Doctoral training programme
Preparing Conference Presentations
Trevor Collins, Mark Gaved & Ann Jones
Tuesday, 6th May 2014
Session overview
• Conference introductions
• Breaking the fear barrier
• Content planning
– Content tips and tricks
– Slide guidelines
– PowerPoint tips
• Summary and close
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Conference introductions
• Task: Think of how you would introduce yourself to a
someone at a conference
• What are the important things to say?
– Who is the audience?
– What is your purpose?
• Work out one or two sentences to introduce yourself
professionally…
3
Breaking the fear barrier
• Task: In small groups, discuss the two questions below
and make a note of your answers. Elect a member to
report back
– What makes you nervous about giving a
presentation?
– How do you deal with your nerves?
• Report back – using flip charts
• Review and summary of exercise & handouts
4
Content planning
• Content tips and tricks
• Slide design guidelines
• PowerPoint tips
5
Content tips and tricks
• Audience and purpose
– Who is the audience?
– What do the audience want?
– What do you want to achieve by giving this talk?
• Story, plot and narrative
– What is the take home message (see title & abstract)
– What is the plot structure (e.g. introduction, conflict,
resolution and conclusion)
6
Content tips and tricks
• Hint: Externalising your ideas helps you and others
discuss them
• Methods: lists, concept maps, hierarchical trees, …
• Recommendation: Critique the story before you write
the narrative
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Slide guidelines
• Society for Information
Science and Technology
– “IS&T’s Guide to Effective
Illustration: Images for
Presentation and
Publication”
– http://www.imaging.org/ist/
conferences/guide_present
/index.cfm
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Slide guidelines
• Checklist for slide masters and transparencies
– Horizontal layout
– Easy to read, bold font
– 36 point type for titles, 30 point and 24 point for text
– Maximum of 9 lines of type or equations
– Maximum of 10 words per line
– Colours selected for high contrast
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Slide guidelines
• Checklist for slide masters and transparencies
– Curves bold, encoded by line pattern or simple labels
– No grid lines underlying curves
– Clear labels on graph axes
– Text and labels on A4 size sheet readable at 8 feet
– 35 mm slides readable at arm’s length
– Dots to identify bottom-left corner of right-side-up 35
mm slides
10
PowerPoint tips
• Screen layout
– Top: Menu and
shortcuts
– Left: Outline and
slides
– Middle: Focus
content
– Right: Actions
– Bottom: Shortcuts
and drawing
11
PowerPoint tips
• Views
– View tab
• Presentation
Views
–Normal
–Slide Sorter
–Notes Page
–Slide Show
12
PowerPoint tips
• PowerPoint slide show controls
– Mouse click to go forward
– Arrow keys for forward and backward navigation
– ‘B’ for black screen and ‘W’ for white screen
– ‘F5’ to start the slide show (‘shift+F5’ to resume)
– Type number N and press ‘return’ will jump to slide N
– ‘Esc’ to escape from the slide show
• Computer controls
– Alt&Tab (or Apple&Tab) to switch applications
13
PowerPoint tips
• Use format and style consistently
– View tab
• Presentation Views
–Slide Master
–Handout Master
–Notes Master
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PowerPoint tips
• OU templates
– New Presentation
• My templates…
–OU PP Templates
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PowerPoint tips
• Slide design
– Design tab
• Themes
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PowerPoint tips
• Slide layout
– Home tab
• Slides
–Layout
17
Summary
• Conference introductions
• Breaking the fear barrier
• Content planning
– Content tips & tricks
– Slide guidelines
– PowerPoint tips
18
Next time
• Student conference presentations (20th & 21st May 2014)
– 30 minutes each (20 mins talk and 10 mins questions)
– Scope
• Introduce your topic, the key literature, your research
question, applicable methods, challenges, progress
to date and ongoing plans
• Contact details
– Trevor, Mark and Ann (trevor.collins@open.ac.uk;
mark.gaved@open.ac.uk; ann.jones@open.ac.uk)
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