The Art and Science of Communication – Devon Ash November 10, 2012

Devon Ash, the brains behind the Social Fluency concept held a workshop in NYIT Vancouver Campus on the 18^th of October. With a turn up of about 30 students, it was one of the most successful events; the workshop focused on the art and science of communication and professional relationship building.

The agenda included some basic introduction by Devon with regard to the concept and two important exercises that focused on bringing the person outside their comfort zone in order to maintain eye contact and to have a conversation while avoiding topics that could cause conflicts.

With the first exercise, the students were paired up and were asked to maintain eye contact with their partner for about five minutes – this was focused on reducing social tension by building it up rapidly and eventually bringing it down as time passed. About 90% of the students felt that they would be able to maintain eye contact for a longer period of time in public. The next exercise revolved around driving the conversation towards a particular topic while avoiding topics that could be troublesome or cause conflict – the idea was to change the topic if it is heading down a path that one wishes to avoid. Students were asked to pair up again and have a conversation with their partner and use words like “speaking of”, “talking about..” to pick up words from the said statement to change the conversation and take it down other part. Almost all of the students felt that the exercise gave them exposure to an important skill that would help build relationships at networking events.

Overall, the event was a huge success with meaningful workshops that students felt were vital for career building and networking. We at NYIT would like to thank Devon Ash for taking time out to help support the career building program at our school.