Presenting Research at a Conference

Valmont

Does anyone have any tips for presenting research at a conference? I'm only presenting at an undergrad conference but I'm a bit confused as to what information should and should not be included in a 12 minute presentation. Specifically, references (e.g should I say the entire names of studies I'm referring to or place them in my slides), what aspects of my inferential stats should I leave out (homogeniety and normality tests for example), and should my slides have the absolute bare necessities so that my audience (prob 10 or less people:eek:) will focus more on me? Finally, where do I get those clicky things to change my slides so I don't have to keep pressing space bar.

Thanks in advance.

2Scoops

Valmont wrote: »

Does anyone have any tips for presenting research at a conference? I'm only presenting at an undergrad conference but I'm a bit confused as to what information should and should not be included in a 12 minute presentation.

A slide show? That's cool. It's also a little different than a poster; easier in many ways, depending on your public speaking.

Valmont wrote: »

Specifically, references (e.g should I say the entire names of studies I'm referring to or place them in my slides),

No way - too boring. Talk only about the research and main points you want to convey from it. Put in a small citation or something into the slide [like Valmont et al. 2009, or just a number], then leave a complete list of references on a slide at the end, but don't read them. Just end your presentation, thank the audience and say you're happy to answer any questions. Leave the citations slide behind you. If anyone's that interested, they can ask you afterward.

Valmont wrote: »

what aspects of my inferential stats should I leave out (homogeniety and normality tests for example), and should my slides have the absolute bare necessities so that my audience (prob 10 or less people:eek:) will focus more on me?

Leave out all that non-essential stats information. Again, it's boring and if anyone really cares, then can ask you afterward (they won't!). Your research story is main thing. Explain what you found and why it's cool, not some boring mathematical formalities you had to go through to figure it out.

IMHO, the correct approach is to tell the story that you want to tell. You don't have to be fair or give equal time to all the alternatives and specific limitations. Just say what you want to say about your data. It's your presentation. After the talk, they can ask all the questions they want, and you can answer them all to the best of your ability. Before that, the stage is yours - make it interesting. :pac:

Valmont wrote: »

Finally, where do I get those clicky things to change my slides so I don't have to keep pressing space bar.

A wireless mouse will do the job. You may even be able to use your mobile phone if it has bluetooth. Or you can buy the special ones with laser pointers and what not on the internet.

Black Swan

Valmont wrote: »

Does anyone have any tips for presenting research at a conference? I'm only presenting at an undergrad conference but I'm a bit confused as to what information should and should not be included in a 12 minute presentation.

1. Briefly state your research problem (1-slide)
2. Why important? (1-slide)
3. Methodology (design, data collection, analysis)(1 slide each)
4. Results (most important, not all results) (1-2 slides)
5. Conclusions (1-slide)
6. Limitations (1-slide)
7. Q&A (questions and answers for audience)

Gaspode

Try to remember any presentations you've been at - what was good what was bad, and try to keep away from the bad stuff!!

Remember you are there to 'talk' or 'present' not to give a masterclass in powerpoint (or similar) software.
Death by powerpoint wont be fun for the audience so remember these points:
- Keep it simple
- Try to keep it to 1 slide every 30 seconds or less - more talk less hitting the space bar.
- Try to have no more than 2 or 3 slides per section of your presentation.
- Remember slides are there as an aide memoire for YOU, so use them that way
- therefore they should only have brief 4-5 word sentences to prompt you on what to talk about. Dont just read them out verbatim - lets assume your audience can read for themselves!
- No more than 5-6 bullet points per slide, in big font.
- No fancy transitioins, sounds or unnecessary animations in your slides
- Dont write in capitals, dont use really fancy fonts, or use mixed colours all over the place.
- Diagrams should be as simple as possible - complicated ones are really hard for the audience to see.
- Put your detailed stuff into a handout to accompany the presentation
- Relax and enjoy it, this is your work and you know it inside out, so time to show it off to an appreciative audience.

You can get a remote to work the laptop/pc so you dont have to walk over and press the space bar/arrow buttons, but really I wouldnt worry too much about that. If its not your laptop/pc you're using you'd have to install software etc before you start, and it may not even work.
If it's somewhere else, check whether they already have something in place.
Personally I prefer to go back to the laptop as it give me a second to gather my thoughts for the next section. you can keep talking anyway as you move over to it.

nesf

• Know your audience. A talk given to a specialist audience should be different to one given to a general audience of people in your discipline and completely different to the one you'd give at a multi-disciplinary conference
• Your slides shouldn't contain every word you're going to speak. They're bullet points for you to talk around.
• Refer to papers as "X, 199Y" rather than by the full names. I'm repeating 2Scoops point here but it's important.
• Don't overreach. Don't overstate the significance of your results or exaggerate the statistical significance of your findings. It's just inviting attacks in the Q&A to do so.
• Don't spend all your time looking at your slides or the notes in your hands. Don't speak in a monotone. Look up at your audience and talk to them not at them.

Valmont

Thanks for the help everyone. My presentation went quite well and while I didn't win any prizes, I felt I was able to communicate the entire work effectively in the 10 minute slot. I'm convinced one of the judges wasn't even listening to be honest but what can you do?

I was thinking that presenting research is probably something that all researchers have to do sooner or later so maybe making a sticky out of this thread would be a good idea? There are some great tips and advice etc. that I'm sure other posters in the future could benefit from.