Communications conference

Thisweek,youare participating in a professional virtual Communications Conference. The purpose of the conference is to share strategies for effective communication. The purpose of your conference presentation is to guide the conference attendees (your classmates) in successfully applying the content of your presentation to their current or future careers.

Deliver a professional presentation concerning ONE topic from one of the following threads. (For instance, if choosing the first topic from Thread 1, you would do a presentation on just “conflict management” but not a presentation on “conflict management, intercultural communication, team work, and collaborative writing.”)

Thread 1 Interpersonal Communication

• Conflict Management
• Intercultural Communication
• Team Work
• Collaborative Writing

Thread 2 Leadership Communication

• Conducting Meetings
• Providing Employee Reviews
• Presenting an Award
• Delivering a Toast or Roast

Thread 3 Employment Communication

• Networking
• Interviewing
• Applying for an Internal Position or Promotion
• Salary Negotiation

Thread 4 Personal Communication

• Personal Branding
• Professional Mentoring
• Public Speaking
• Nonverbal Communication

Thread 5 Technological Communication

• Social Media Tip or Tool for Business Communication (Explain how and why to use ONE specific social media platform or strategy for business purposes, such as effectively using Instagram Stories, optimizing a Facebook profile, or making a tweet go viral.)
• Technology Tip or Tool for Business Communication (Explain how and why to use ONE specific technology tool or strategy for business purposes, such as ChatGPT for formal reports, security precautions for Zoom meetings, editing an amazing video, or using Padlet for collaboration.)

Guidelines

You may narrow the scope of your presentation if you desire, such as focusing on networking within the military rather than general networking strategies or focusing on salary negotiations in STEM fields rather than in general for all fields. Choose a topic for your presentation that is practical and relevant to your career interests!

Your presentation must include the following:

• The equivalent of 8-16 PowerPoint slides although you may use any appropriate technology to present (PowerPoint, Prezi, Slideshare, etc.). Carefully follow the guidelines for Presentations discussed in Week 7!
• Two professional research sources that support presentation content. Cite opinions, statistics, and direct quotations used in bullets on each slide AND include a references slide at the end of the presentation. (These research sources do not include citations of visuals used in the presentation.) Review Documenting Sources.
• One visual aid created by you IN ADDITION TO any decorative visuals or visuals borrowed and cited from other sources. The original visual aid created by you might be a pie chart, bar chart, line chart, infographic, flowchart, etc. Review Visual Media and Design, Visual Aids, and Visual Ethics for how to design effective visuals. For how to cite visuals, review Documenting Visuals.
• Two questions for your audience to stimulate discussion and encourage the audience to think about ways to apply the ideas from the presentation in practical and relevant ways in the future.
• Audio or video delivery of the presentation. There is no time length requirement. You may use any recording software you feel comfortable using! Some free options include: PowerPoint (with audio narration)ZoomScreenpalBuilt-in Classroom Recorder – After recording in the classroom, download the audio/video file and embed it into your slides.

A transcript or closed captioning is needed to be courteous (one of the Six Cs of Communication) to those who are unable to hear the audio. There are many audio recording tools that automatically generate close captioning. If using the above suggested free options for recording your audio/video, then follow the instructions below for including captions or creating a transcript: ZoomScreenpalPowerPointOption 1: First, extract the audio files from PowerPoint. Second, convert each .m4a file into a .vtt file using an online tool (make sure to choose a safe and free one!). Finally, add the .vtt file (captions) to each audio recording in PowerPoint.Option 2: Use the built-in classroom recorder. Watch the following video to demonstrate using the classroom recording tool to create a transcript for PowerPoint audio: NOTE: You may also use this Brightspace classroom tool to upload an audio/video file to generate a transcript. Just select Upload File instead of New Recording when following the above video instructions.

Below are two sample presentations, and although not perfect, they demonstrate professionalism and all of the required elements, such as professional design, the use of audio/video with closed captioning, cited sources, and a visual aid designed by the presenter.

• Sample Presentation (PowerPoint)
• Sample Presentation (Embedded Video):

Steps

STEP 1: Before Thursday midnight, post your presentation in the appropriate thread based on the topic of your presentation. Either (1) attach the presentation or (2) embed the presentation. Follow these

instructions for adding video

to the discussion board.

In addition to attaching your presentation recording, engage your audience! When posting your presentation, also include at least two discussion questions to start the conversation about your presentation.

Your initial posting should look similar to the following: