Giving Conference Presentations

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Giving Conference Presentations

• Kevin Eric De Pew
• February 15, 2004
• ODU English

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Presentation Overview

• Why Present?
• The Presentation Texts
• Giving the Presentation
• Designing the Presentation

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Why Present?

• Opportunity to go to Conferences
• exposure to current scholarship
• meet new people
• start collaborations
• Develop professional identity
• Get feedback

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Presentation Texts

• The call for papers (CFP)
• Your response to the CFP
• The conference paper
• Handouts (optional)
• PowerPoint (optional)

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The Call For Papers

• Read it carefully
• Identify the theme
• Highlight buzz words
• Pay attention to the due date and word lengths

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Your Response to the CFP

• The Genre
• state problem
• explain response (mini-literature review)
• describe presentation (briefly)
• Determine media of submission
• snail mail
• Electronic

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The Conference Paper

• 20 minutes
• 8 pages, double-spaced 10 - 15 slides
• Genre
• Problem purpose of presentation
• Frame connection to conversation
• Response solution to problem, examples
• Focus determined by audience
• Save some details for QA

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Handouts

• Gives your audience an artifact of your
  presentation can include
• your contact information
• your abstract
• references
• Illustrations or examples
• suggestions
• space for notes
• Use CRAP for design

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PowerPoint Presentation

• Helps you to present extemporaneously, but
  maintain focus
• Organization
• structured ? loose
• Effect
• orientation ? distraction
• More on PPT later

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Giving Presentations

• Conference Presentation Etiquette
• Reading vs. Speaking
• The Physical Presentation

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Presentation Etiquette

• DO NOT
• exceed your time limit
• give a different paper
• be unorganized
• DO
• show confidence in your work
• know your material
• be respectful

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Reading vs. Speaking

• Know the culture
• Reading
• A helps to keep you organized, on-task
• D often prevents eye contact, loss of ethos
• Speaking
• A demonstrates knowledge in material
• D can appear unorganized

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Physical Presentation

• Pay attention to your location especially if
  using a screen for PPT
• Make eye contact
• Do not talk to the screen or paper point to text
  when appropriate
• If using PPT do not read slides, but use them to
  organize your talk

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Designing PPT Presentations

• The way that each slide looks affects how the
  audience receives information
• Therefore, pay attention to
• Fonts
• Color
• Special Effects
• Images
• Repetition

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Fonts

• Make slide titles stand with a larger font
  and/or different color
• Use large font size for text it should be large
  enough to fit six to eight words across the
  screen
• Use sans serif font (Arial) if text heavy, use
  serif (Times)

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Color

• Make a strong contrast between background and
  text
• Use a dark text with a light background
• Use a light text with a dark background
• Use a color scheme that coordinates
• If possible, check color projection prior to
  presentation

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Special Effects

• Power Point allows you to include special effects
• Use appropriately and rhetorically
• You are not making the next Star Wars movie

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Images

• Use images to help make your point
• You can import images from other sources
• Adjust the size and placement of image box and
  text box
• Clip Art can be considered unprofessional

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Use CRAP

• Different types of Contrast
• Repeat slide design throughout the entire
  presentation
• Create hierarchies with Alignment
• Place similar elements in the same Proximity
• This will orient your listener

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Appropriateness

• Use appropriate backgrounds, images, and special
  effects for your presentation
• Discuss one issue per slide
• Use as little text as possible
• long passages
• do not place entire quote on slides
• excerpt, verbalize, or place in handout

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Giving Presentations

• Why Present?
• The Presentation Texts
• Giving the Presentation
• Designing the Presentation