Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

The Sharjah Women’s Sports Foundation hosted a three-day ‘Professional Media’ workshop at its headquarters aimed at enhancing the media presence of female players and coaches.

It was also aimed at honing their skills and refining their capabilities in terms of press interviews and appearances on the different media platforms.

Covering four different aspects, the workshop was divided into two parts during which the players and coaches were given vital tips, including the art of speaking in front of the camera, speaking in front of people without fear, speaking with confidence while leaving a credible and impactful impression, effective communication skills, training in speaking smoothly and selecting proper vocabulary.

The workshop was presented by Fagr Kassim, Director of the Media Sector Development Department at Sharjah Media City (Shams).

Fagr Kassim shed light on a variety of topics, including developing a strong, confident, and conscious personality through sharpening public speaking skills.

He also discussed training in dealing with situations requiring intuition and speed of thought, overcoming fears of speaking in front of an audience, and practical and effective ways to overcome fears of being thrown in front of the camera.

Fatima Ahmed Saleh, Head of Media and Public Relations at Sharjah Women’s Sports Foundation, praised the participation of many players, technical and administrative staff at the Professional Media Workshop, which reflected their keenness to learn and benefit from experienced people and specialists to develop their personal communication skills, in addition to creating the desired image for them to learn how to deal in different situations during media and radio meetings as well as press interviews.

Fatima Ahmed Saleh stressed that the workshop is one of the foundation’s steps to prepare the players and employees of the club to deal with the media in light of the recommendations for creating appropriate training programmes.  

At the conclusion of the workshop’s training programme, Fagr Kassim praised the distinguished attendance of the participants and their focus on all theoretical and practical aspects.

He noted that some attendees were apprehensive about appearing in front of the media and confronting the camera, but that this eventually changed as a result of the participants’ commitment to self-improvement and better media relations.

“By focusing on how to control body language and speaking in situations of winning and losing through easy and realistic responses to media queries,” he added.

Sarah Muhammad, a volleyball player for Sharjah Women’s Sports Club, confirmed that she benefited from the ‘Professional Media’ workshop, which included preparing for media interviews, reviewing how to make statements in Standard Arabic, ensuring that the letters are pronounced correctly, and conducting practical interviews, then reviewing and identifying the positives.