Emerging from their COCOON

They are vibrant, energetic and getting some 'hands on' experience of what it's like to be in the 'real' world, before actually getting there! A group of final year students from Imperial Institute of Higher Education, a validated centre for the University of Wales who are reading for degrees in Business Management, as a part of their course, have been assigned to take on the task of conceptualizing and developing a product, and thereafter, launching and marketing it.

Identifying the growing need for and lack of, presentation skills at all levels of the corporate sector, this team, comprising Hisham Hussain, Gunith De Silva, Yahya Galely, Shehan Mendis, Nadina Fernando and Varuni Fernando, has decided to help fill the gap in some way. The workshops called COCOON; an effective and unique character development programme focuses on honing one's skills at making successful presentations thereby instilling confidence in his/her audience. Be it a professional or student, COCOON will hold something special for each individual to take home.

COCOON has been carefully designed in consultation with a panel of specialists in the area of presentations and character development. The workshop aimed at enabling participants to blossom into articulate and fluent communicators, thus emerging from their 'coccoon', into a power-packed personality able to hold an audience in the palm of his/her hand at any given opportunity.

Translating this concept into the practical they have organised a training programme which includes a series of ten workshops that will be conducted by leading persons in the field of communication and public presentation including, Mohamad Adamally, Feroze Kamardeen, Thayalan Bartlett, CEO, not forgetting high-calibre Toastmasters.

The workshops will be held on weekends and each workshop will have a different audience. The workshops which are for a duration of three hours got underway on Saturday 16 December and will be held every Saturday and Sunday until January 21, 2007.

"Our project plans to analyze the mistakes made by participants while they conduct presentations, which are now becoming almost a daily routine across the globe. Each participant will be able to learn and at the same time get relevant feedback from our panel of course directors," the team says.

All proceeds of the project will be donated to the Maharagama Cancer Hospital. 'The reason why we chose this organisation for the donation is because although the incidence of cancer among Sri Lankans is not as high as in countries like USA and Japan, helping our national cancer hospital to develop, could help in the prevention of cancer.'

The participants will each receive individual attention by the speakers and presenters, enabling custom-made advice; video documentation of their presentation and analysis by the course directors to be given to each participant, so that feedback is captured and not forgotten, an intensive three-hour session; a certificate of participation will be awarded to each participant. Organisations will benefit by having employees trained by the best which will in turn have a visible positive impact on employee's communication and presentation skills.

Each participant will be required to make a five-minute presentation based on any topic of interest. The presentation will be made before a Course Director, a LIVE studio audience and two active video cameras. Video footage will be replayed by the course director to highlight any positive or negative traits in the presentation. Candidates will then be required to make a second presentation having absorbed the advice of the panel and the audience. The product was launched at the Cinnamon Grand on December 12 and proved to be a resounding success, the COCOON Team says.

The fundraiser for the project which was a Pool Tournament held at the Queens' Café was equally successful, giving them the much-needed kick-start to put their plans into action.

"It has been an excellent learning experience for all of us. It has given us a sneak preview of what is to come, when we finish our studies and enter the corporate world." They go further to add, that "the challenges have been equally great. Our own presentation skills were also put to test in this marketing and of our product. Having succeeded to this extent has been very satisfying."

"We are also extremely grateful to our lecturer Nishan C Perera, Chartered Marketer, who fleshed out the assignment within the framework of the course requirements."