Conferences and seminars
Inaugural Spoken Word Conference September 2009
Our first conference was held at the Rose Theatre and Kingston University on 18th September 2009. Over 90 delegates attended from across the Spoken Word spectrum - researchers, practitioners, teachers, and policy-makers.
Professor Gail Cunningham officially launched the Institute for the Spoken Word as a research centre at Kingston University.
Keynote Panel consisted of (l to r):
Janet Suzman, Professor Gail Cunningham, Dr Linda Hargreaves, Phil Collins and David Roche
The conference was opened by a distinguished panel of Spoken Word experts:
- Dr Linda Hargreaves (Assistant Director, The Cambridge Primary Review) addressed why and how oral communication skills should be given greater priority in the classroom
- Phil Collins (Columnist for The Times and former speech writer for Tony Blair) laid bare the anatomy of a great public speech
- David Roche (Group Sales and Trade Marketing Director of Harper Collins) demonstrated the joys and agonies of "business speak"
- Janet Suzman (award-winning stage and screen actress) gave a personal account of the power of the spoken word in moving audiences across the world
The afternoon saw eight panels examining Organizational Storytelling, Creating a Culture of Talk in the Classroom, Spoken Word and Empowerment, Spoken Word in the Workplace, Spoken Word Online, Spoken Word in Education, the Spoken Word Project, and Spoken Word Abroad. Twenty-two papers were delivered that ranged across the whole spectrum of Spoken Word research and practice. View the abstracts.
We hope to publish conference proceedings through Kingston University Press and will be contacting individual authors to invite them to submit their papers for review.
Related materials
