AStar | Science

Simplifying A*Star’s Scientific Story to Improve Stakeholder Collaborations

The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is Singapore’s key driver of scientific research. By bridging the gap between academia and industry, A*STAR transforms lives through nurturing talent and advancing research. 

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20 x 2

Participants

Physical

Format

2 x 2

Days

Content & Design

Topic

Audience Profile

  • PharmBio
  • HP
  • MedTech
  • Biomfg

Challenges

Communicating Science in a Complex Environment

With great science comes complex terms – a challenge faced by the R&D capabilities team in making information accessible to stakeholders during presentations.
 
Unclear and technical presentations hindered collaboration efforts amongst internal stakeholders, and the team was in need of storytelling techniques to simplify the information while conveying a clear narrative with action steps.
Q

Dry and complex information that disengaged audiences

Q

Slides cluttered with dense technical information

Q

Non-technical audiences struggled to understand key ideas

How we helped

Decluttering Presentations Without Losing Depth

Highspark’s 2-day program on ‘Stories that Stick’ and ‘Visual Persuasion’ focused on empowering learners to transform complex scientific data into insightful presentations that would be easily digested by key stakeholders.
 
By harnessing the power of storytelling, learners could streamline their scientific presentations and visually highlight key messages for audiences to take action.
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Day 1: Content

We customised key storytelling techniques to meet the needs of a scientific presentation that would engage and influence stakeholders. For example, bringing the key message to life was a method explored where learners were equipped with techniques to say the same scientific messages in a different way that would be engaging even for an audience unfamiliar with these concepts.

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Day 2: Design

Learners were introduced to frameworks that visualised key concepts using imagery and translated complex text into visuals that impressed and empowered them. This ensured insights were not only informative but actionable

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Results

Directly relevant and applicable frameworks

I’m already beginning to see some of the tips being applied in the new deck of slides!

 

Carol Tan

Strategy Development & Policy Planning

Text heavy slides synthesised

Key messages in slides captured

Design principles leveraged to create more effective visual slides

BS Expert storytellers

22%

Immediate increase in learners’ proficiency

Leading

100%

Voted workshop has met learning objectives

PS Expert public speaking coaches

100%

Would recommend this workshop to others

I was facing challenges making my slides interesting and easy to understand. Was also feeling very uninspired when making slides because I did not know how to make it visually appealing.

If I had to put a number to this workshop, I would say more than a million dollars because each deal made ranges from tens to hundreds of thousands and it all starts with presenting our slide deck.

Gillian Low

SIFBI