On Wednesday 24 July, we held our second Midlands Young MCA event in the EY offices in Birmingham. The event was well attended with representation from five MCA-member companies. The evening centered around an engaging and interactive presentation with our guest speaker, Jay Crawford from FixUp Seminars, who focused on how to deliver an impactful presentation / pitch and resolve disputes.
Jay kicked off by talking us through his own background: starting out as a door-to-door salesman; training people to become door-to-door salespeople before eventually moving into public speaking and helping others develop their presentation and public speaking skills.
“Your focus determines your reality”
To set the scene, Jay discussed the importance of having a focus and understanding the ‘why’. Referencing Simon Sinek’s ‘Start with Why‘, Jay illustrated the need for purpose in everything we do – and once we have identified our purpose we feel more empowered, motivated and driven.
Following this, Jay took us through some incredibly useful tips on how to make impactful presentations / pitches and dealing with dispute resolution – which as management consultants is certainly a skill worth having! Amongst a number of takeaways, Jay took us through the Three C’s model to create and deliver effective presentations. Jay highlighted that all three of the following are required to deliver an effective presentation:
- Connection – establishing a connection with the audience is key to ensuring they remain engaged throughout the duration of the workshop / presentation.
- Content – it is important that the presentation outlines the key messages you want to get across so that the audience leave informed with clear takeaways.
- Context – ensuring that the content you wish to present is relatable to the audience to help them understand the personal significance of the topic being spoken about. For example, the need for strong presentation skills will be slightly different for Management Consultants in comparison to University Lecturers so it would be important to tailor your presentation to the two different audiences.
Following a Q&A discussion, Jay stuck around and even taught some rudimentary samba steps as we refreshments provided by EY. All in all, the evening was a resounding success and we hope to see some new and familiar faces at the next Midlands Young MCA event – watch this space!
Written by Jack Penter, Senior Consultant, Advisory UK&I, EY