Presentation Summit 2024: Conversation with Ilene Bergelson

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  Ilene Bergelson is an NYC-based, presentation coach who loves adventure and has supported speakers from six out of the seven continents to embrace their adventurous side. Boutique firms, as well as Fortune-500 companies have sought Ilene’s expertise to optimize presentation content, increase confidence and prepare keynote speakers, panel groups and moderators alike to deliver excellence, improve outcomes through facilitated discussion, and enhance interpersonal communication within teams. Upon noticing that many brilliant people undermine their expertise by the way they communicate, Ilene developed EmpowerSpeak™ with the intention of elevating the level of effective and conscious communication in the workplace.

In this conversation, Ilene talks about her participation at the upcoming Presentation Summit 2024, being held on location in Oxnard, CA this year from October 20 to 23, 2024, and virtually from November 3 to 6, 2024.

Indezine.com is the official media partner for the Presentation Summit.

Geetesh: Ilene, you’re delivering two sessions at this year’s Presentation Summit: The Sound of Your Own Voice, which dives into using our voices for better narration, and Actor’s Playbook, which uses theatre techniques to boost audience engagement. What can attendees expect to take away from these sessions?

Ilene: Both of this year’s sessions share the key theme of drawing the audience to you–getting folks to “lean in” to your presentation.

In The Sound of Your Own Voice, attendees will get to do activities that enable them to create suspense in their narration, build anticipation, pique curiosity with their own voice… which keeps your audience hooked. They’ll take away acting techniques that are practical for all speakers — like scanning and marking your copy (your script) in specific ways, so you sound like you are speaking spontaneously, even when you are reading aloud.

In Actor’s Playbook (not to be confused with the book, The Actor’s Playbook), attendees will gain insight into two practices that are powerful audience galvanizers. They can expect a newfound enthusiasm for being a provocateur and proxy for their audience and for dealing with naysayers and disruptors.

Geetesh: As a Presentation Summit regular, how do you feel about this final event? And what has the Summit meant to you over the past few years?

Ilene: The Summit has been an extraordinary gift. It has deepened my connections, expanded my knowledge, and inspired me, year after year. It’s really hard to imagine it not happening anymore–maybe because I don’t want to! Frankly, I’m in denial that this is the last year of the Summit. Rick Altman and Sheila McGurin, Jen Parkinson, Chantal Bossé, Troy and Lori Chollar and the entire team are incredible. They deserve a rest, but what they’ve created will be missed! I think the industry needs to have it in some form and am hopeful that this is a case of a new chapter on the horizon, rather than the end of the story.

Geetesh: When you’re not speaking at conferences like the Presentation Summit, you’re running professional development programs on presence and presentation delivery. What’s your approach to these programs? Do you ascribe to certain guiding principles and how do participants level up their skills?

Ilene: Our approach is to create a supportive, judgement-free zone, where participants can embody, explore, and experience their skill development in real time. Talking about best practices is great for increasing awareness, but it does not build actual skill. For that, we need to challenge our perception, take risks and stretch ourselves. We need to DO… over and over again, to transcend what’s holding us back and elevate our abilities.

Facing challenges under pressure can be torture… but I don’t believe that it has to be. All our training and 1:1 coaching are founded on the belief that even hard things can be uplifting and/or fun. Even though the work is taken very seriously, our approach is lighthearted and our process often involves participants playing their way to a new level of skill. We draw on a lot of different bodies of work and modalities, including games, physical relaxation techniques, applied improvisation, performing arts exercises, and all sorts of other immersive activities. Everything we include in a training or coaching session design is chosen to have practical relevance for that client. It’s holistic: multisensory and multi-modal. Sessions include physical, emotional and mental aspects of the speaker, because we’re addressing the whole person. We want that person to reach new heights and feel good in their own skin.

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