How to design and deliver presentations for prospective students – February 2027
A full-day interactive workshop for university staff responsible for designing and delivering presentations for prospective students.
A full-day interactive workshop for university staff responsible for designing and delivering presentations for prospective students.
Tuesday 9 February 2027
9.30am to 4pm
STEAMhouse,
Birmingham
£275 + VAT
Early bird price until 11 December
20 spaces
Do you design and deliver presentations for prospective students?
This training workshop has been created for you.
You will learn how to…
Detailed descriptions of all three sessions can be found below.
Today reignited why I do what I do, and gave me some great ideas to use moving forward. Thank you for such an insightful training day. The venue was great, and the speakers were inspirational.
Clear concise sessions that target exactly what you need, and leave you wanting to put new strategies into action. I want to say a massive thank you to UniTasterDays for your in-depth and inspiring day!
I had a great experience attending the UniTasterDays training in Birmingham. Huge thank you to UniTasterDays for bringing together professionals from universities all over the UK, and providing the opportunity to brainstorm, engage, and inspire one another.
This training is for any university staff member who delivers presentations to prospective students at…
At UniTasterDays, our primary expertise is student recruitment, widening participation, school liaison, outreach, and marketing. However, our training activities and insights can be applied to other areas too, such as students’ unions and internal communications teams who present to current students. Therefore, if the sessions below sound valuable to you, please do join us!
We pride ourselves on delivering inspiring, interactive, and insightful training days. If you join us, you will experience a fun, feel-good training event, with hands-on activities and plenty of opportunity for participation.
We’ll grow your knowledge and network in equal measure. This is aided by group exercises, breakout discussions, and multiple refreshment breaks. You’ll depart with a community from across the sector who’ll continue to support you long after the training day has ended.
The early-bird cost is £275+VAT. The cost will increase to £300+VAT after Friday 11 December 2026. There are discounts for multiple bookings, as highlighted on the booking form below.
To start, we’ll discuss the importance of adopting a VARK mindset when preparing for a presentation. In doing so, you’ll engage 100% of the students, 100% of the time. We’ll also share our hotspots and blindspots when speaking to prospective students, and the areas where we hope to make the most progress.
Next, we’ll venture into the practice of designing a captivating slide deck. You’ll discover that you need to blend flair with care to produce a presentation which is both memorable and accessible.
You’ll be asked to attack a bad slide (or two) with a red marker, suggesting improvements as you go. You’ll also learn the rationale behind design best practice, informed by the non-negotiables of content design.
Gulp. You’re driving to a school. Maybe a tricky school. Maybe a school where the students have bigger things on their mind than whether to bother with university. They’re certainly not in the mood to listen to you. Is it time to pull over? Is it time to turn the car around?
In a word: no. In three words: we can help. This session will give you the methods and mindsets to enter every classroom with confidence, brilliance, and resilience.
Firstly, you’ll learn wellbeing and empathy tools to put into place before a presentation. Secondly, you’ll gain top tips on presenting itself, particularly drawing upon your physicality and vocality. Finally, we’ll look at essential unpacking and unwinding exercises to deploy in the minutes, hours, and days after your session.
A takeaway slide? A questions slide? A cheeky QR code?
Our presentations should end with a bang, not a whimper, and certainly not a yawn. This final session will help you level-up your wrap-up.
You’ll learn how to ask for questions, and actually get questions, with tactics to awaken the sleepiest of classes. Soon, you’ll be sparking interaction from every student, regardless of whether they’re an extrovert, ambivert, or introvert.
Finally, you’ll discover how to transition from talks to tasks. We’ll share a toolkit of interactive activities which you can adapt to any presentation. We’ll also discuss the Ms of successful classroom activities: movement, mementoes, and minimalism.
Simon has almost 20 years of experience in the higher education sector. This includes student recruitment, marketing, and events roles at four different universities in the UK: Nottingham, Birmingham, Warwick, and Coventry. Simon has also worked as a content strategy consultant for the international education sector.
Throughout his career, Simon has delivered presentations and interactive workshops for prospective students in schools and colleges, on campus, on demand, and online. He combines his knowledge of content design and copywriting when designing slides, then draws upon his wealth of international public speaking experience when presenting.
Simon has a particular flair for designing engaging training sessions, developed through his previous consulting and volunteering roles. Currently, he leads the training portfolio for UniTasterDays, including their quarterly training days in Birmingham, on-campus training for staff, on-campus training for ambassadors, and 6-week professional development courses.
Past recipients of Simon’s training include Bath Spa University, LiNCHigher, Liverpool Hope University, Queen Mary University of London, Study Higher, St Mary’s University London, University College Birmingham, University of Aberdeen, University of Bristol, University of Essex, University of Salford, University of Sunderland, University of Winchester, and various HELOA regional groups.
Finally, Simon is an international speaker. He has spoken at a variety of conferences, including CASE, ContentEd, EFMD, IDPE, FindAUniversity, HELOA, HighEdWeb, PSEWeb, SU Digital, SU Marketing Conference, and Utterly Content. He was Chair of the Newcomers Track at CASE Europe Annual Conference from 2020 to 2023.
You have your own expertise and experience to share as the managers, officers, coordinators, and administrators responsible for designing and delivering presentations.
This training will invite you to share your valuable knowledge, practices, and stories with your fellow attendees. We’d love to hear everything – your success and messes, your wins and wobbles – through group exercises and full-room discussion.
Rest assured, there’ll be no pressure to share. But if you do have wisdom to offer, and tactics to champion, then the floor is yours.
If Birmingham is too far, then we’d love to come to you instead. We can deliver this training day (and many others) on your very own campus. This option is perfect for large teams or departments who would benefit from the same learning, perhaps at a future away day.
We also offer a selection of training days for student ambassadors. These training days are energising sessions designed to complement your own training, delivered in partnership with yourselves. You can learn more at the links below.