Have you ever struggled to get colleagues to understand the model output on your slides? Do you need to present your work to public stakeholders and don’t know where to start? Or have you simply attended one too many dry lectures and thought, “there goes an hour I’m never getting back…how can I make sure my talks don’t fall into this trap?”

Communication has emerged as a primary power skill for professionals in the weather enterprise. This short course will lead learners through several key considerations in constructing and delivering effective science presentations:

• Audience assessment and customization -Beyond the 5 Ws - effective storytelling approaches
• Engaging your audience through interactivity
• Communicating probabilities, uncertainty and impacts - best practices
• Designing clear figures and slides - pro tips

Learners will explore these concepts together by analyzing and discussing short presentations delivered by the instructors. A series of hands-on exercises will then allow learners to practice incorporating recommended techniques into sample presentations as well as their own presentations-in-development. Learners should bring a laptop computer with access to at least one presentation that they would like to develop further or improve.

An optional lightning talk practice session will be held after the conclusion of the main session to round out our final concept: Managing Anxiety on the Stage - Practice Builds Poise! Signups will be accommodated on a first-come, first-served basis.

The course will feature instructors from The COMET Program, Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS) and more, who will be available to provide feedback to learners. We especially welcome students and early career professionals who want to hone their skills presenting in the classroom, sharing their work at conferences, or briefing their new supervisors.

107th AMS Annual Meeting
Colorado Convention Center
January 10, 2027 at 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM Mountain Time (In Person)

Registration for this course will open in late October.

Course Description:

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Identify their audience and recognize accessibility needs
• Customize their storytelling and complexity to the differing needs of common audiences
• Use best practices to effectively communicate probabilities, uncertainty and confidence information
• Use best practices to effectively communicate the impacts of forecasts and their work at large
• Design clear scientific and numeric figures
• Develop ways to engage their audience through interactivity
• Implement the above techniques into one of their presentations-in-development
• (optional post-course session) Build poise and confidence by practicing a lightning talk
• Network and make new professional friends and acquaintances!
  

  
  VIEW AGENDA

  If you have questions regarding the course, please contact Andrea Smith.

  Instructors:

  Andrea Smith

  The COMET Program, UCAR

  Vanessa Vincente

  UCAR Center for Science Education

  Adam Hirsch

  The COMET Program, UCAR