Tea Talks with Expat CEOs, February 18, 2019
by Itır Beğen Yılmaz
On February the 18th 2019 “FDY English Public Speaking Club” collaborated with “SU Tea Talks with CEOs Club” to hold an English public speaking event. We were so honored and thrilled to host two esteemed expat CEOs of N11.com, Mr. Won Yong Jo, and BAYER, Mr. Huber Braun.
FDY English Public Speaking Club is committed to sharing ideas worth spreading in a unique style that demonstrates in topic choices and presentation skills. The goal of this club is to promote and encourage an understanding of communication, presentation skills, critical thinking and to raise awareness of leadership skills. Students participate actively in the club activities and develop skills such as research, reasoning and problem-solving. FDY English Public Speaking Club is devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of powerful talks. Moreover, students expand their experience-based learning and advance their socialization skills with the help of group work activities. Thus, when our director, Jacqueline Einer, suggested a shared event on Sabanci University campus, I was intrigued with the idea of collaborating “FDY English Public Speaking Club” with “Tea Talks with CEOs” club.
200 students were all eager to participate in an international seminar with professional expats all in English. As the Public Speaking Club, we were proud to inspire our students regarding their communication skills in the global world. While organizing the event, I focused mainly on our utmost goal of enhancing learner awareness and learner autonomy. Students are sometimes shy to articulate their minds and that’s our core starting point in Public Speaking Club. Once we harness their individual potential for social emancipations in Week 1, they become aware of their mindset. Therefore, this was a unique opportunity to give them an insight into public speakers who are a part of the executive world.
After a detailed company and leader introduction, a question-answer session was held as a follow-up. During this session, real-life examples, personal and professional experiences were discussed by the CEOs. This was a step towards having a perspective on how to voice one’s ideas, elaborate on topics, have a positive body-language and fulfill the needs of the audience.
This event served as a reminder of how important our work is and as FDY English Public Speaking Club we aim to organize more international events, train students, and provide opportunities to work on different style of speeches.
