Presentation Summit 2026: Conversation with Ilene Bergelson

Ilene Bergelson is a NYC-based presentation coach who specializes in working with experts to communicate their knowledge, so it resonates, builds credibility, and sparks connection. A published author and guest lecturer at NYU and other colleges, she draws on her background in Broadway performance, biomechanics, and applied improvisation to bring both precision and play to her work. Through EmpowerSpeak™, Ilene has partnered with boutique firms and Fortune-50 companies alike, guiding speakers to find their voice, embrace adventure, and have fun while compelling their audience.

In this conversation, Rick talks about the upcoming Presentation Summit 2026, being held virtually from September 13 to 16, 2026.

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

Geetesh: Ilene, your two sessions this year are both about content and delivery — just not in the way attendees might expect. Designing Relief looks at the physical toll that creating content takes on your body. Impromptu Confidence treats agility in unscripted moments as part of delivery itself. What led you to explore both of these angles this year? Both sessions also lean on physical, in-the-room energy — improv games, tension-release techniques. How do you tailor them for virtual participation?

Ilene: Showing up as our best sometimes means giving ourselves some relief. I offered these sessions because it seems like the right time to have some fun taking the edge off the things that can hold us back.

Designing Relief is for the shoulders creeping up around your ears by your fourth call of the day, the tension headache that shows up right on schedule and swallows your creativity, the neck (or legs!) you forgot you had. We don’t have to suffer. I’ll share simple, feel-so-good techniques I learned from some of the best physical therapists and body workers in the country I met while touring as a performing artist.

Impromptu Confidence is for those on-the-fly moments that make us clam up in a different way: the moment you’re asked to speak without notice, or the beat after a talk when a question has nothing to do with your slides and your mind goes blank. Either kind of stress moves through our whole system — stiff physically, and stiff in our thinking too.

Fortunately, since tension release and mental agility are needed in every room, a virtual room is just as good a place to build them as any stage. Designing Relief uses desk-friendly moves — standing or sitting — to get unstuck, re-juice stiff joints, and intercept a tension headache before it takes hold. Bring a tennis ball for extra bliss! Impromptu Confidence relies on a few games — fun, surprising, and sneakily effective at building comfort with being put on the spot.

Geetesh: If you could give presenters just one piece of advice to carry with them beyond this year’s Summit, what would it be?

Ilene: Connect! Take full advantage of the warmth of the PresSum community: come to Office Hours and the social events — some of the best unplanned conference moments happen there. You are likely to meet people that you’ll want to stay in touch with, so message people and connect outside the conference. Don’t let shyness, imposter syndrome, or inertia stop you from reaching out!

Geetesh: You’ve coached speakers across a range of industries, from health and finance to pharma and entertainment. Does your coaching approach shift by industry, or does the core work stay the same?

Ilene: The core work never changes — it’s getting the speaker’s nervous system out of the way of their expertise and cultivating their power to connect meaningfully with their specific audience. The ratio between each of those components varies by speaker and situation. A pharma exec fielding an FDA panel and a startup founder walking into a Series B pitch share the same physiological signature under pressure: shallow breath, racing thoughts, an urge to over-explain. But they’re also solving the same craft problem — what does this audience need to hear, and how do we build toward it with intention instead of just information?

What affects my approach much more than the industry is the individual themselves, their audience, the content and the situation. The stakes, the jargon, the regulatory guardrails, as well as what’s culturally appropriate and effective in the room all factor into the situation piece. The skills stay constant everywhere: treat your audience and their takeaway as your North Star, act with intention, and stay true to yourself.

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