This is a 3 week introductory course for women, who are members of the labour party, who would like to take more of a role speaking in political meetings, or speaking at events.

The course involves three 2 hour sessions and you need to attend all three. The course will give you the confidence you need to speak up, the skills you need to be heard, and the tools to keep your speech structured, convincing and concise.

The goal of this course is to increase the role of women as speakers at meetings at events, both in terms of women taking the podium, but also to give women the confidence and tools they need to ask questions, speak to motions and effectively join discussions.

The course will be structured in 3 two hour sessions and will cost £6 payable on the door at the first session (free for unwaged):

Session 1: Practicalities and confidence

This session will focus on the practical things you need to consider when speaking in public. First, we will cover how to project your voice and how to use a microphone effectively. Second, we will go on to discuss issues of confidence in speaking and asking questions. And third, we will discuss keeping things as concise as possible. Time constraints are often a formal constraint in political meetings, but also key in keeping people’s attention and making an impression.

Session 2: Persuasion and structure

Once we’ve got the skills we need in order to speak up, we need to know how to make what we’ve said have an impact. In the second session, we will discover how to structure a speech or question to give it impact. We will discuss techniques from rhetoric, public speaking and even stand-up comedy to make a lasting impression.

Session 3: Putting it together

In this session, I will ask participants to bring along a specific subject or policy they feel passionately about. We will work to structure a short (up to 5 minutes), persuasive speech about this subject. The context of speech is up to the participant: it can be a “soapbox” style speech you might give it a protest or rally, it can be presenting a formal motion at a meeting, or a more informal raising of an issue at a meeting. We will then have each participant present their speech to the group, which will also allow for practice in asking questions and joining discussions.

About the presenter:

Dr. Hannah Little is a lecturer in science communication. Her expertise lies in making scientific subjects accessible to the general public. She has experience with stand-up comedy and public speaking, including three-minute scientific talks designed to communicate, engage and convince. These skills are highly transferrable to politics, which she is happy to explore with the attendees at these workshops.