Tips for Conference Presenting!

hey it's Lucy I've just returned from Houston in Texas where I finally got to attend a mere mythical conference that I've heard so much about and wanted to go to for ages and better still I actually got to present that my first talk at a major conference I've spoken to larger audiences I spoken where the stakes are higher say four marks or a job or a team but this was my debut as a researcher this was the first impression that me and my research were going to make on some of the most eminent scientists in my field so it had to be good I had a really great week the presentation went fine I got loads of helpful in lovely comments I met tons of fantastic people and now that I'm back I feel more motivated than ever to crack on with my PhD and so both for me to remember at future events but also to share now that I've been there this video is about tips I picked up on how to present well at a conference both from watching other people presenting and also from breaking down my own performance because that's all a presentation is it's just a performance you are not you up there your your research your a voice for your own research and so you've got to make it good first making your slides before you even start making your slides you should check what dimensions they're after so you can best make use of the space and these are either going to be for buy free or sixteen by nine when starting the slides make a theme and stick to it same fonts same header size same custom animation style it makes things look smarter and just a lot more fought through keep things as simple as possible only one point per slide and custom animation is your friend here use it to draw people's eye into the most important part that you're talking about so say for example if you've got a graph with multiple lines on it that you want to discuss half custom animation bring each line in as you're talking about it use minimal text the hardest slides for me to come around were the ones where there was so much text that I didn't know where I was supposed to be looking and so I spent my time reading through them instead of listening to what the presenter was actually saying other than key points or stats you want to hammer home think of a presentation as a speech you could give standing up on its own but you get the luxury of visuals to illustrate your points know what colors will work projectors at conferences tend to be high quality but it's not worth the risk so make sure that your colors will work in low contrast also be consistent between slides and for things like graphs make sure that the colors are distinctly different people will thank you for good quality graphs and diagrams I think I got more comments about my slides than my actual research these conference talks they can be longer they can dull so give people a reason to sit up straight and pay attention and always be asking yourself is this the clearest way I can convey this message next the talking bit now a lot of these will be things you've heard before but you'll be surprised by the amount of people who don't do them so listen look at the audience it sounds simple but people don't turn to the board only to do something with the pointer or to check that your clicker is working which is worth doing every so often which reminds me don't overuse the laser pointer it's the equivalent of highlighting all of your ozone oh you're just whizzing it back and forward over every single point also you're nervous and it belies those nerves because the point is shaking everywhere and also your slides really should speak for themselves and you shouldn't need to be training the viewers eye around the selected use can be really effective another point and this is just a good general life skill is don't feel the temptation to fill any pauses with unnecessary sounds or words um so uh kind of sort of it's okay to just pause make sure you talk loudly and into the microphone it sounds obvious but you would be surprised how many people don't think what is the most important part of your work and then focus your time on that you're not gonna have much time so you've got to focus only on what is essential to your story for introductions keep in mind how specialized your audience will be so know which basics you can skip past and not waste time covering make sure that they know exactly where you come into the story and why your work is new or relevant or important and too close don't end on a thank you any questions slide leave your conclusions up while the questions are being asked so people can note them down or think of questions of their own to ask if you have acknowledgments to say either say them or have them on a slide and then go back and leave your conclusions up the question section the question sections are the bit you can't really practice it's usually about four minutes long comes at the end of your presentation and it's when anyone in the audience can come forward and publicly interrogate you and I've only got a few comments to say about this don't be afraid to say I don't know don't waffle on give other people a chance to ask their questions and don't get into debates this part should not be a conversation so don't be afraid to ask the question asker to come and find you later for a more in-depth discussion if you can't make out what they said I think you can get away with asking them to repeat it once but any more than that and you're on your own I just tried repeating the question I thought they said back before attempting to answer and lastly a couple of miscellaneous things now here's one that would have really perturbed me if I didn't know what was going to happen and that's that people will come in and out of your sessions as you're speaking this is not personal they're not bored people just want coffee people want to go to another session people have remembered meetings they've forgotten so don't take it personally the whole thing will go in two seconds flat to you and before you know it you will be blinking as though coming out of the daze and everyone will be applauding you and you'll be wondering what the hell did I just say and so there's no point stressing about it I definitely made some mistakes at one point I had this really crucial number of not point one five written on the board and apparently I said north point five but I have no memory of it and remember it's not the presentation people are there to see it's your research the presentation it's just the shiny polished surface at the top but it's the depth below that that's what people want to see so hold your head high go make yourself in your research proud and treat yourself to your favorite cocktail afterwards my name is Lucy Kazik I'm a third year PhD student at the University of Oxford and take care of

Channel: Dr Lucy Kissick - The PhDiaries

Views: 57,588

Rating: 4.9633026 out of 5

Keywords: phd, student, phd student, postgraduate, postgrad, grad student, graduate, graduate school, oxford, university, oxford university, doctorate, doctoral, conference, academic, academia, presenting, talks, public speaking, presentation

Id: z5hgbVDPZsQ

Length: 5min 31sec (331 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 10 2019