The Best Public Speaking Courses in London (And How to Choose the Right One)
A comprehensive guide to choosing a public speaking course in London that works for you.
People seek out public speaking courses for one (or more) of three reasons: they want to feel more confident speaking in public, they want to have more impact when they speak, or they want to have a better quality of impact when they communicate with an audience.
Ultimately, public speaking is about getting your message across in a way that genuinely lands with your audience.
We believe that the best public speaking courses are ones that allow you to be yourself in front of an audience, rather than putting on an act. Audiences today crave authenticity as well as confidence. Public speaking shouldn’t be about “performance”, but about meeting people as you really are and being of service to them.
At Presence Training, this approach is formalised in The Presence Method™. But the principles below apply whichever course you choose.
In short, the kind of training we value most develops confidence by working with attention, nervous system regulation and real connection — rather than teaching people to “perform”.
Based on these criteria – confidence, authenticity and genuine audience connection – we’ve selected what we believe to be the best public speaking courses in London right now.
And yes, we’ve included our own course on the list, because we sincerely believe — based on the evidence — that it deserves to be there.
Below the list, you’ll also find our guide to choosing a public speaking course — the things to consider, and the questions worth asking before you decide.
But first, here’s our list of some of the best public speaking courses in London. Take a look and see which one best fits your needs.
This page is reviewed and updated regularly to reflect the current public speaking training landscape in London.
Run by Daniel Kingsley, the Foundation Course starts from a base of authenticity, and genuine audience connection. It’s suitable for speakers from the most nervous to the most experienced, because of its unique training methodology.
Presence Training has more 5-star Google reviews than any other public speaking training provider in London, with an average rating of 5.0/5. They have over 350 Google reviews going back more than 10 years, giving them a consistently excellent track record. In a recent survey of 140 participants, participants reported an average increase of 94% in confidence after a two-day training.
Presence Training is also the only organisation in London (to our knowledge) that offers an ongoing public speaking club for course graduates — a monthly, supported practice environment designed to embed and deepen learning over time. The Club meets monthly in Central London and has a maximum total membership of 50 (with typically about 1/3 of the membership attending each meeting).
The Presence Foundation Course is built around The Presence Method™ — their structured approach to developing embodied confidence, steady attention and real connection under pressure.
The Presence Method™ draws on key influences including Relational Presence®, embodiment practice and meditation — and (where appropriate) is informed by insights from Internal Family Systems. Together, these create a training approach that helps confidence become stable, natural, and transferable into real work situations.
Daniel facilitates with kindness, empathy and a playful creativity, and seeks to create a safe space for people to learn and explore.
If you are looking for a course that works beneath technique — focusing on the psychological and embodied foundations of confident speaking rather than surface presentation tricks — this is likely to be one of the strongest options in London.
Participants on the Foundation Course have described the training as “life changing” , “mind blowing”, “completely transformative” and “probably the best training I’ve ever attended”.
Run by the incomparable Millie Baker, a master public speaking facilitator, these have to be some of the best courses in London.
Their Speaking with Confidence and Impact workshop works in small groups of 4 to 10 people. You’ll get a series of mini-adventures – chances to speak, explore, play and have a go at stuff. And you can go at your own pace.
She says on her website: “I’m…motivated in my work by a passion for authenticity in communication. The thing I most long for in relationships of all kinds is the space and ability to show up as I really am. And I love it when other people are real, when they show up with less pretence, when the truth of things is more apparent. I’m inspired by those who are able to say “Here I am – this is what I’ve got.”
Millie is a certified Speaking Circles and Relational Presence® Facilitator, and a certified practitioner of Hakomi and Focussing, which are body based therapies grounded in mindfulness.
We love Millie’s work! She doesn’t run courses often, but when she does we can wholeheartedly recommend them. She facilitates with freshness, fun and the skill of an expert.
- Speaking in Front with John Dawson
Taking your place in the world is a course offered by the marvellous John Dawson who has been teaching authentic public speaking for over 20 years and who has worked with thousands of participants in that time.
Although all of the courses we have mentioned so far are entirely suitable for those who are scared of public speaking John specialises in working with people who are absolutely terrified of speaking in front of an audience and he has amazing success in this regard.
He says “It’s not a standard presentation skills course, it’s about changing how you think about public speaking and managing thinking and emotions, whilst making real connections with an audience.”
John combines the Relational Presence® method with insights from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, to help people have compassionate understanding for their difficulties with public speaking and then to move beyond them to a place where fear is no longer holding them back.
John facilitates with humanity, kindness, warmth and a huge amount of skill and experience.
High Impact Presenting and Public Speaking is 1 day training course from Mindful Presenter, an organisation with a 5.0 average on Google albeit on a smaller number of reviews than the organisations listed above.
This is a course where we have no personal experience of the trainer or the organisation, but we like and respect many of the principles that underlie their course, and they appear solid to us.
These principles include: understanding how the brain works and reframing challenging beliefs, staying in the present, making a connection with your audience, being generous and putting yourself in your audience’s shoes.
If you were looking to learn at the weekend, or weekday evenings after work, this appears to be an excellent choice, with around 150 Google reviews at an average of 4.9 stars. They also offer an online training.
Their courses have a foundation in mental health and wellbeing, and their website speaks about embracing vulnerability and daring to be ourselves, which are sentiments that we would certainly endorse. They speak about connection – to your own individuality, to others and to audiences, which are again principles that we absolutely echo.
They mix acting training, presentation skills and improvisation techniques with mindfulness, breathing and meditation. All of which sound like a good starting point to us.
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All of these courses are well reviewed, with an average score on Google of 4.9 or better, so they are all decent choices. They all show a strong interest in mindfulness, self-awareness and authenticity. There are absolutely no “wrong” choices here. The only question that remains is which is the best fit for you.
These courses have a lot in common, but each of these courses has a different flavour. Have a look around the websites. Read the blog posts written by the people who teach there. Check out videos online if you can as well. Above all, trust your gut instinct as to which of these trainings will meet your needs the best. In my experience, the gut is a very trustworthy guide in these matters. If you’d like some more guidance about how to choose a public speaking course that works for you, read on…
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How to choose a public speaking course
Know what you want to achieve
Figure out which areas you are looking to improve in, and how much improvement you’re looking for. Are you simply seeking to increase your confidence, or are you looking to achieve more impact with your audience? Are you looking to get better at speaking without notes, dealing with questions and answers, using silence, managing difficult audiences, or designing presentations? Make sure that you know to what extent the training covers the issues that you want help with. Read reviews to discover what others got from the training to see how well it is likely to deliver on your key issues.
Decide how much time and money you wish to devote to training
Be realistic in your goals. The more you want to achieve, the longer it will take. The amount of progress that you can make in a 2 day training can be substantial, but will still be limited. If this is a longer journey, see if you can find a training that offers more than 2 days worth of training and at the very least offers some form of ongoing support.
What sort of group size would you like to train in?
We think the optimal group size for a public speaking training is between 6 and 10 people. It’s enough to feel like you’re speaking to an audience, but small enough that you’re going to get a good amount of individual attention. Larger groups may result in a more affordable training in some cases, but this may be a false economy in others.
Who will be delivering the training?
Do you know who will be delivering this particular training? What is the level of experience of the trainer? How long have they been training for? What are their qualifications?
What is the philosophy or approach of the training?
Take a look at the website of the organisation in question. If they have a blog section, even better as this will give you more of a flavour for their thinking and where they are coming from. How do you feel when you read what they have written? Do they have a YouTube channel? Can you watch some of their videos? Trust your gut instinct on this. We instinctively know when something “feels” right. Again reviews are a good guide here as they will give you more of a sense on all of this.
What level of experience does the training presume?
If you are a more nervous speaker, does the training cater for you? If you are a more experienced speaker, is this training at a suitable level for you? If it’s not obvious from the website, it’s certainly worth sending an email at the very least to ask these questions.
Does it work with your schedule?
Do you want a training that takes place during the working week, or at a weekend? Do you need a daytime training, or one in the evenings?
Don’t overcommit unless you feel sure
If a training is over a longer period of time, or consists of a number of modules, is there an option to book just the first part and see how you feel about it? In my experience I usually know after a day of training whether a particular approach is right for me. Other times, I instinctively know from the start that this is going to work for me and I’m happy to commit to a longer course of training from the outset.
Can you have a conversation with them?
If you’re left in any doubt, or there are a couple of courses you are choosing between, can you have a conversation with someone at the organisation about the course and its approach? Make sure you are speaking to someone who knows the course well and has sufficient experience to give you good answers to your questions. Again, your gut instinct will be invaluable in making your final choice.
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Over to you…
If you have experienced any of the trainings above, we’d love to know your experiences. Are there any amazing trainings that we’ve missed out? We intend to keep revisiting this list to offer an honest and balanced guide to some of the best choices out there in London for public speaking, so we’d love to know what you think.
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