Action-oriented, Experiential, and Practical:
We offer a hands-on seminar tailored to each individual's specific issues, not generic case studies. We put participants to work immediately. For example, in our media course participants answer realistic, tough questions they could face in the press the next day.

Thorough Background Research:
Graduates say our intense background research into the issues and the client organization makes our course just like real-life encounters.

Global Perspective:
Our consultants have worked as journalists in international as well as regional media around the world. Our extensive overseas experience and our work with international organizations give us a unique global perspective.

Learning by Exploration:
Participants are presented with new materials in a learn-by-discovery session with a consultant, and then invited to try on the new skills, exploring their effectiveness by trying them out in on-camera practice sessions. Participants see for themselves the effectiveness of the techniques as they watch themselves and their peers on camera.

Use Simple, Flexible Models:
Intermedia's seminars focus on mastering key techniques expressed in simple, flexible models which can be applied to a wide range of communications challenges. For example, techniques in the media course enable graduates to think on their feet and quickly learn how to react with confidence and clarity to the most potentially damaging questions.

Practice on-Camera for Immediate Feedback:
Participants practice new skills while being taped on video camera. Viewing their tape shortly afterwards provides immediate feedback. This helps them learn from their mistakes and allows them to observe their own improvement as the course progresses.

Individual Attention Coupled with Group Feedback:
In break-out sessions, individuals work one at a time, receiving the full individual attention of the consultant and feedback from the entire breakout group. Everyone participates at all times.

Incremental Behavior Change:
Stage by stage, participants progress from basic to more challenging material. Each stage is immediately reinforced by practice on camera, followed by increasingly more demanding on-camera assignments. Techniques are practiced repeatedly until they become second nature, and behavior change becomes ingrained. Participants improve gradually. By the end they have progressed a long way from where they started.

Put Participants First and Don't Waste Their Time:
Nothing erodes learning like the thought "I'm wasting my time." Intermedia course designers constantly put themselves in the participants’ seats, understanding their priorities, learning modalities, and what keeps their interest. Everyone remains active and engaged throughout the course. Courses start on time and finish on time.

Create a Supportive Learning Environment:
Consultants are consistently rated excellent in their ability to encourage the best out of participants, particularly in the sometimes threatening area of speaking before the press and public. They strive to be respectful of individuals' unique learning processes, use positive reinforcement, and help them overcome the "inner critic." At the same time, consultants push high-achievers to accept greater challenges in the practice interviews, so they can get the maximum benefit from the course. Sensitivity to individual needs is key.

Know the Dynamics of Multi-cultural Diversity:
Consultants strive to stay aware of cultural differences in a diversified group. All consultants have lived and worked extensively in multi-cultural environments (often where they were in the minority), and make sure everyone in the room feels at ease while participating throughout the workshop.

Multi-modality Learning:
People learn in different ways: some by seeing, some by doing; some by reading, some by listening; some by watching themselves on tape, some by watching others; some by giving feedback, some by receiving it from peers. Some participants need to be told the expected steps clearly in advance, others get impatient and want to jump right in to practice something new. Intermedia's courses give each participant exposure to many learning modalities, and the combinations then reinforce each other. Consultants are trained to recognize the different learning modalities of individual participants, and give them the opportunity to learn in their dominant modalities.