DESCRIPTION
The "Wake Up" workshop is designed to help people communicate more effectively. The emphasis is on helping
people to create imaginative presentations or to write popular articles based on their specific professional projects.
How do writers at Time present complex ideas so interestingly?
What techniques do writers at the New York Times use to add a human dimension to their stores?
At the news-stand, what techniques do the editors use to convince you to buy a particular magazine?
How do some speakers envelop you in their presentation while others make you wish you were at the dentist?
There's no magic to communicating well. Not everyone can speak with the charisma of,
say, John F. Kennedy or write with the verve of Tom Wolfe.
But everyone can improve, just by learning some basic techniques.
One key to making our articles and presentations zap-proof lies
in recognising that we always have choices in how cold or hot we make our communications.
But how can we create intimacy with the reader?
Each participant will learn how to:
- recognise the power of their unique voice,
- tell the human story,
- identify conflict,
- find heroes and villains,
- and focus on a single message.
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Certainly, we must retain our scientific accuracy and credibility. But being professional does not mean anyone has to be boring.
During the workshop Paul uses music, cartoons, and lots of hands-on exercises,
examples, and group feedback. The objective is serious; the technique is fun.
WHO HAS BENEFITED FROM THIS WORKSHOP
Paul Sochaczewski has run this workshop in some 15 countries for:
- Senior executives of WWF-World Wide Fund for Nature - including the Forest for Life program, and the fund-raising department.
- People working in national osteoporosis societies and pharmaceutical companies brought together by
IOF-International Osteoporosis Foundation
- Executives of USAID Environment Program, Philippines
- Senior scientists at CIFOR (Centre for International Forest Research) in Bogor, Indonesia.
- Communications officers at IUCN - World Conservation Union).
- Technicians setting up anti-alcohol programs in Eastern Europe for ILO.
- Participants at annual conferences of the International Osteoporosis Foundation
- Advertising professionals at Ogilvy and Mather, Hawaii.
- Students at University of Hawaii
TESTIMONIALS
"The workshop was a marker moment for me,
and thanks to your coaching I moved though a major writing barrier. I cannot thank you enough."
- George Kohlreiser, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and professor
at IMD graduate school of business in Lausanne, Switzerland.
"...this course is entirely different and I was challenged to step out of my box and be more intimate in
writing and presentations." - Leila Peralta, head of the marine program at USAID in the Philippines.
"Paul's passion and enthusiasm
for promoting 'Wake Up Communications" motivated and inspired USAID Philippines environment team.
The workshop greatly exceeded my high expectations." - Jerry Bisson, director of USAID in the Philippines
"I appreciated the interactive dynamics of the workshop, with exercises, presentations, discussions,
and the variety of materials and examples presented." - Martha Choulchena Rojas, head of the biodiversity group at IUCN - World Conservation Union,
"We are professional communicators,
but the workshop forced all of us to re-think the recipe for effective communications." -
Emi Anamizu, managing director of Ogilvy and Mather, Hawaii.
ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
"Wake-Up Writing - Developing Effective Communications Skills"
evolved from Paul's experience in journalism, marketing, advertising and NGO development.
Paul's international career (he has lived and worked in more than 60 countries)
began in Southeast Asia, where he worked for 12 years, first in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo
as an education volunteer for the United States Peace Corps and then as creative director of advertising agencies
in Singapore and Indonesia where he created advertising for international companies including Boots, Inter-Continental Hotels,
Peugeot, Kraft, Trebor, Reckitt and Colman, Panasonic, and Unilever.
After moving to Switzerland he created the international public awareness and fund-raising campaigns
for WWF-World Wildlife Fund International, based in Switzerland. Their efforts helped put such emerging issues
as the destruction of the tropical rainforest and the loss of biological diversity on the world agenda.
Paul helps companies and public and not-for-profit organisations develop communications strategies and materials.
His clients include the U.S. Agency for International Development, United Nations Aids program, World Wide Fund for Nature,
and the World Conservation Union. He also works as communications director of the International Osteoporosis Foundation.
Affiliations: Fellow, Royal Geographic Society, member PEN International, member American Society of Journalists and Authors.
Paul has written more than 600 by-lined articles for international publications such as the International Herald Tribune,
Wall Street Journal, Geographical, CNN Traveller, BBC Wildlife, International Wildlife, Earth Times, Golf Vacations,
GQ, and Gemini News Service. Other publications: co-author, with
Jeff McNeely of Soul of the Tiger: Searching for Nature's Answers in Southeast Asia, Eco-Bluff Your Way
to Instant Environmental Credibility, project originator of Tanah Air: Indonesia's Biodiversity, editorial
advisory board of Indonesian Heritage Encyclopaedia. Redheads, Paul's comic conservation novel set in Borneo,
is about tribal uprisings, corrupt government officials and schizophrenic orang-utans. Daniel Quinn, author
of Ishmael, said "Redheads does for the struggle to save the rain forests of Borneo what Catch 22 did for the struggle
to stay alive in World War II".
