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Media / Presentation Training

SAE provides highly tailored training targeted at public agency executives and staff. Our principals and senior counselors have decades of experience teaching how to communicate effectively, whether in a media interview, before a city council or board of supervisors, during a board or commission meeting, or in a community presentation. We have spoken to groups of half a dozen to audiences of several thousand.

SAE’s training programs are grounded in real public agency experience. Training can be provided as a stand-alone service or as part of an ongoing on-call consulting relationship.

SAE frequently trains public agency executives, elected officials, public information officers, department heads, managers, and technical staff who must communicate about complicated or sensitive issues.

Key Message Development and Delivery

This training consists of a classroom-style group session with staff that focuses on overall communications principles, especially when dealing with the media, elected officials, community members, and public meetings. The training includes key message development and delivery, media coverage trends, public engagement trends, public presentation techniques, and interview techniques.

The session illustrates the need to emphasize the “big picture” in all settings so residents, businesses, staff, elected officials, and other key audiences can be fully informed about major agency initiatives and issues.

Each session can include as many staff members as deemed appropriate based on your needs.

Prior to the session, SAE Communications consults with key staff to ensure we meet your specific needs and cover topics that have occurred in the recent past or are anticipated to arise in the coming months.

The training session includes discussion about the role of the key message, how to deliver messages, how to take control of an interview, rights and responsibilities during an interview, how to deliver messages in a variety of settings – including presentations at council or board meetings and community gatherings – use of empathy, and other issues as requested.

This training is highly interactive, and attendees are encouraged to ask questions and relate their experiences.

Training Agenda:

  • Media trends and coverage issues

  • Key message creation and definition
  • Role as a spokesperson
  • Preparing for the interview or public presentation
  • Interview rights and responsibilities
  • Knowing your audience
  • Message delivery techniques
  • Expressing empathy
  • Role of weeklies and blogs
  • Role of social media
  • Public meeting presentation skills
  • PowerPoint and visual presentation best practices
  • Q&A preparation and management
  • Communicating complex information in plain language
  • Coordinating messages among multiple presenters

Two trainers conduct the group session, and the instruction is supported by presentation materials, articles, tip lists, and other information for later reference. We also use a tailored PowerPoint presentation that includes video clips illustrating how to effectively deliver messages.

Presentation Training

SAE helps public agency managers, executives, and technical experts communicate more effectively during board meetings, commission meetings, council meetings, public meetings, stakeholder briefings, and community presentations.

Training Focuses On:

  • Organizing presentations around clear messages

  • Opening and closing with confidence
  • Explaining technical information without overwhelming the audience
  • Using PowerPoint as a visual aid rather than a script
  • Coordinating multiple presenters
  • Anticipating difficult questions
  • Responding clearly and professionally
  • Maintaining credibility in contentious settings, including Q&A management
  • Helping the audience understand what decision or action is being requested
  • Managing hybrid meetings

SAE can tailor presentation training around an agency’s actual upcoming public meeting or project milestone. This allows participants to practice with real content, real questions, and real community concerns rather than generic examples.

Media Pitching and Interview Preparation

Media pitching requires a thoughtful, disciplined process that takes focus and diligence on the part of agency leadership, along with patience. The process starts with the agency’s goals and objectives. Telling the story of the agency’s long-term efforts, as well as efforts under way in the current budget year, through feature stories in media outlets can be one of the most effective ways to generate confidence.

SAE helps agencies identify storylines, prepare key messages, develop media materials, anticipate reporter questions, and coach staff before interviews.

Recent Training Topics:

  • Key message development and delivery

  • Media interview preparation
  • Presentation training for councils, boards, commissions, and community meetings
  • Crisis communications and emergency public information
  • Communicating complex public agency issues in plain language
  • Preparing for difficult questions
  • Building confidence through empathy, clarity, and consistency
  • Coordinating communications during fast-moving incidents
  • Improving PowerPoint use and visual presentations
  • Supporting technical experts who must present in public