A Nexus graduate trainee has wowed a panel of judges with her presentation skills to scoop a top national award.
Carly Foster, 23, of Gateshead, beat off strong competition from other young professionals to win the Presentation Award from the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation (CIHT).
The competition, which was held at the Royal Station Hotel, Newcastle, was promoted by the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation and sponsored by the highway maintenance contractor Colas UK.
Entrants were drawn from the winners of regional competitions held over the whole of the country. The seven finalists were each allotted ten minutes to give their presentation, which was then followed by a short question and answer session from an audience of over eighty people.
The judging panel, which was made up of senior members of the CIHT and of Colas UK, were particularly impressed by Carly’s enthusiasm and breadth of knowledge of her chosen topic
Carly’s award-winning presentation was looked at the pricing and social benefits of public transport ticketing policy. Smartcard ticket on the Metro system is something Nexus is going to introduce and it is project she has worked on.
Speaking without using any notes Carly delivered a seamless presentation and coped well under pressure when the audience were invited to ask questions. For coming first she won a trip Paris courtesy of Colas UK.
Carly, who joined Nexus last year as part of its graduate training programme, said: “I wasn’t expecting to win so I’m really pleased.
“The feedback was that I had engaged the audience well and I managed to answer all the questions that I came my way at the end of the presentation. They said it was the style of the presentation that really helped me win through.”
Carly, who is studying for an MSc in transport and business management at Newcastle University, put hours of practice into perfecting her presentation.
She added: “The key to a good presentation is to be enthusiastic and to really know your stuff. Some people prefer to use notes but don’t. I just know what I want to say and practice it. I practiced it about 20 different times but it was a bit different to the one I did so well on the night.”
Head of Service Delivery for Nexus, Andy Bairstow, said: “Carly full deserves this national recognition. It is just reward for her hard work and dedication to our smart-ticketing project since oining us last year.
“Carly’s talent has been rightly recognised by the CIHT and everyone at Nexus is delighted for her. Carly has excellent presentation skills and she has shown that to the competition judges.”
Sue Percy, Chief Executive of CIHT, said: “This year’s Colas Award received a wide variety of entrants from across the highways and transportation sector. CIHT was extremely impressed with both the quality and scope of the presentations that made it through to this year’s final. All of the finalists managed to present their papers to an exceptionally high standard. The Institution would like to record its thanks to both the sponsor and the entrants for the hard work and effort that they put in.
“It was an extremely difficult decision to pick from those who had made it to this stage of the competition but we were pleased to be able to award Carly Foster from our North Eastern Branch the overall prize.”