ALIA Top End

Presenting at conferences

Review of factors in presenting a paper to an audience of colleagus.

Roger Clifton, Northern Territory Geological Survey

Starting point:

• you have a paper you want to present,
• a message you want to deliver

Types of conferences:

• seminars
• specific focus
• grand gabfests

Types of attendees in the room:

• critical thinkers
• feelies
• sleepies
• entertainees

Types of venue:

• auditorium
• crowded room
• round table

Types of media:

• powerpoint
• overheads
• white board
• chalk boards

Relationship between you and us, your audience:

• identify with us!
• mutual respect
• the variety in front of you
• the important ones...
• speak to us, with us (monologues are dooomed)
• confidence: take no prisoners!
• appropriate level of arousal, involvement
• good faith

Rehearsal:

• why?
• need varies inversely with skill
• focus on delivery rather than prettiness
• who to?
  
  • colleagues - best
  • tape recorder
  • picture on the wall
• short talks need more rehearsal

Special effects:

• powerpoint - is plenty special enough!
• experiment apparatus
• software demos
• web demos

About gimmicks ...

Sound:

• project your voice, no matter how thin it feels
• amplification should only boost your voice
• how to make use of amplification
• use your body language to improve their hearing!

Voice:

• project, regardless of any amplification
• handling tension
• use pauses: speak-watch-speak-watch-speak
• make your whole body speak
• put your hands on standby so they can join in.

Pacing:

• what do I look like? - who cares!
• you set the pace
• maintain the pace
• maintain eye contact
• face them, front them, at all times
• give them a break when they need - asides, Q+A, walk
• can I move around? - you bet!

Use the floor:

• it is your stage
• move - there are cats in the audience!
• taking command of the attention
• radiate energy
• point with your whole body, not a red dot
• keep the sleepies awake
• excite your fans - we are barracking for you!

Content

• the paper is formal
• the presentation is plain english - plus you

Explain with enthusiasm (I will develop this point)

• as if to a keen student
• with respect
• pick the eyes out
• work from scratch and back up, each topic

Explaining the slides:

• dominate the slide
• good slides are easy
• a few simply stated points are always easy to develop as far as the audience can take
• bad slides take effort, require energetic delivery
• some slides have content for you to guide people through

Make your slides work for you:

• give meat to your heavyweights,
• simplify them for others:

Once underway, a plain graphic can be used as raw material:

End with your conclusions...