YOUniversity
Programs
Each runs on its own or combines with the others, depending on what a team needs.
Visual Storytelling
Design for the way people see.
Most slide problems aren't design problems, they're perception problems. People put what they intend to say onto the slide, then compete with it for the audience's attention. The audience, having to choose between reading and listening, does neither well. Participants start with the psychology: how people make meaning, where attention goes, and what visual proximity, contrast and grouping do to comprehension. Then they apply it to their own presentations in the room. Self-assessment first, then peer feedback, then my read on where the opportunities are.
Can be combined with: Storytelling in Presentations, Presentation Performance & Public Speaking
Effective Communication
Hear and be heard.
Storytelling in Presentations
Translating data into meaningful stories.
Presentation Strategy
You know what you want. Give them a reason to want it too.
Presentation Performance & Public Speaking
It’s not how you feel. It’s how they perceive it.
Negotiation
Relationship mastery for satisfying outcomes.
Effective Teams
The courage to own, support and collaborate.
How it runs
Sessions are built around participants’ real work: their presentations, their meetings, their negotiations. Nothing stays theoretical.
Small enough that everyone presents and gets feedback.
Full days or half-days, usually two to four sessions, either consecutively or spread across several weeks so people can practice in between.
Longer. A full presentation arc, from strategy through storytelling to delivery, is usually around six days.
In person or online.
Participants bring live work and leave with it improved.
Europe and the United States.
Who runs the room
Emilia Valentina Delena. Twenty-five years across industries, disciplines, cultures and countries. An American who has spent her career in the United States and Europe. I've worked with engineers, lawyers, designers, corporate teams, banks and universities, diplomatic and consular institutions, and people in music and broadcast.
I've run programs at universities and inside companies, and I also work as a consultant on presentations themselves: narrative, strategy, design and delivery. The two feed each other. What I bring to a room is what that work has taught me.
I built the .blog Academy for Automattic, and I've delivered courses for Ferrari, Intesa Sanpaolo and the Politecnico.
I don't work alone. Depending on what a group needs, I bring in people whose expertise goes deeper than mine in their own field — and the sessions are better for it. Angie Cucco joins me on larger groups and special projects: seventeen years at Google, and one of the best speakers I know.
Get in touch
Happy to talk through what your teams are running into and which program fits.