gaulier, whose alumni include performers, actors and theatre-makers from around the world. This training has strongly influenced his approach to communication, presence, audience connection and working with uncertainty in the room.
His presentation style combines technical clarity with humour, warmth and participation, helping audiences feel both intellectually engaged and personally involved in the conversation.
He believes the best presentations are not performances delivered at people, but shared experiences that leave audiences thinking differently — and glad they came.
