The Alda Center’s Creating Connections program is a two-hour live, online workshop designed to help researchers learn to engage and inspire diverse audiences through effective communication, with a particular focus on virtual interactions. Participants will learn how to balance being prepared with responding in the moment to address questions. The program emphasizes universal communication strategies, including avoiding jargon, and technical skills for creating engagement online, including camera angles and sound levels.

**The workshop is designed to be discipline neutral, thus graduate students in all disciplines are encouraged to participate.**

Facilitated by Alda-certified instructors from the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science

Outcomes:

• Identify strategies to make a message memorable
• Recognize and begin to avoid using complex terminology and jargon
• Use a three-step process to design a message strategically
• Develop a personable and engaging online presence

To fully engage in this program, participants must have the latest version of Zoom and Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on their computers, and a webcam and microphone enabled.