Effective Presentations

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Effective Presentations

• This guide will take you through three important
  steps

Prepared By American Oil Chemists Society
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• Prepare yourself to convey your message clearly
• Construct slides with impact
• Put it all together effectively

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Practice with an Audience

• It is hard distilling work down to 20 or 40
  minutes.

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Practice

• Pace even, steady, not too fast or slow
• Tone engaging and confident, not arrogant
• Clarity speak as clearly as you can towards
  the audience
• Volume loud enough to hear in back of room

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Nervous Habits

• Know what yours are dont exhibit them
• e.g. rocking back and forth, touching hair/face,
  looking down at feet
• Ummmm, Aaaaah
• Detracts from your message and credibility

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• Leave your audience with the main points of your
  contribution
• and make them want to read your paper.

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Great Slides Have a Clean, Clear Message

• Use key phrases
• One thought per line
• Eight lines or less
• One topic per slide

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They are Consistent

• Unified color scheme
• 3 colors maximum per slide
• One or two type styles
• Horizontal format

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Basic Design Principles

• Use a dark background to give your text impact
• Light-colored text is easier to read from a
  distance

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• A white background will give your audience
  eyestrain when shown in a dark room

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Great Slides Speak for Themselves

• Do not read from your slides
• Your comments should elaborate on the ideas shown
  on each slide

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Not Too FastNot Too Slow

• Average 2 minutes per slide
• Use about 12 slides for a 20 minute presentation
• No more than 1 slide per minute

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Keep it Simple

• A Plain, NOT FANCY, type style
• Use Arial bold, a sans serif type
• Not a serif font like Times New Roman
• Avoid Italics not even for emphasis
• Use 36 point minimum font size

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Great Slides are Organized

• Title/authors/affiliation..1 slide
• Outline key points1-2 slides
• Background..4 slides
• Motivation problem statement
• Related work methods (briefly)
• Results..4-6 slides
• Main body of talkcover key result well
• Interpret numbers give insights
• Summary future work..1-2 slides

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Use Brief Phrases

• Putting too much text on the screen does not
  work and may be contrary to your objectives. If
  the amount of information you want people to read
  is greater that four or five lines of short
  bullets, then use handouts so they can take the
  notes home with them and read them after your
  presentation. Assume that your audience wants to
  listen to and see you an not a completely filled
  page. Handouts with space for notes are a good
  alternative to a complete verbatim script.

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• Get the point?

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Do not promote your company during a technical
program!

• Slides should be free from logos and watermarks
• Delegates appreciate a science-only presentation
• This is importantdo not put your future
  presentations at risk!

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The Great Slide Review

• Summarize and discuss future work at end of talk.
• (1-2 slides)

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Wrap Up

• End in a positive, confident manner
• Thank your audience!

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Technical Advice

• Use plastic frames (cardboard tends to jam)
• If flying, carry your slides on the plane, dont
  check them
• Practice with your slides beforehand
• Keep the room as dark as possible, yet light
  enough for note-taking

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Summary

• Prepare Yourself
• Practice pace, tone, clarity, volume
• Avoid nervous habits
• Target main points
• Design Effective Slides
• Clean, clear visual images
• Consistent Organized
• Elaborate on slides- do not read them

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• Thank You!