Throughout my PhD the thing that I have enjoyed the most is sharing my research with the outside world.
I’ve been aware of FameLab for a few years now but until this year had been too nervous to sign up. I finally took the plunge to apply in December and can honestly say it was one of the most rewarding science outreach events I’ve done!
It taught me so much about communicating your science effectively to a lay audience, but it obviously all started with figuring out how to prepare my talk in the first place. So, here’s some tips to help you get started with your future Famelab talk.
The University of Liverpool have an amazing public engagement team which help you through every FameLab step. The first being a “Famelab Science Communication Training” in February to explain how to prepare your talk and submit your video. They walk you through everything from how to choose your topic to overcoming nerves, and I highly recommend attending if you can.
Where to start
The best piece of advice I was given when choosing the topic of your talk is to decide on a part of your research that you are passionate about. That way the passion will naturally flow into your talk. Also, don’t go too broad. Scale it back and home in on a small part of your research. It will make it that much more understandable and hopefully relatable to your audience. If you’re really struggling, use a specific scientific paper as a base, picking a point or two from it, and then translate those to a lay audience.
A beginning, a middle and an end
Once you have your topic, the second thing we were told to focus on was structure. Imagine you are telling a story, it must have a beginning, a middle and an end. Firstly, you are setting the scene, then introducing a conflict and finally resolving that conflict at the end. In this way your talk will have some emotion attached to it resulting from the “conflict” section. For example, if you are exploring how cancer behaves, your conflict could be explaining why analysing cancer behaviour is difficult and important and the resolution would be how your research is making that process easier.
Getting the Jitters
After drafting your talk, the final thing to overcome is nerves! I can honestly say that you are not alone if you are worried about delivering your FameLab talk. Every single finalist that was at the event with me was nervous. It’s a natural thing. But there are ways of overcoming this.
Firstly: Practice, practice, practice! Do your talk in front of family and friends and definitely attend the practice session organised by the FameLab team a week before the live event. You will not only get some great feedback but this event really improved my confidence. It’s lovely to meet everyone else taking part and know that they are all there to support you. Don’t be afraid to tell them that you are nervous, chances are they feel the same and appreciate you saying it out loud.
Most Importantly
Trust yourself and enjoy the process! It’s not every day you get a chance to tell the public about your research and have them really listen. I hope that my tips will help you get the best out of your FameLab experience and good luck to all the finalists this year. I can’t wait to see more amazing FameLab talks in the near future!