Public Speaking Trip: Uplift Skill, Enhance Confidence - A Report

1. Introduction

Our Public Speaking trip is attended by 117 students and three lecturers. We started from the April 24th at 19.00 then arrived at 05.00—what a great beginning to start our trip, thanks to the traffic jam—so that we could not take a proper rest. At 08.30, we went to the nearest ballroom from our hotel to attended the first lecture by Talk Inc. I was the one who set the terms of reference for the speaker, so the rest of this lecture was about ‘Public Speaking for Personal Branding’. The speaker was Fernando Edo who works for the U.S Embassy.

Then, at 13.00, we jumped to National Geographic Indonesia’s office which coincidentally merged with Kompas Gramedia office. We received lot of lecture and materials here, with three different speakers. Mostly, they talked about ‘Public Speaking for Corporate Branding’, ‘Public Speaking for Journalism’, and shared their campaign about environment. This tiring day ended with Alumni session.

The next day, we had to separate into three different groups before on the way to Zeno PR, our last destination. The session was brought by Radityo Prabowo talked about ‘Public Speaking Techniques’. Afterwards, we went to Bandung city and had lot of fun on the next day. We went to The Lodge Maribaya and Farm House. Then, we went to Semarang and arrived at 03.00 in the morning.

This trip was tiring because I was in charge for this trip, so I should not only take care of myself, but I should take care of other friends. Overall, this trip was worth and priceless.

2. Visit to Talk Inc.

Fernando Edo had a very unique way to attract the audiences and start the lecture. He took up a catchy idea: what Avenger characters that we want to be?—this question is related to how the Avenger characters brand themselves. He also attracted us in a very fun way, he kept walking around us and used informal Indonesian language so that the lecture was not boring at all. He also resembled the idea about how—he tried to similized himself with us so that we would enjoy his session—the company brand and sell their products so that we could utilize that idea for our personal branding.

Edo told us that personal branding contains three main core which are our value, characteristics, and achievement. Some things that other people would consider about us when we are doing public speaking are skills and look. He also said that first impression matters. He really emphasized that visual attraction is more attractive than words and voice.

He always gave us questions and explained with body languages (he tried to give examples of good public speakers by applying these behaviors). In terms of public speaking, Edo said that the ratio of opening should be 10%, the content should be 70%, and the closing should be 20% including the conclusion.

Edo also shared some tips on how to overcome bad eye contact, twitchy, stutter, and lot of bad habits of doing the public speaking. He ended the lecture with an interesting quotation, “If you want to do a public speaking, you should start to touch their head, then their heart, I am sure that they will do with their hand”.

3. Visit to National Geographic Indonesia

I really had high expectations about this journalistic magazine company. Lately, I asked the Tour Leader about NatGeo’s expectation and they also had high expectations for Diponegoro University.

Habib Aziz, as the master of ceremony and also speaker, started the session awkwardly but I thought it was because he always works behind the computer and has the basic skill of public speaking, just like us. He is currently the chief editor of National Geographic Indonesia. He called Mahadisiwa Thamrin, the manager of editor, and he started to introduced everyone who wore the NatGeo uniforms to the audiences. What a great start. His first lecture was about what NatGeo has been through since 2004 until now, and also their achievements. He also explained about how to be a good journalist.

He explained how to interview the interviewees because sometimes they are not cooperative with us, so it requires some skills to interview them. Thamrin also said that nowadays, everyone could be their own journalist. It is the responsibility of the journalists to decide which topic that is validated from the source.

The next lecture was about Public Speaking for Corporate Branding brought by the director branding of Kompas Gramedia. He often exemplified the leadership model of Kompas Gramedia to ease us absorb the materials. Sometimes, he spoke too fast that I could not understand him clearly. In my opinion, the NatGeo misunderstood about the corporate branding explanation. Instead, they almost explained all of their human resource management model.

The last issue was focusing on their campaign, #SayaPilihBumi. This material was brought by Habib the master of ceremony, then directed to QnA session.

Honestly, the materials that they delivered were good, but we had only three hours so they explained those materials in a rush and did not do it thoroughly. Their slides were also interesting, and the way they delivered the ice breaking session was fun.

This session ended with the photo session with the logo of NatGeo and their campaign, #SayaPilihBumi standing display.

4. Visit to Zeno PR

Our last key speaker, Radityo Prabowo, opened the session with Pecha Kucha presentation. He introduced himself as an Alumnae of Communication in Diponegoro University.

We only had one hour because we should changed with other groups, so he was really ease us to absorb the material. He also delivered the materials with great intonation—proved us that great technique in speaking leads to great comprehension of materials. In general, he only told us about how to practice the respiration technique so that we would not be frazzled while doing public speaking, and he also explained on how to utilize resonance and articulation techniques.

He emphasized that while we are doing the public speaking, we should breath using our diaphragm not by our lungs or stomach. This technique will not make you exhausted and experinced the sinking voice, he said.

He also explained about attracting the audiences technique. The materials that we want to share in public speaking should be flexible, scalable, and data-driven so that the audiences will never get bored. Radit offered the QnA session then I got Zeno PR’s sticker because I asked him about ‘is Pecha Kucha presentation always attract the audience, just like what you did?’

The most interesting part was when he shared Simon Sinek’s theory, WHY HOW WHAT, that could strenghten our intention while crafting idea for the outline of draft speech for public speaking.

5. Comparison

Among Talk Inc, NatGeo Indonesia, and Zeno PR, I must say that the way they delivered the materials were all ideal. They had their own way to open the session, deliver the main topic of the lecture, led the QnA session, then close the lecture.

However, I could not compare Talk Inc and Zeno PR with NatGeo Indonesia because their focus were different. Fernando Edo and Radityo Prabowo had more experience in public speaking, while Habib and Thamrin usually work behind the camera and computer.

Talk Inc, contrast to Zeno PR, discussed more about the youth’s topic so that we, as the audience, could relate based on his topic. Zeno PR was more focus in the technique, so we had practices rather than the materials. Talk Inc also let three of us to practice the persuasive speech in front of the audience so we could see the exact sample of doing the great public speaking after the session. Both of them were threw some jokes and two-way communication everytime we did not pay attention.

NatGeo led the session more formal because their topic was Public Speaking for Corporate Branding. Sometimes, they said things that we did not know because they talked about their company language.

Nevertheless, all of the lecturers transformed the materials well, I could say that I had improved my public speaking skill eversince. Habib from NatGeo as the master of ceremony was a youngman so our jokes were related, dissimiliar with Thamrin’s joke. Both Edo and Radit were also threw some jokes and ice breaking. Overall, those sessions were fun and resourceful.

6. Evaluation and Suggestion for the Next Field Trip

Since I was the one who manage and set the topic for each speakers in each companies, I must say that I have satisfied enough in terms of the topic and materials brought by these three companies. The way they deliver the materials were great. However, it is better if the next destination for this educational trip is not Jakarta because this beautiful capital city stiffen my back. Thanks, traffic jam.

Also, the idea of approaching journalistic company is also great, however, I think that National Geographic Indonesia is not suited to English Department. I think if we chose Jakarta Post or Vice Indonesia as our destination, that would be terrific.

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Footnote: If you are really into Public Speaking and things, you could ask me for the material for FREE because I would love to share some knowledge from my KKL trip.