Presenting

Hi everyone, it’s Emily and Kerry here writing this together over zoom, having just gone over the presentation we are giving at the Dorset Council Stakeholder Event on Social Connections this Wednesday.

We will have 5 minutes to present, then there are 5 minutes for questions. That’s not long to speak, so rather than tell everyone about the charity, we will focus on why it can be hard for someone with a learning disability to make friends and create social connections - that most people take for granted. We’ll then explain why PFD projects are so important in helping create social connections for us, and how this work has developed over time.

With another 5 groups presenting we want to make ours interesting, as it can be tiring for an audience listening to one presentation after another, even if they’re short. Also, when we read from powerpoint slides, we tend to end up sounding like robots, so we’re not doing that!

We are happy with our solution! It’s to start with a short fun activity involving the audience. We’ll say no more in case anyone attending is reading this as we don’t want to spoil the surprise! Then the rest of the talk will be ‘Chat Show Style’. We’ve told Laura (our ‘chat show host’) what we want to say. On the day, she’ll ask us questions that lead us to our answers. Even if we still forget, she can keep asking prompt questions. It keeps us relaxed, not having to worry about looking at prompt cards which can throw us off track, and hopefully it’ll be fun and a bit different!  

We’re looking forward to watching the other presentations too, and hearing what others are doing in Dorset that help improve social connection. We’ll update you next week so tune in and find out!

The writers of the Our View column are supported in their editing by People First Dorset - a charity led and run by people with learning disabilities with support from staff