500 women and girls are set to take part in one of the most ambitious public speaking programmes in Northern Ireland in conjunction with TEDxStormontWomen. The initiative will take place across October and November ahead of the TEDxStormontWomen event in Parliament Buildings, Stormont on 12 December.
The TEDxStormontWomen Masterclass programme, a partnership between the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building and Bespoke Communications, which includes former broadcaster Sarah Travers and public speaking expert Camilla Long is set to deliver a cross-community, intergenerational, capacity building initiative with the main aim of making girls and women more confident in public speaking.
The fun, interactive sessions will help participants to better understand the body language of influence, how to develop a persuasive presentation style that is uniquely theirs and to think about how the structure of their message impacts on what others hear.
Following the success of the TEDxStormont public speaking programme delivered in partnership with The Executive Office Urban Villages initiative which ran in the summer, TEDxStormontWomen is expanding the initiative to 500 women and girls across Northern Ireland. The winner of the previous series, Tegan Nesbitt’s talk has been viewed 16,000 times on YouTube since its upload in September.
John Blair MLA, sponsor of TEDxStormontWomen:
“I am thrilled to be backing TEDxStormontWomen this year. It is a great event that shows the power of public speaking and how ideas worth telling in a confident way can push forward the equality agenda in Northern Ireland.”
“The opportunity that the “bold and brilliant” public speaking programme offers will be so beneficial for women and girls across Northern Ireland and is a really important element of this year’s TEDxStormontWomen. This will be an empowering initiative for women, especially in 2019 when we really should be bridging the gap for women to have positions of power and authority. Focus on communication skills will be a great boost for the participants from across Northern Ireland who will be taking part.”
“I encourage all women and girls to join up and get involved in the programme as the opportunities that this will open up for them is truly unique.”
TEDxStormontWomen curator Eva Grosman:
“TEDxStormontWomen is such an exciting event and the opportunity to continue on the work we began with ‘Talk like TED’ in the summer and to expand it to 500 women and girls is a thrilling prospect. Northern Ireland is thriving with young women who have great ambition and ideas, so to give them such a big platform for them to share and give voice to these ideas is fantastic.
“The ambition and creativity that was displayed during the previous series from young people shows the dynamic and inspiring ideas and stories that many have. These ideas and stories should be shared. We are thrilled to have partnered with Bespoke Communications so that they can impart their fantastic knowledge of public speaking to the young girls throughout the initiative.
“In 2019, the role of women in positions of power and authority is pulled into focus and the need for balance in the worlds of leadership and politics is prevalent. To teach young women and encourage them to be the leaders of their generation is both a privilege and a duty for our society to carry out.
“It is vitally important for girls from across Northern Ireland, from all backgrounds to be confident in public speaking and unafraid of sharing and creating new ideas. The initiative will work towards grounding the skills and methods of communication that will help with speech giving and presentation and encourage them to know that their opinions and stories matter.”
For more information please visit: http://democracyandpeace.org/tedxstormontwomen-returns-to-parliament-buildings-in-december/