Stay in Mind! Crafting Memorable Scientific Presentations

Academia Raetica

About the course

Effective communication during presentations is essential in academia. Whether you are giving talks, joining discussions, or using slides and posters, it all affects how people see you and your work. How you present yourself can strongly influence whether you secure a grant, land a job, or build future collaborations. In this seminar, we work together to identify the key success factors for delivering impactful academic talks. You will receive feedback and will train based on that feedback (with individual, audio and video feedback). The course is a great opportunity to prepare for the conference "Graubünden forscht 2026". If, after the two-day course, you would like to prepare specifically for an upcoming talk (e.g., for “Graubünden forscht”), we offer an optional one-to-one online training session with Michael Berndonner. We highly recommend this additional training. We offer this additional training at a special rate of CHF 50; Michael’s usual fee would be significantly higher.

Objectives

Participants enhance their skills in presenting scientific content and reflect on both their general public-speaking style and their scientific communication.

Outcomes

The participants experience and train

• how to express orally scientific methodology, processes, results and insights in a clear and adequate simple, systematic, stringent and entertaining way.

• how to maintain attention and interest of the audience with radical listener centricity.

• the use of rhetorical and vocal means for scientific speeches.

The way to reach the objectives and outcomes

Your trainer and coach facilitates and initiates…

• comprehensive group and individual feedback for each participant,

• targeted training and personal development based on that feedback,

• and gentle guidance that encourages you to step beyond your comfort zone.

And all that: with a lot of fun and joy in presenting!

General information and fee

• Dates:

  • Online-Kickoff Thursday, August 20, 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM,

  • Thursday, August 27, and Friday, August 28, 2026, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

• Location: Davos

• Language: English

• Lecturer: Michael Berndonner, speech scientist and communication psychologist, rhetoric-trainer and vocal coach

• Target audience: All scientists from Academia Raetica member and partner institutions

• Course fee for participants from Academia Raetica member or partner institutions: CHF 150, plus CHF 50 for individual online coaching (45 minutes, optional). Please indicate in the registration form in the comment box, if you want to book the individual coaching or just let us know after the course.

• Registration deadline: July 24, 2026

• Max. number participants: 12 (min. number participants 8)

• Our terms and conditions

• Course Coordinator: Daniela Heinen, daniela.heinen@academiaraetica.ch, phone 081 410 60 84

• Credit points This training offers you an online-kickoff, 16 hours of attendance, some preparation and reflection work and an optional, individual online-coaching session shortly before the conference. Please check with your supervisor at your university if the course counts towards ECTS.

• Course certificate: You will receive a certificate of attendance, if you attend both workshop days.

About the trainer

Michael´s answer, being asked, what is the key factor for an impactful speech: "Passion, enthusiasm, courage. Not perfection."

Michael is a trainer and coach with body and soul. His experience as a speaker and moderator on stage, but also as a speech scientist  and psychologist, makes his seminars challenging and lively. With his unshakable belief in the power of passion and enthusiasm in people, he gives his participants access to public speaking that they may not have experienced before.

Michael teaches and trains at the Universities of Zürich and St. Gallen, he is a guest speaker at the Universities of Bern, Luzern and at the FH Graubünden. He coaches and trains in companies in Switzerland, Germany and Georgia.

(https://www.swissinstitute.academy/michael-berndonner) 

What participants learned during the last course:

• Less is more. Articulation is key.

• Mimic and gesture are very important

• How to use emphasis

• Be yourself and behave as if you would tell the audience your story

• Confidence, experimental, physical expression, preparation

• Different valuable tools to generally improve my presentation skills and more specific ones regarding my personal situation

• How to present in a more interesting way for the listeners

• Voice modulation, correct posture, body language, structure speech, intonation

• Voice warmup rhetoric methods

What participants liked best about the course:

• Lots of exercises and helpful tools. Background information, why things are done this or that way.

• Nice group where I did not feel judged.

• I loved how Michael managed to get everyone to open up and freely express themselves while presenting. He also provided constructive criticism. It's hard to engage everyone but I think he did a great job; it feels like everyone got something important out of the course.

• It helped me understand what amount of work (preparation) goes behind a good presentation.

Registration

For any questions regarding the transferable skills courses of Academia Raetica or if you encounter issues with the registration process, please feel free to contact Daniela Heinen. Please review our terms and conditions.

You will promptly receive an automated email response containing your registration details. The final confirmation of your course placement will be sent to you a few days later.

Email: daniela.heinen@academiaraetica.ch
Phone: +41 81 410 60 84

Academia Raetica
Obere Strasse 22
7270 Davos Platz

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