Master of Science inStrategic Communications

No matter how dynamic or charismatic your presentation style, if your content doesn’t resonate with your audience, it will fail to persuade. This interactive seminar goes beyond delivery techniques and focuses on the inner architecture of great presentations. Drawing on the latest in neuroscience and psychology, this session reveals the key elements of persuasive presentations and how to use them. Employ these principles in your next presentation, and you’ll see an immediate difference in your audience’s reaction --and in your own confidence and effectiveness.

Jane Praeger is a former documentary filmmaker and faculty member in Columbia University's M.S. program in Strategic Communications where she teaches presentation design and delivery, communications strategy, strategic storytelling and writing. Praeger is also the founder and president of Ovid, Inc., a communications firm that provides speech, presentation, and media training,, and customized workshops, for corporations such as Nickelodeon, Coach, MTV, Estee Lauder, McKinsey & Company, Euro RSCG Worldwide, as well as other technology, entertainment, and consulting firms.

Heather Thomas is a former business development and corporate marketing executive with over 15 years of experience at agencies including Agency.com, Modem Media, and Critical Mass. Thomas founded the business development practice at Critical Mass and subsequently spent the better part of a decade crafting hundreds of persuasive team presentations and pitches for a wide variety of companies including Procter & Gamble, NASA, Dell, Rolex and Hyatt Hotels, developing a strong understanding of how to construct effective presentations. Thomas is now an independent business development and presentation consultant, as well as a course assistant for the Strategic Storyteller course in Columbia's Communications Practice program. She is a cum laude graduate of Princeton University.

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