Valuable ideas - I walked away with insights I can use
“I had the pleasure of attending Gilda's presentation, “Bold Presentation Skills for Project Managers.” She was very engaging and shared valuable ideas on business communication. I walked away with insights that I can use at my professional presentations. I really liked her examples and the fact that she didn’t use slides. She was very precise in sharing her ideas and I am sure the other attendees felt the same. I have a presentation coming up and plan to take her advice about not having verbose slides and instead use more images and graphs/charts that speak to the audience. I would love to have the opportunity to hear her speak again.”
Mafruha Haque, District Manager, Kelly IT Resources at Kelly Services
Gilda did a fantastic job
"Gilda spoke at our annual SNEC-PMI Conference this past April. She did a fantastic job at making the audience think about what is important to them, and how life is too short (~28,000 days) to delay goals. I highly recommend that you hire Gilda as a speaker, and/or for your organization’s training needs. She’s a very effective speaker."
Fred Johnson, Southern New England Chapter of PMI, Board of Directors
With Gilda, you will see results
"Gilda was a great resource in developing my presentation skills. She simplifies things so that they can easily be remembered and implemented. Not only that, she is an absolute pleasure to work with. If you are looking for an organized, honest coach, look no further. You will see results!"
Joe Ort, Account Executive, SiriusDecisions
Educational and entertaining
"Congratulations on the excellent presentation given at the SNEC conference. Presentation skills are so basic to what a project manager does it continues to amaze me that there is so little emphasis on such a critical PM tool. Your presentation was very entertaining as well as educational - the best kind! Thank you for your excellent contribution to the conference attendees."
Dick Kennedy, Director of Corporate Sponsorship, PMI Central Mass
Gilda was great and very effective
"As much as I was terrified to stand up and present, I actually really enjoyed the process and the feedback. I thought Gilda was great and very effective. We accomplished a lot in a short amount of time."
Laura Houser, Assistant Controller, Heidmar Inc.
Provided actions the attendees could use - inventive and engrossing presentation
“I have heard Gilda speak several times and she is an extremely engaging and well prepared presenter. She winningly applies the guidelines that she recommends in her newsletters, blogs and coaching sessions. As the closing keynote speaker for the 2011 Conference of the Southern New England Chapter of PMI, Gilda demonstrated her best practices by showing her confidence, influence and successful methodology for her session on “How will you spend your 28,000 Days?” She provided real life experiences of techniques she has used and provided actions that the attendees could use. It was a very inventive and engrossing presentation.”
Laura Frank, Project Manager, Synapse Group
Dynamic and very knowledgeable
"I have had the pleasure of working with Gilda on the 6th Annual Women in Business Summit and by all reports she was outstanding! Comments received from workshop attendees included "excellent facilitator"; "dynamic and very knowledgeable"; "would attend another workshop from her". Gilda made my job easy; she was professional and made great recommendations to improve the effectiveness of her workshop. I am looking forward to the opportunity to work with her again."
Kisha Samuels, President, Events of Joy
Smooth, professional, enlightening and entertaining
"I have attended Gilda's presentations for the past three years at the annual Southern New England Chapter of the Project Management Institute's conference. She is a polished speaker who always has an upbeat professional message to deliver.
This year's presentation, "Presenting with Power and Passion," was of particular importance and timing for me. We are currently training our newer Project Managers and technical staff to prepare and deliver presentations to Senior Management. I picked up some new tips from her presentation and also confirmed some of the things that I had been doing correctly. I was so impressed by her presentation that we invited her to speak at our company's next Project Manager's Forum. I highly recommend Gilda's presentations."
Eugene Kallaur, PE, PMP, Project Director, Transmission and Substation Projects, The United Illuminating Company
Professional manner, calm presence and sense of humor "Gilda Bonanno took me from A to Z in the process of preparing and delivering presentations. Her professional manner, calm presence, sense of humor and encouragement helped me to overcome my fear of the public speaking experience. Gilda supported me through the planning, writing, visual, presenting and follow up segments. She provided a wealth of information and ideas - always keeping in mind not only my needs, but also those of my audience. It has been my pleasure to recommend Gilda to my peers because of the high quality of her service." Ruth Ann DeSantis, Certified Life Coach, www.radesantis.com
Effective and engaging, makes a real connection to the audience "Gilda is an effective and engaging speaker and trainer. She has presented several workshops for the Women's Business Development Center over the past three years, including Public Speaking: How to Talk to Strangers, Presenting Your Best Self: Communicating & Advocating for Success, and Grow Your Career With Networking Savvy. Gilda is well organized and prepared for every workshop. She does her homework on fine tuning her presentation for her audience. She is easy to work with and very supportive to participants.
Whether she is helping aspiring women entrepreneurs learn how to speak effectively about their businesses or teaching Hispanic business owners how to network with their colleagues, Gilda provides practical exercises and techniques that empower people to build self-confidence and develop bold communication skills. Gilda cares about her audiences and is able to make a real connection with them. I highly recommend her.
Marian Cicolello, State Director, Connecticut Women's Business Development Center (WBDC)
Easy-to-implement insights that I will put into use immediately
"I recently attended Gilda's Bold Presentation Skills and I'm so happy I did! Gilda provided some really great tips on how to utilize story telling within a presentation that I will put into use immediately. I'm looking forward to practicing her "easy-to-implement" insights and guidelines with my next presentation. Thanks Gilda!”
Jennifer Covello, Owner & Founder Frittabello LLC www.frittabello.com
Gilda gave me confidence
“I just want to tell you that my speech last night went well. I felt more confident this year than last year. Last year this event took over my life for two weeks; I couldn't sleep at night because I was so worried. This year, I was worried, but not out of control. Everybody liked my speech! Your private lesson helped me a lot and gave me confidence. I never thought that I would get better at speaking in
public, but as you said - it doesn't have to be
a nightmare, and it really doesn't. Thank you.”
Kristina Lewis, YMCA
Gilda showed me how to engage the audience
"Your class, Public Speaking: How to Talk to Strangers, has helped me tremendously. I had a 10 minute presentation to my networking group recently and in advance, practiced the skills and advice you suggested. Keeping my discussion to 10 minutes, I engaged the audience, we had a few laughs and the end result was good. I'm definitely improving my skills. Thanks so much!"
Kallie Gordon, Owner, Curtain Call, thecurtaincall@att.net
Gilda modeled what she was talking about
"Gilda’s workshop was effective primarily because Gilda modeled what she was talking about. She had great stories. She paced the presentation really well. She modulated the volume, tone, timing of her speech, use of humor, etc. Among the valuable things I learned, I will definitely work on having stories well thought out before I speak."
Anne M. Wilkins, CFP, Investment Adviser Representative, Anderson Wealth Management
Very good instructor, very worthwhile class
"Very good instructor! Small class, very relevant, great tools! The perfect amount of subject matter for the class time. Overall a very worthwhile class."
KC Caldwell, Heidmar Inc.
Clear, funny and a great listener
“Thank you for being so clear, open, funny and a wonderful listener. When you made your points on improvement, they were very thought-out and easy to receive.”
Sandy Progano, MediaCom, Inc
Universal message needed by senior corporate audiences
"Gilda did an oustanding job in presenting to our administrative assistant staff. She took on a potentially touchy subject, fear and empowerment in the workplace, with humor, energy and tact. She leveraged her experience as an administrative assistant optimally. I believe her messages are universal and would be welcome, and much needed, by other, more senior, audiences. Gilda is very entertaining and thought provoking."
Doug J. Manion, M.D., Vice President, Viral Diseases Global Clinical Research Bristol-Myers Squibb Research & Development
Engaging, entertaining and enlightening stories and exercises
"We had asked Gilda to provide an inspirational and motivational talk for our group of over 50 administrative associates on Administrative Associates Appreciation Day. Gilda did an outstanding job of engaging, entertaining, and enlightening the audience with stories and exercises regarding trust, fear, aspirations, and success stories. The audience was very appreciative of her talk and left feeling invigorated and motivated."
Jack A. Grebb, M.D., Vice President, Neuroscience Global Clinical Research Bristol-Myers Squibb Research & Development
Gilda is an outstanding speaking coach!
“The instructor was able to effectively connect individual perspectives for group feedback. Gilda is a great instructor! She has excellent feedback for all of the students and is extremely insightful and entertaining. An outstanding speaking coach!”
Katie Murphy, Continuing Education class participant
Gilda was engaging, effective and enjoyable
"Gilda, A most sincere thanks for presenting to our MCAICT group on March 26th. I thought you did a great job engaging the audience. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and get something out of it! I borrowed your half-life idea and presented it with credit to you at our Toastmaster meeting that Friday. They enjoyed it, too. You have a nice easy style of presenting that is effective, yet friendly. I'll certainly keep you in mind to refer to others."
Diane Ploch, Media Communications Association of CT
Fun and easy to follow
"I loved Gilda’s presentation. I thought she had great ideas and kept it fun. I especially liked how she kept it simple. The handout was great and to the point.”
Melissa Mednick, Vice-President, The Wilton Bank
I could use her suggestions right away
"Gilda, It was a pure pleasure meeting you and working out with the members of our group last night. And I actually learned something that I could use right away. I was really impressed with the way you took your own advice and left us with something quite valuable. Plus, the format made for an intimate evening, yet one in which no one felt uncomfortable regardless of their past performances. I look forward to having you speak again at a meeting next season."
Steve Washer, President-elect, Media Communications Association of CT; Executive Producer, MedView Media
I would be a “repeat customer"
“The instructor was really fabulous – interesting, sincere, tactful and thoughtful. I would be a “repeat customer” -- in my field that means the product I tried was good and will keep me buying it!” Debbie Anilionis, Continuing Education class participant
Gilda gave very specific feedback
“Instructor was excellent, gave very specific feedback based on each student’s areas of improvement, and also gave great general skills that applied to everybody. The material was presented very clearly.”
Doug Yuan, A&E Television Networks