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Description

Inspiring Talks: Finding Your Big Idea, Telling It and Delivering It on Stage

One day to build a short talk carried by a single idea that stays with the audience long after you leave the stage

  • 1 day — 7 h
  • In-person or virtual
  • Foundation
  • Up to 6 participants

Invited to speak for fifteen minutes, most people try to say everything: context, background, figures, outlook. The audience struggles to follow and remembers nothing. The short format forces choices that a standard corporate presentation never requires.

This 7-hour day draws on the way short talks published online are built: isolating a single idea, making it tangible through a personal story, building a progression that holds without slides, crafting the opening and the closing line, then delivering the talk standing and without notes. Each participant presents a five-minute talk to the group at the end of the day.

Learning objectives

  • Reduce a complex subject to a single idea expressed in one sentence
  • Select a personal story that makes this idea tangible for the audience
  • Build a three-part progression that holds without projected slides
  • Write an opening that captures attention within the first thirty seconds
  • Deliver a five-minute talk standing and without notes

What makes this programme different

The short format forces you to cut and the group decides what goes
A five-minute talk presented and filmed at the end of the day
Focused work on the opening and the closing line, rehearsed several times

Programme

1Isolating the single idea

What the audience must remember

  • Moving from a broad subject to an idea expressed in one sentence
  • Testing the idea with the group and reformulating it
  • Distinguishing the idea you defend from the outline of your talk
  • Removing any content that does not serve the chosen idea

2Telling the story to make it tangible

Narrative, examples and imagery

  • Choosing a real situation that illustrates the idea
  • Building a short narrative with tension and a turning point
  • Using imagery and concrete detail rather than abstraction
  • The place and the right dose of figures in a short format

3Delivering on stage

Opening, progression and closing line

  • Writing the first thirty seconds
  • Building a progression that holds without projected slides
  • Memorising through landmarks rather than learning the text by heart
  • Writing and holding the closing line

Who is it for

Senior professionals and subject-matter experts leading initiatives, and anyone required to deliver a short talk to an audience.

Prerequisites

No prerequisites

Dates & locations

36 scheduled dates between November 2026 and December 2027. Seats are confirmed in the order enquiries are received.

November 2026

December 2026

January 2027

February 2027

March 2027

April 2027

May 2027

June 2027

September 2027

October 2027

November 2027

December 2027

None of these dates suit you? We open additional sessions on request, and any programme can be run privately for your team.

Practical details

Before the programme
Online positioning questionnaire. Your development objectives are shared with the trainer, who tailors the practical case studies to your context.
Teaching methods
Theoretical input, workshops and practical case studies. Digital course materials and method sheets provided.
Assessment
Multiple-choice tests and role-play exercises. Assessment of learning at the start and end of the programme, with immediate and 60-day follow-up evaluations.
After the programme
One year of access to the e-learning platform. Self-assessment of the skills acquired and a 30-day follow-up session with your trainer.
How to register
Registration online or on the basis of a quotation.
Lead time
11 working days after confirmation of registration.
Accessibility
Accessible to people of determination. Contact our accessibility coordinator to design a suitable solution: contact@mpf-academy.ae
Start dates
Rolling intake: in addition to the scheduled sessions, this programme can start on request.