1-Be excited and
confident about your work: If you are not excited, if you don’t care, why should
others care about what you do? You should express your enthusiasm and feel that
your work is one of the most elegant ever conducted in the field. Of course be
yourself and tell your story as you really feel. Do not forget, you are the top
expert in the world for the experiments that you performed. All of the audience
is there just to learn from you.
Speaking slowly and clearly and giving a few seconds pause
before the important slides will bring you the attention of the audience. Also
use your body language to demonstrate your excitement. TED talks have many
inspiring examples, have a look at them if you haven’t already. A few samples
that I like:
2-Make eye contact
and focus on pleasant people: It is typical to have some people sleeping or
people who shake their heads in disapprovement of what you are talking about.
Do not look at these people but rather focus on pleasant people who have eye
contact with you and who have look curious. You can choose 2-3 of such people
(ideally at least one at the front and one at the back) and shift your gaze
from one to another. Do not shift your gaze from one to another while you’re in
the middle of a sentence though. This is important to give impression that you
are having personal conversation with them, not speaking at a crowd.
3-Do not give it to
chance, be fully equipped and test your gear: I am sure you all witnessed
speakers with videos that are not working, or shifted text and images. Each
presentation is a one-time chance, hence, do not let others steer your fate. To
avoid such catastrophes, bring all your equipment including your laptop,
charger, pointer, Mac adaptor etc. If the hosts insist on using the seminar
room computer, politely let them know that you have images/videos that can only
be shown on your computer. Even if it takes a bit of time to hook up your
computer, do not give it to chance. Ideally, go to the seminar room a few hours
before and check everything. If not, you would still have some time to fix
major issues. Finally, if you are showing video files, put all video files into
the same folder as the presentation file and insert them from that folder. You
can copy this folder to another computer if needed and have the video files
carried, which can also be played outside of power point.
4-Use simple,
organized and accurate slides: Do not overload slides with text and images
that cannot be seen from everywhere in the room. Do not have anything on the
slide that you don’t mention. I also found that making transition slides
prepares the audience to upcoming “important” data. For example just a simple
sentence in the middle of a new slide: “We then asked the question if blocking
A would cause B”. Check very carefully not to have any spelling mistakes and
different font sizes. Ideally, do not use more than 2 colors for text (one for
title one for the content). Check for the consistency: for example, use comma, dot
or nothing at the end of each bullet point consistently. Carefully align your
text and images like a figure in a paper. Do not copy-paste paper figures into
the presentation. Use the original images without annotations and enlarge them
well in your slides. While most of the article figures are in portrait
orientation, your slides are in landscape; hence copy-pasted images are
typically very small. In addition, if you give the impression that you just
copy-pasted images from here and there, the audience will be turned off by
thinking that they will not learn something new from the presentation. Hence,
they can sleep during your talk to get ready for the next one and read your
paper when they are at home (if ever).
Visuals (colorful images, videos) are good but do not overdo
it. Similarly, too many transition affects and clicks on one slide are
destructive and give the impression that you try to impress the audience with
some effects rather than real content. Hence, use only 1-2 of such visuals to
draw attention to the most important information.
5-Be unique: If you are in a symposium when it is your turn, change
the position of where the previous speakers stood. Most speakers will stay
close the computer or behind the desk. Go to the other side of the podium to
give the signal that something different is coming.
Use widescreen slide templates
(16:9 or 16:10), which look more professional and more unique than 4:3. Make
sure to have large images and text flowing left to right. If you use
widescreen, you also need to make sure that the projector can show your
presentation adequately. Again, do not to give it to chance, also prepare the 4:3
format and use it if needed.
I also like to use a unique
background color. If previous users are using mostly white, then use black. You
guessed it right, that means you might need to prepare two versions with
different backgrounds. I personally always use black, since the majority of
speakers use white and images look better on black background.
Do not copy-paste other’s
drawings/data. If you need to mention them, use your own words or illustration.
This is your presentation and you are there to tell what you think and believe,
not the others. Again, if you are there to present something unique, the
audience will quickly sense it and give you their attention.
6-Repeat questions and address them honestly: It is always a good
idea to repeat/rephrase the questions that you are asked. This will make sure
that 1) you understood the question correctly, 2) everyone heard the questions and
3) will give you time to think of the best answer.
If you don’t know the answer, state
clearly that you do not know it and speculate if you have got an idea e.g. ”I
don’t have the data to answer this question but If I were to speculate….”. If
you feel that the questioner is openly attacking, don’t be defensive, smile and
acknowledge that this is the best you can tell based on your data and you are happy
to discuss this in more depth after the seminar.
7-Get prepared well: Ideally finish the preparation of your slides days
1-2 weeks before the presentation and make 3-5 rehearsals. Buy some pizza or
drinks and invite your colleagues to listen to your presentation. Ask their
genuine feedback on your presentation (not their praises, this will not help
you in front of real audience). Volunteer to present at every opportunity to practice
your presentation skills.
8-Simplify and repeat: Regardless of the level of your audience
(even if there are many experts), you should simplify your story and give clear
and easy background. In a typical scientific seminar, the majority of the
audience looses its interest already at the introduction. Do not let this
happen. Simplify the background information and questions that you would like
to address. Clearly repeat your major conclusion at the end of the respective
slide with a sentence and prepare section summaries to make the audience ready
for the next part. Ideally, even if they sleep up to this point, they should be
able to follow you after hearing the section summary. You should make clear
that this slide is the most important slide so far and they should follow it.
For example, you can say “Please wake up all (with a smile), here are the core
findings so far”.
9-Acknowledge contributors and experts: People will expect your
acknowledgment even if they slightly contributed to your work. Ideally, put
their photos and read their contributions and names. If time is very limited,
acknowledge the major contributors and write the name of others on the
acknowledgement slide. Also try to keep this slide projected while you address
the questions.
If you are in a symposium, check
the list of attendees and if there are experts in your field, mention their
name. For example, as XYZ (who is sitting in the audience) elegantly showed… they
are most probably your reviewers, praising their names is the best that you can
do to get their approval of your science. In addition, if you can talk to them
later, they will be more likely to give you good tips that can elevate the
quality of your work.
10-Be aware of the time: Be
aware of the time and make sure to finish your presentation on time.
Importantly, make sure that your audience knows that you are in control of
time. In the middle of your presentation, you may say something like “We are
perfectly on time” or “We will have a good amount of time for discussions”
which can stimulate people to think about a question to ask. A presentation
with lots of questions/discussions is perceived more impactful than a
presentation that barely finishes with just a few or no questions. Actually, if
you want to make additional impact, it may be better to finish the presentation
a few minutes earlier, to have more time for discussion. During the QA, observe
how many people raised their hands for questions and address the questions to
shuffle the remaining time. Typically, after rephrasing the question, a brief
answer to the point would be the most efficient when there are many questions.
In case of a few questions, you may elongate the answer and give time to the
audience to think of the next question. In such cases, going back to important
result / summary slides may remind the audience of the major points. In case of
no questions -which normally should not happen if the talk was clear and
stimulating enough- you may ask a question to yourself by saying “while you
think of your questions, I want to answer a question that I always have been
asked….”.
I hope that I could give you some
tips how to improve your presentation skills. I would also like to advise you to
go to seminars often and pay particular attention to successful scientists,
which are typically also very good presenters. There is always something to
learn and improve for all of us.
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