Presentation Summit 2025: Conversation with Ilene Bergelson

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  Ilene Bergelson is a NYC-based presentation coach who specializes in supporting speakers to embrace their adventurous side. Drawing on her experience as a performer on Broadway, film, and TV, Ilene blends best practices of the arts with biomechanics, mindfulness, and applied improvisation techniques for unconventional, immersive 1:1 coaching and group training sessions.

Boutique firms and Fortune-50 companies alike have sought Ilene’s expertise to enhance the level of presence and connection in their communication, enliven presentation content, help speakers find their mojo, and transport their audiences.

When she’s not designing or delivering programs, Ilene is likely on the move, hiking, dancing, or in search of chocolate.

In this conversation, Ilene talks about her participation at the upcoming Presentation Summit 2025, being held virtually from October 19 to 22, 2025.

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

Geetesh: Ilene, your Presenter Warm Ups session explores what extraordinary speakers do before they step on stage. What practical warm-up techniques will attendees learn that they can start using right away to boost confidence and presence?

Ilene: We will be giving the inside scoop and sharing best practices used by Broadway performers and boardroom athletes.

We’ll cover:

1. Breathing techniques to relax nerves and channel them into fuel and focus
2. Vocalises to awaken their vocal range (even if they don’t think they have one) that can make their message come to life
3. A short series of fun steps to get their “pronouncers” working, so what they say conveys certainty and authority
4. Ways to quickly loosen up and engage their body just before giving a talk, so that they feel free, express themselves genuinely, and emanate confidence, even if they are nervous

Be ready to push back your chair, make some noise, and feel refreshed!

Geetesh: Your sessions have a reputation for being interactive. The focus of your session, Shrink Me!, is on making messages portable and impactful. Will participants have the chance to put what they learn into practice during the session?

Ilene: Yes, we will be hands on! Saying more with less is an art and a skill. Practice helps us explore the art of it and build the skill. Distilling content for myself has always been harder than distilling it for my clients, and I see this over and over be true for others. The less objective we are, the tougher editing can be. The best way to get better at brevity is to practice, and it can be an added bonus if that practice happens with others. It’s also more fun when we make a game of it, so we’ll practice through play.

There’s a Wonderland-esque activity everyone will get to do in real time that helps us get to the heart of what to cut and what to keep. We’ll also cover cues to scale down content and learn prompts that fast track the editing process and highlight takeaways for our audiences.

FYI, even though you don’t need to bring anything but yourself to the session, you are welcome to bring a piece of content you are struggling to shrink and we’ll see what we can do 😉

Geetesh: You bring a unique blend of coaching, stagecraft, and embodied communication to your work. Can you tell us more about your background and how it shapes the way you help presenters become more confident and effective speakers?

Ilene: My background has given me pathways to build personal resilience. Extraordinary speakers thrive, even in adverse conditions, because they are resilient.

At sixteen, I was an amateur dancer and actor and found myself recovering from major spinal surgery without access to physical therapy. I had to figure out how to work with the body I now had. A year later (with a lot of trial and error self-rehabbing), I was dancing on television. That experience sparked a lifelong question: how do we work with what we have, and unlock what’s possible? This one theme has been the biggest influence on my approach to training and coaching, on any and every topic. Resilience is what allows speakers to thrive, even in high-pressure situations. Extraordinary speakers find a way to reach their audience, even in adverse conditions. Each part of my background has shaped the way I help others find resilience in themselves while being present, vulnerable, and sentient, so they can lead the room with confidence. So they can truly connect.

Everything I have studied so far has become another way to strengthen this ability. Each discipline gives me a chance to become more aware of my internal environment and of the environment going on around me. Acting has taught me to find the many colors inside me I didn’t know I had, to consider the lens of my audience, and serve their experience. It also taught me to transform nerves into purposeful energy and shape stories for the audience’s benefit. Dance, voice, mindfulness practices, and biomechanics have showed me how to partner with the body instead of coercing or battling it. Applied improvisation builds agility — the ability to adapt in real time, listen deeply, and treat others as partners.

Speakers need resilience in all these forms: the resilience to turn nerves into fuel, to stay grounded in their bodies, to adjust when things don’t go as planned, and to connect fully with their audience. When resilience is cultivated, presence deepens, and that’s what makes communication a very powerful form of genuine connection.

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