Public Speaking Bootcamp

I can't tell you what I thought of the class because the class was canceled day of and I was never notified. So after spending an hour and a half traveling up to Los Angeles and finding the building location, I then had to wait an additional 10 minutes only to be told that the class had been canceled and rescheduled for the following week. We were offered a chance at a refund as well but that would be something that could not be processed there and would instead need to be taken up with the CourseHorse website. The lack of communication on both CourseHorse and GA was unprofessional. The assumption of an immediate reschedule only reaffirms that they believe my time is easily flexible and can revolve around their mistakes. What's more is that GA informed us that we should not apply for classes through CourseHorse because then they are not responsible for informing us of last minute cancellations. No one wants to take responsibility for the oversight and as a result, both agencies look as if customer service is not a priority.

The class was cancelled on the morning-of, no concrete explanation given. General Assembly sent one email to myself notifying us that the class had been cancelled... a mere 2 hours before the scheduled start time (no email was sent to my 2 colleagues who were also registered for the same class). We'd received a confirmation email from Coursehorse only a couple days prior, reminding us of the class time/location. This class was scheduled on a Saturday afternoon, already outside of normal work hours, so the fact that they waited until the very last moment to officially cancel the class is completely unacceptable. All three of us were already on the way to the class location since we are based in a different county, and because I don't have work email on my personal cell phone, I didn't even realize the class had been cancelled at all until we arrived at the empty front desk. We waited 10 minutes until a receptionist arrived to inform us that the class was no longer taking place that day. They said something vague about a change in management, and even hinted that the lack of communication wasn't General Assembly's responsibility since we booked through Coursehorse and not directly with them. The email itself neglected to take full responsibility for the inconvenience this caused to all the registered students. It simply said that General Assembly would automatically reschedule us for the following Saturday, or issue a refund at our request. This is not nearly doing enough. Our nonprofit company had to not only pay for the class fees, but also the cost of transportation to/from downtown Los Angeles and pay for a full workday of our time. We ourselves had to block out an entire Saturday months ahead to be able to attend the class, and reschedule our whole work week around the odd hours. We cannot accept a refund because of the accounting nightmare this will cause our company; yet crediting us for a future class only makes us wary of even greater inconvenience in the future. Not to mention, General Assembly raised the price of the class WEEKS AFTER we had registered and paid. Then Coursehorse attempted to charge us the difference in cost. This was resolved only after I said that they did NOT have my permission to charge our company credit card for the difference since we already paid what was posted at the time of registration. Our entire experience with the General Assembly/Coursehorse setup was disappointing to say the least. Thoroughly unprofessional.

Unfortunately, this class wasn't what I was expecting. The instructor, Lizzy, was great and very knowledgeable in the field of public speaking. However, the structure of the class was horrible. You can't learn public speaking without practicing it, and being lectured at for 4+ hours doesn't align with adult learning principles. Major revisions required.

The instructor Lizzy was awesome. Very energized and she kept it fun. A lot of good information. Can't wait to practice what she taught.

Loved the class! Great tips for public speaking!