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Poor presentation technique ? cured?

A doctor in the region is helping public speakers to be more entertaining with the release of his latest book and coaching. Dr Ray Lowry has enjoyed a successful career as an academic, public health doctor and dentist and made a name for himself as an entertaining speaker (not surprising as he started life as a comedy writer and performer). He developed coaching to help colleagues become competent, engaging and entertaining speakers after enduring some of the “worst public-speakers on the circuit, and many of the culprits were close friends and colleagues”.

Local man Ray started his varied career writing for The Two Ronnies and Kenneth Williams, before going on to train as both a doctor and dentist. Throughout his professional life he sat in many an audience disappointed, bored or angry at the poor state of the art so he decided to do something about it. The result is the book and learning support on how to be a more entertaining public speaker.

Public speaking is one activity that sorts the sheep from the goats. Run-of-the-mill speakers are the norm. Our colleagues and friends are surprisingly tolerant of “death-by-PowerPoint”, mumbled banalities and weak jokes. Some people are so brilliant at what they do that their poor public speaking is tolerated and overlooked. But you can’t rely on talent alone, especially if your world is a competitive one. “You’d be surprised at how many top performers are coached. Now anyone from any background can learn to be more entertaining in professional situations, from the school PTA meetings to high profile speeches. It doesn’t matter what level they are at, the book aims to improve that level and one-to-one coaching helps people deliver the platform goods.”

Dr Lowry, a regular after dinner and conference speaker still does stand up comedy in his spare time. “I work with audiences of different shapes and sizes using old and new material, from comedy to scientific fact, so I understand the needs of modern public-speaking,” he says. But he warns against the self-help, miracle-solution books, “most books will promise to make you a Tony Robbins overnight, but this is simply unrealistic. All I want to do is take someone at a certain level and improve them so that they are comfortable at that level or the next. There is such a thing as going too far.”

Ray, who has been coaching high profile individuals for a long time is adamant that this is not just for high flying individuals.

“We have created the learning in a really flexible way, depending on what people need from it. For those who want to do it for a bit of fun, there is the book. For those with a public-speaking date in the diary, there is a correspondence course and for those who are considering a career in it or want practical teaching, we do group or one-to-one sessions up and down the country.”

But that’s not all, “we know that people might be new to this and they want to try before they buy,” says Ray, “which is why I offer a free diagnostic session”.

More information can be found at www.drlowryafterdinnerspeaker.co.uk or contact Ray direct on r.lowry@sky.com.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Dr Ray Lowry .