Conference presentations

John Storey

Image: Brian Corey, MIT

Keep the message simpleYour audience will remember at most three points from your talk.

A simple message might be:• Respect your audience• Respect your colleagues• Respect yourself

Image: Patrik Kaufmann

Respect your audience• Ask yourself: “Why have these people come to

listen to me?”

• Set the context

• Explain what is new

• Explain why it is interesting

• Learn from your mistakes (and those of others)

Image: Guillaume Dargaud

Respect your audience

• Talk to them, not the screen

• Make eye contact with the full room

• Aim to inform, not to impress

• Don’t patronise or “talk down” to them

• Don’t keep saying “I don’t have enough time to cover this...”

Image: Guillaume Dargaud

Death by Powerpoint

• Colours• Fonts• Sizes

• Transitions• Entrances• Gimmicks• Backgrounds

Be economical with the number of different

PowerpointPowerpoint

• Colours• Fonts• Sizes

• Transitions• Entrances• Gimmicks• Backgrounds

Be economical with the

number of different

Readability

• Use very high contrast (but not too high!)

• Remember that some folk are colour blind• Use a large font size (>24 pt) This is 24 pt

• Use “clean” fonts, eg Arial or Optima– This is Arial. This is Helvetica. This is unreadable.

• If overlaying an image, use “transparency” to improve contrast

• Leave a margin for projector misalignment

Images

• Keep the original aspect ratio, but don’t be afraid to crop ruthlessly

• Make sure the image adds to, rather than detracting from, the message

• Images can be absorbed fast – watch the TV news and you will find that each image appears for an average of 5 seconds

• Compress the file when finished

Jokes

• Can help connect with the audience, but

• Can also dilute your message

• Can easily cause unintentional offence– Steer clear of sex, religion, politics and most

other things that are funny

• Very few physicists make good stand-up comics, but you never know...

NO SIGNAL

Searching for input on RGB1...

Keep the message simple

Your audience will remember at most three points from your talk. A simple message might be:

• Respect your audience• Respect your colleagues• Respect yourself

NO SIGNAL

Searching for input on RGB1...

NO CREDIBILITY

Searching for speaker who knows what they’re doing...

Technicalities I

• Check setup beforehand– Talk to auditorium staff about lighting and sound– Check the projector focus– Stand at the podium to see how it feels

• Find (and test!) the laser pointer• Keep a backup on USB memory• If you plan to use a different computer:

– Fonts, movies etc may not work on different computer

Technicalities II

• If you plan to use your own laptop:– Ensure “Sleep mode”/screensaver is off (ie, switch to

“Always on” or “Presentation”)– Switch off WiFi searching, Skype, reminders and virus

updates– Run off mains power

• No risk of batteries going flat• Computer will run faster

– Take a careful look at your desktop…

Respect your colleagues

• Properly acknowledge all images

• Properly acknowledge your collaborators and co-workers

• Give credit to prior work

• Clearly distinguish your contribution from that of others

• Thank your sponsors

Atmospheric transmission, summer time, Dome CWalden et al, PASP, 2005

Milky way

Raw image of March 29th 200640sec exposure

Satellite trail

SMC

LMC

Image: A. Moore & Gattini Team

Just because you found something on the web, that doesn’t mean you can use it without acknowledgement (or indeed permission).

Image: www.dandennis.com

In other words: “Do unto others...”

Image: Colin Bonner

Respect yourself

• Dress appropriately

• Be confident– Or at least pretend to be confident

• Avoid:– picking your nose– sniffling or scratching– fondling yourself

Image: John Storey

Credit your own slides

The voice-over

• Talk slowly and clearly– Not everyone in the audience is necessarily

fluent in English

• Explain technical terms, but avoid being patronising

• Avoid jargon and TLAs (Three-Letter Acronyms)

• Modulate the pace and the intensity– particularly with long presentations

• No reading! Learn the first few sentences and closing remarks

The audience from hell will be…

• Talking (maybe in other languages),• Texting their mates,• Allowing their mobile phones to ring,• Listening to MP3 players,• Emailing and web-surfing,• Typing noisily on their laptops,• Allowing their computers to make noises,• Snoring…

Smile – and try harder to engage them!

The auditorium from hell…

• Is noisy, hot and stuffy

• Has the sun shining on the screen

• Has an out-of-focus, misaligned projector with bad ghosting and keystone

• Has a miserable sound system that constantly breaks into feedback...

• ...and prevents you from relating to the audience

Timing

• Never go over time...

...Ever

• Talk to session chair beforehand about timing cues

• Use a crib sheet or “hidden” symbols on your slides

• Practice; then expect real talk to take 20% longer

Nerves

• Everybody is nervous before a talk– If you are not nervous, it is time to retire...

• Remember to breathe

• Find a friendly face in the audience

• Make fear your friend

• Don’t forget to visit the “little astronomer’s room” before your talk...

...and before you put on the cordless mike!

Conclusion

Image: John Storey

You may wish to summarise the main points:• Respect your audience• Respect your colleagues• Respect yourself