Presenter Network Manifesto

The Presenter Network is a local, national and international network set up for presenters to share best and worst practice. Below you will find out Manifesto, for answers to our most frequently asked questions please see here.

What is our vision?

We want to:

Network presenters from a wide range of sectors on a local, national and international level.
Establish the Presenter Network as the go-to community for presenters to share best and worst practice.
Create a model of best practice for specific networking groups within the sector.

We believe that:

There is a wealth of invaluable experience locked away within the presenting community that is best unlocked and shared through the presenter network.
Presenters share the same skill set whether they work in science and discovery centres, academia, charities, trusts, museums and heritage or the media.
Running sessions in a nurturing and positive environment leads to presenters feeling comfortable enough to engage in discussion, get more out of the sessions and ultimately become a better presenter as a result.
We should share not only our good experiences but our bad ones too.
Everyone from early career presenters to experienced professionals who have been in the sector for their whole careers can grow and develop further by engaging with the network.
Everyone has something of value to contribute to a session, no matter what their experience level is.

We always:

Focus exclusively on presenting.
Nominate a lead facilitator for sessions to keep things on track and eliminating digressions into content development and programme management. Network members’ time is precious so sessions must be precisely focused.
Plan session themes based on demand from the local network, with successful themes shared by other network hubs.
Vary sessions as widely as possible within the presenting sector to expose network members to as many new experiences as possible.
Cap sessions. It is hard to have a useful discussion with many more than 20 people so places for hub sessions are capped.

We never:

Bombard network members via email, see the communications section for more details.
Charge people to attend. It will never cost you anything other than your time to run or attend a Presenter Network event. This is vital as so many organisations and individuals simply do not have the funds to attend charged events.
Provide catering for attendees. If we were to cater for sessions it would come at a cost, so to keep things free we ask network members to bring your own refreshments instead.

Why does the network exist?

For individual presenters

Presenting comes with many challenges; from learning the ropes in the first place to maintaining a fresh approach years down the line. As a presenter finding the time and funds to attend meaningful and useful training and networking sessions is difficult to justify because you are always presenting. This network provides focused, valuable experiences that will supplement and compliment all past and future training programmes you may take part in to help you develop and become the best presenter you can be.

For organisations

Training and retaining presenting staff is a challenge. Whilst of course in-house training is essential, capturing and sharing valuable experiences is difficult through formal training days where more of a focus naturally has to go on staff learning content to be able to deliver sessions as quickly as possible. This network exists to fill the gap between presenters attending formal training and becoming a well-rounded, adaptable, engaged and confident presenter. It does this by exposing its members of a whole sector on a global level of people with huge amount of advice and guidance to share. The sessions we run through the network will never conflict with your institutional training but will instead reinforce it.

For the sector

With so much experience locked away with individuals within the sector, if we do not have a forum such as the Presenter Network to share this information we risk it being lost forever along with any lessons learned. The network allows this wealth of experience to be transferred, utilised and built on by existing and future presenters.

The role of the Royal Observatory Greenwich

As the founders of the Presenter Network the roles of the Royal Observatory Greenwich are as follows:

To manage the Presenter Network as a whole on a national and international level.
To run the annual national Presenter Network conference.
To run the local London and South East Presenter Network hub.
To support organisations setting up and running their own regional hubs under the banner of Presenter Network.
To supply hubs with the Presenter Network branded promotional materials and templates needed to run effective sessions.
To provide central communication for Presenter Network regional hubs to share content, ideas and best practice.
To ensure that the Presenter Network remains focused exclusively on presentation skills.

The role of a hub centre and leader

Presenter Network hubs exist to network communities of presenters on a local level. Each hub centre nominates a ‘Hub Leader’ to run that specific Presenter Network hub. The role of each hub and hub leader is to:

Engage with other hub leaders to share best practice.
Plan and facilitate approximately three Presenter Network sessions each year ensuring they are as varied as possible.
Market sessions using supplied Presenter Network materials and templates.
To take and manage the bookings for each session which operate on a first come, first served basis and are offered to network members only.
To identify session hosts for individual meetings and work with them to ensure their session runs smoothly and remain focussed on presenting.
To securely manage the regional database of members so it is GDPR compliant.
To act as the fall-back venue if a session host cannot be found.

The role of a network member

This can vary depending on whether you are a session attendant, host or both.

Session hosts:

Organisations with specific expertise are encouraged to host an individual session to share their experiences with the network. Their role is to:

Define a theme for the session based on demand from the rest of the local network.
Secure appropriate spaces to run sessions for around 20 people.
Create and supply promotional and logistical information to the local hub leader ready for distribution to the network.
Provide access to a facilitated session for attendees to observe then lead the discussion based on it afterwards.

Session attendant:

Presenter Network members have the most important role of all; to keep the momentum of the network going strong. Their role is to come to sessions, share their good and bad experiences and help promote the network to other people that could find it useful.