Promoting Veterinary Technology to the Public

Survey after survey shows that the general public doesn' t know what a veterinary technician does in veterinary medicine. Or even worse most don't know we are educated individuals who have a definite roll in veterinary medicine! One of the ways to fix this is to do some self-promotion. We need to get out into the public and talk about what it is we do in the veterinary profession. You may be asking yourself "where or how do I such a thing?" Every city that has a high school is going to have a career day at some point in time, or call any of the youth clubs or human societies or adoption/rescue groups and volunteer to talk about the profession of veterinary technology. The people that organize these groups will jump at the chance to have you as a speaker at their meeting or function.

Unfortunately statistically speaking most of us would rather DIE than speak in public! Well, it is a rather daunting experience especially if you don' t know where to start or how to put a presentation together. Hopefully this brief article will give you a good start. It will help you with the main components of a presentation, how to work gestures and vocal variety into your presentation and finally give you some tips on the use of graphics to enhance your presentation.
Every presentation should have three distinct parts an opening, a body and a closing. The opening sets the stage for your talk, the body informs them and the conclusion ties everything together. The following are some pointers for each of these areas.

The Opening
The opening should tell the audience who you are and what you are going to share with them during your presentation. One way to open a presentation is to answer this question, "What makes you an expert on this subject?" To answer that just talk a little bit about you. Explain how you became interested in veterinary medicine and why you chose to be a veterinary technician. Sharing a personal story allows your audience to get to know you and you to relax into your talk. Then give them a brief overview of what you will be covering in your presentation. An example of this overview is used in the second paragraph of this article. Where I' ve told you what it will help you with, then I' ve listed the three points I wish to cover in this article.

The Body
Have all this information available then tailor your talks to the needs of the audiences.
In the body of the presentation you will want to expand on the 3 to 4 points you told them you were going to cover in your opening. For example, if speaking to a career day audience, a) cover the education involved in becoming a veterinary technician, b) where can they find work in the field of veterinary medicine and c) finally touch on the salary they can expect. You could exchange those three points with, where veterinary technology programs are located across the country and how the job market looks. When speaking to a younger group you could talk about the kind of practices available, or share a day in the life of the veterinary medical team. It is really up to you what you want to include in your presentation, but remember to keep it to 3 or 4 main points. If you have all of the information mention above available you can tailor your talks to whatever type of audience to which you are speaking. For example if your talk were to a humane society perhaps you would like to concentrate on the day in the life of the veterinary medical team. Using your morning duties, afternoon appointments and emergency hours as your 3 main points.

The Conclusion
To conclude your talk briefly revisit the 3-4 points you covered in the body of your presentation. Give them a one or two sentence description of each point. Then open the floor to them by inviting questions. It is usually better to say, "do you have any questions about what we talked about today?" than asking for general questions. This will cut down on feeling obligated to advise people on their personal animal' s problems. However this tactic doesn' t often work well with smaller children! So be ready to answer anything that may come out of their mouths! After the question and answer period thank them for allowing you to talk with them and to invite them to your business for a tour or to answer other questions. This can encourage people to use your services and increase income for the practice. Be ready to hand out business cards and answer questions when the program is completely over. Most people are shy about asking questions in front of a crowd, and will descend upon you after the program.

Gestures and Vocal Variety
Gestures and vocal variety are two key ingredients to keeping your audience attentive. Gestures for the most part should be natural and relaxed. However if you are talking to a large group of people you need to make those natural gestures large enough to be seen from the back of the room. For example when using the gesture of holding your hands out in front of you like you are cradling a small puppy or kitty you usually have your hand close to your body and about waist high. For a large audience you need to bring that gesture up to your chest and away from your body so that everyone can see what you are doing.

Vocal variety is where we pitch our voice higher or lower, softer or louder, or vary the rate in which you speak. This lends drama to your talk and keeps the audience listening. You never want to speak in a monotone and drone on and on and on at the same rate. When that happens 5-minute talk seems like 30 and your audience will show you they are bored by they' re fidgeting and rustling around.

Graphics
A rule of thumb for designing powerpoint slides is to keep lines of text to no more than 4-5 lines per slide and to make the font large enough to be seen at the back of a room. If putting pictures on the powerpoint slide make sure that the picture is a large enough pixal size that can be "stretched" to fill the entire slide and remain clear. If the picture gets fuzzy then don't use it.

NAVTA has a great DVD that can be used for presentations. The DVD and "Careers Brochure" that can be purchased (click here to see order form) The brochure is entitled "Veterinary Technology, A Career Dedicated to Quality Animal Care." The brochure can be the outline for your talk giving your audience something to refer to during your presentation, and something to take home for future reference.

Graphics also include props such as an instrument, an anatomical model or even a live animal. They are extremely effective with small groups and young children. If you plan on using a prop make sure it can withstand being passed around or handled and that it can' t inadvertently injure your audience. A note about using live animals as a prop, expect the unexpected. Have plenty of paper towels and disinfectant along to clean up messes and a carrier in which to place the animal in case it gets nervous.

Hopefully this has helped you feel better about making a public presentation. By constructing your presentation with a definite opening, body and conclusion you will better educate your audience and leave a lasting impression about you as a professional. Plus by having a set pattern to your core presentation you will be able to adjust your presentation to almost any situation in which you are asked to speak.

Good luck and if it all really boils down to dying vs. speaking in public. Wouldn' t you rather spend a few moments with knocking knees and extreme stress than not being able to feel any of those things for all eternity!