1. Onderzoeksmethoden Giving presentations Dr. Roland Geraerts
16 March 2017
Start with asking question about what the students want to learn, get out of the workshop, and write it down.

2. Contents Preparations Contents of a (research) presentation
Using your hands
Providing right amount of information
Keeping audience’s attention
Being credible
From the pro’s
PowerPoint caroussel

3. Preparations Master the topic / contents
Don’t learn the text by heart (unless you’re a pro)
Steve Jobs - iPhone Introduction in 2007; see e.g.
What did work for you?
What presentation skills stood out?

4. active exercise Preparations Check the room / hardware in advance
Be there at least 15 minutes in advance
Clean it up (white/black board, litter)
Set up your presentation and check it
Ideally before first participant enters
Otherwise, set screen to black while setting up
Public speaking is fear #1
Get rid of excessive stresses
Image taken from
active exercise

5. Preparations Carefully spell check your slides
Preferably don’t use cheat sheets
Don’t use excuses
Public transportation, illness, English usage, partner didn’t do xyz
Enter the room energetically
A few students should enter the room energetically.
Then, make the blackboard dirty and place some mess on the table. The challenge is that the students, who enter the room, should clean it up…

6. Contents of the slide What do you want to tell with this slide? Why?
Why at this moment?
Is the contents suitable for your audience?
Contents should be clear

7. Usual contents of a (research) talk
Title slide
Also include your name
Overview of the talk
Can be skipped if the talk is short (<30 min)
Introduction
Core
Conclusions

8. Usual contents of a talk - Introduction
Description of a problem
Motivation
What and how
Terminology
Overview of what is known
Description of own contribution

9. Usual contents of a talk - Introduction
Description of a problem
Important part of the presentation
Use enough time here
What does your audience know?
Don’t assume too much
Be clear and concrete

10. Usual contents of a talk - Introduction
Motivation: why this research?
Application? Which?
Theoretically interesting?
Are the techniques useful somewhere else?

11. Usual contents of a talk - Introduction
Earlier work
Give an overview
List with authors, years, and most important elements

12. Usual contents of a talk - Introduction
Terminology
Introduce technical terms you need
As few as possible, because your audience doesn’t remember much

13. Usual contents of a talk - Core
What’s the most important idea?
You could start with a simpler version
Give examples
Often details cannot be given
Give a sketch
Or: work out one detail (and the rest globally)
Remember: purpose of the presentation and audience

14. Usual contents of a talk - Conclusion
Repeat the most important points / contribution / message
Mention other results
Mention open ends / future research

15. Hands: clumpy limbs or helpful tool?
Question: what should you do with your hands?
Explain the difference between open and closed stance.

16. How not to give too much information?
Keep your slides light
Don’t put too much information on your slides
Rule of thumb: no more than 6/7 bullet points
Have a consistent formatting
Slides should be supportive
Slides should reinforce your work, not repeat them
Use multiple modalities (text, images, videos, table, charts, …)
Pictures:

17. How not to give too much information?
Only provide contents that you’re going to discuss
Unless used as a trick to impress people
Don’t use animations, slide transitions, and sound effects
Unless there is a purpose
Good information density
Give important definitions, theorems, techniques with examples
Avoid complete sentences
Pictures:

18. How to keep your audience’s attention?
Give your presentation to the audience instead of yourself
Only look at the screen (or notes) when you really have to
Look at some (random) faces in the crowd
Talk clearly (don’t mumble, don’t read out load)
Talk calmly
Avoid ticks and distracting sounds
Sighs, dry mouth, pen clicks, mouse laser, play with hair
Start intermezzo to keep attention span
Each 7 minutes

19. How to keep your audience’s attention?
What kind of intermezzos can you think of?
Ask a question
Show a short movie
Tell an anecdote
Give a demo
Provide a quote
Give an assignment
Do something extraordinary (only once)
Sing (yes, this actually happened in an interview)
Walk over tables (yes, this actually happened in a lecture)

20. How can you be credible? Dress up nicely Use your pitch well
A lower pitch is usually more believable than a higher one
Don’t raise your pitch at the end when you state something
Vary your pitch!
Tempo and pauzes
Don’t talk too quickly
Replace filler words by pauses
Insert a pause after each important sentence, and after each slide
Use open body language

21. From the pro’s Tell a story Ditch the bullet points
It’s not a presentation, it’s a performance
practice, Practice, PRACTICE
What Would Steve Do? 10 Lessons from the World's Most Captivating Presenters," HubSpot
See

22. PowerPoint carrousel