Tammy Clark, Ph.D. Brown Bag Presentation - July 2014

 Disseminating info  Graded presentation for a course  Professional school interview  Job interview

 Why are they attending?  How much do they know about your topic?  What would they like to learn?  Is it appropriate to interject personal revelations in the talk?

 How much previous work should be included to set the stage?  Should you include all findings?  Have you come to a conclusion?  Have you uncovered more questions?  Make a general outline

 Title Slide  Introduction and previous studies  Your question and experimental design  Your data  Data analysis  Your conclusions and unanswered questions  Future work  Acknowledgements Most sections will require more than one slide

 Start writing slides  Find pictures after text is written  Save formatting for later

 Descriptive name of talk  Your name  Your advisor’s name (depending on venue)  Institution(s) that provided support  Include logo if available

 Hook the audience  Relevance  Sufficient background to understand the question  Briefly outline previous work that led to the question  What was interesting about the previous study?  What was missing? The best talks will integrate these instead of discussing them separately

 Clearly state your hypothesis and/or goals (this is your question)  Convince the audience that your methods for discovering answers is sound by briefly stating your experimental design

 Concise graphics that clearly show the important aspects of your findings  Typically one slide per graphic  Title can be the type of data or the take-home message  Include error bars  Legible graphics for back of the room  Increase font size  Bold fine/thin font  Increase line widths  Avoid green and red (may not be differentiated by a color-blind person)  Discussion of the data analysis should occur on these slides

 Restate the take-home messages and if possible link them together for an overall sense of what was accomplished  Revisit the relevance of the project and connect it to your conclusions  Did you accomplish your goals?  Have you discovered more questions as a result of your research? This section should lead smoothly into the future work section

 What are the next steps?  You may not be the person who will continue the project, but you should still address where your research has led to  If plans have been made, it is appropriate to briefly discuss these (if time permits)

 Research Advisor(s)  Co-workers who you have collaborated with  Institution  Anyone who has provided financial support for the project If appropriate, name the funding source: specific research fellowship, NIH grant number, etc…

 Develop your talk  Don’t be afraid to try different approaches  Avoid scripting  Use PowerPoint as your “notecards”  Think about the audience in choosing language

 Ask a few people to critique  Practice alone first  Give entire talk without interruptions  Peers take notes on rough spots  Afterward, go through slide-by-slide and discuss ▪ Overall organization ▪ Clear explanation of concepts ▪ Appropriate level for audience ▪ Legible font and graphics Allow for ~1 hour to critique a 10 minute presentation

 You cannot practice too much!  Ask for laser pointer and for room access  Fine-tune the timing  Laser pointers  Stabilize with 2-handed hold  Point – don’t circle

 Many PowerPoint alternatives (Prezi)  Avoid clutter and distracting transitions  Strive for uniformity in slides  Font sizes  Spacing  Mac vs. PC?  Copy and Paste PDF documents into slides

 Dress Appropriately  Arrive early  Introduce yourself to moderator  Upload presentation  Bathroom break beforehand  Be confident because you practiced  Attend the entire conference Represent Viterbo Well!