Communicating With Impact

Personal Benefits

We all know an effective presentation when we see and hear one, but few of us have the chance to learn the essential ingredients. This program is designed to bridge that gap, as you will:

• Learn to connect with your audience authentically on a logical and emotional level
• Develop confidence in your ability to manage your nerves and overcome anxiety when speaking in front of others
• Improve your personal leadership capacity with improved communication style
• Learn to establish trust and credibility with new and known audiences
• Use practical frameworks to best organize content and cater to target audiences, including supervisors, advisory boards and prospective clients

Organizational Benefits

Build organizational strength and skills in presentation design and delivery. Organizations will:

• Overcome frequent internal communication challenges
• Improve their success rate for business development and new client pitches
• Streamline the translation and transmission of knowledge between units, particularly those who do not share the same technical expertise
• Improved agility with technological innovation, decision making and problem solving.

Program content:

Pre-Program:

Complete a simple and quick pre-program assignment to gain a better understanding of your current verbal presentation abilities, communication style and development challenges.

During the Program:

Through a combination of expert coaching, experiential exercises and video analysis of business presentations you will learn:

• The key principles of influence and persuasion that resonate with any audience
• How to build a communication strategy that takes into account your goals, target audience as well as the internal and external contexts
• How to deliver higher quality business presentations that engage, inform and motivate others
• Methods of critically analyzing your presentation style to better understand the impact of voice and body language on how your message is received
• Strategies to overcome negative associations with pre-presentation anxiety and use nervous energy to your advantage
• How to better select, organize and structure presentation content to craft a compelling narrative arc
• Appropriate use of imagery, personal stories and data to engage and inform your audience
• Techniques to critically analyze your presentations to ensure ongoing improvement and future success

Reflection assignments will challenge you to put new skills into practice once back at work. New self-assessment skills will allow you to continue optimizing presentation abilities throughout your career.

In-Person Learning

Learn alongside fellow participants from across the country, discovering best practices that span industries and sectors.

Our in-person programs include classroom learning sessions led by award-winning Smith School of Business professors and industry experts. Practice new skills in breakout sessions, projects and simulations, and apply your learning toward real-world case studies.

SmithToronto

SmithToronto is located on the 30th floor, 200 Front Street West in the heart of Canada's financial centre and is easily accessible by GO, subway and the PATH system.

Smith School of Business delivers many programs and classes at SmithToronto and it is home to the Master of Finance, Master of Management Analytics, and Master of Management in Artificial Intelligence programs. The site includes classrooms, meeting rooms, staff offices, special events spaces, and a variety of multi-media presentation systems.

As well, it includes three Boardroom Learning Centres with fully interactive videoconference capabilities. These rooms are used to deliver classes for Smith’s Executive and Accelerated MBA programs.

Session Leaders

Session leaders include senior professors from Smith School of Business and knowledgeable experts from industry. These outstanding teachers are constantly in touch with today's business world through real-world business experience, Board memberships and their own consulting practices.

Matthew Reesor

General Business
Smith School of Business

Matt Reesor is a communications expert who has helped hundreds of leaders at top organizations to sharpen their messaging. Since 2013, he has held a professor appointment at Smith School of Business, Queen’s University and designed numerous Masters and MBA level business communication courses. In addition, Matt was approached to design the highly successful Communicating With Impact program within Queen’s Executive Education (QEE) which he continues to deliver multiple times throughout the year. Matt has created custom communications programs for a growing list of clients including, British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Canada Life, Canada Post, The Canadian Olympic Committee, CIBC Asset Management, Homestead Land Holdings, EY (Consulting), Kellogg’s Canada, the NHL Alumni Association and various government departments and ministries. Prior to teaching at Smith, he spent his early career in Japan as a junior faculty member at Nagoya University of Business and Commerce where he conducted academic research and published the bestselling textbook, Tell Me More: Effective Communication Strategies for the Japanese Student with MacMillan Publishers. In addition to his teaching and consulting duties, Matt served as the Director of the Full-time MBA program at Smith School of Business from 2016-2023.