The Art of Conferencing - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 48
About This Presentation
Title:

The Art of Conferencing

Description:

Being at your best whilst there. Post-conference tips. Pre-conference. Arrival and departure ... ( Photo on poster) Handouts (A4) ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:37
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 49
Provided by: sarash
Category:
Tags: art | conferencing

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: The Art of Conferencing


1
The Art of Conferencing
  • Dr Sara Shinton
  • www.shintonconsulting.com
  • Dr Steve Hutchinson

Hutchinson Training Development
2
Anticipated outcomes
  • Preparing for conferences
  • Advantages of conferences
  • Presentation skills top tips
  • Oral papers
  • Posters
  • Networking
  • Possible dangers

3
But what do you want?
  • How many of you have attended conferences
    already?
  • National or international?
  • Specialist or general?
  • Attendee or presenter?
  • How many of you will attend a conference in the
    next 6 months?
  • How many of you want to attend a conference and
    are struggling to?

4
Conference experts
  • What do you need to get more from conferences in
    the future?
  • What was difficult at previous conferences?
  • What advice do you have for those who are new to
    conferences?

5
Conference virgins
  • What are your questions about conferences?
  • What are your concerns and what barriers are
    affecting your chances to attend?
  • What questions do you have for those who have
    attended?

6
Aspiring conference attendees
  • What is stopping you?
  • What do you hope to achieve by attending
    conferences?

7
For all of you
  • When will you be attending your next conference?
  • What will your role be there?
  • What are you most concerned about?
  • What would the perfect conference do for you?

8
Why did I do that?
  • First rule of conferencing
  • Know why you are going
  • Think about what you need to ask
  • Think about what you need to convey
  • Why are you going to the next conference you will
    attend?
  • Tell me

9
What are conferences for?
  • Present
  • Build reputation and impact
  • Present your work
  • Understand different perspectives
  • Get advice on particular problems
  • Find out about other meetings and professional
    opportunities

10
What are conferences for?
  • Future
  • Meet your professional peers
  • Meet potential employers (and their groups)
  • Find partners for collaborations
  • Hear and see areas of active research in your
    field
  • Talk to role models about how they got there

11
Why are conferences so great for research
students?
  • Great equalisers
  • Direct connection with key researchers
  • Social network
  • Job opportunities
  • Collective intelligence

12
What do you need in your toolkit?
  • Pre-conference preparation
  • Best practice for Posters
  • Best practice for Oral Papers
  • Best practice for networking
  • Being at your best whilst there
  • Post-conference tips

13
Pre-conference
  • Arrival and departure
  • Programme
  • Highlight key talks
  • Work out your path
  • Down time
  • Delegates
  • Go through list
  • Make connections (student-supervisor) (key
    people/your supervisor)

14
Pre-conference
  • What do you need?
  • Next job?
  • Breakthrough in PhD?
  • Alternatives to academia?
  • Work out how you will ask these questions

15
Best Practice for posters
16
A few questions
  • What actually is an academic Poster?
  • Why has it evolved as a communication mech.?
  • When do we use them and who looks at them?

5 mins
17
What is a Research Poster?
  • Oral pres ? research poster ? journal piece.
  • Static display with a motile audience.
  • A means of effective and economic communication.
  • A shop window
  • A means of stimulating conversation!
  • It is NOT your whole project on a piece of
    wallpaper

18
Getting your Poster RIGHT
  • Take photos of good posters
  • Identify KEY points
  • Make it easy to navigate
  • An outline of your work to prompt discussion
  • Keep it simple
  • Handouts? Reprints? Visual aids?
  • Transportation
  • Time to prepare

19
http//sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_develo
pment/previous_issues/articles/0630/yours_transfer
ably_poster_art
20
(No Transcript)
21
http//sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_develo
pment/previous_issues/articles/0630/yours_transfer
ably_poster_art
22
Hook Why is this issue (15 seconds) important?
Who should be interested? Outline Brie
fly (and jargon (15 seconds) free) what did you
do? Outcomes What did you (15 seconds)
find / what are you hoping to
find? Towards What do you want (15 seconds)
them to do? What does the future hold?
23
Can you recall a research poster that youve
seen? (Good or bad!) Why did it stick in your
mind? What do you think a good poster should have
/ be?
24
5 Golden Rules
  • Follow the guidelines
  • Posters are still, audiences move
  • Make it easy, make it flow
  • Catch their eye and then control it
  • 5 minutes from 5 feet

25
Question
  • What is your hypothesis?
  • (A thesis isnt a thesis without a
    hypothesis)
  • Do you know?
  • Good posters often have a central question /
    story / clearly articulated research hypothesis.
  • Poor posters are often the result of a too-broad
    subject area.

26
  • Flow of Information
  • Numbered sections
  • Logical order
  • Academic conventions?
  • Colour schemes to link
  • Arrows

Be careful!
27
  • Text
  • Be consistent
  • Double space
  • Can you read it from 5 feet away? (Try in
    office)
  • Use bold / underlining and colour
  • Dont use italics
  • Dont use word-art
  • Use sans-serif fonts

Not like this!
i or i
28
  • Defending Your Poster
  • Be Proactive - Start conversations
  • Dont wander off!!! (Photo on poster)
  • Handouts (A4)
  • Have a one minute talk of your poster prepared to
    guide people through it.
  • Remember the take home message.
  • Table?
  • Adverts etc. Give them a souvenir..!

29
WWW links
  • http//www.siam.org/siamnews/general/poster.htm
  • http//student.dcu.ie/mcmahon4/posteradvice.html
  • http//lorien.ncl.ac.uk/ming/Dept/Tips/present/pos
    ters.htm
  • Postcards www.vistaprint.co.uk (email me for
    free offers)

30
Effective Oral Papers
  • Your big chance!
  • Structuring your presentation
  • Avoiding common mistakes
  • Engaging with your audience

31
Basic advice
  • Have a clear simple aim
  • Target your presentation to achieve this
  • Imagine your audience asking So What?
  • Prepare an outline
  • Say your piece
  • Adopt a style to suit the message and audience
  • Finish with a summary

32
Getting it wrong
  • Using your experience as members of an audience
  • What bad habits of presenters really irritate
    you?
  • What will you never, ever do?

33
Getting your talk RIGHT
  • What are you trying to achieve?
  • What are your audience expecting?
  • Timing is KEY
  • Identify hooks - questions are good
  • Learn from good practice
  • Handling questions

34
Engaging your audience
  • When are you most receptive to information?
  • What affects the way in which you listen to and
    absorb presentations?
  • Why do you remember certain things?

35
Audiences are receptive
  • At the start and end
  • When information is in context and relevant
  • If they can reflect
  • If they are engaged
  • When their memory is assisted

36
Answer these questions
  • What is the key message in your presentation?
  • Why is this of interest to your audience?
  • What information do you need to tell the story?
  • What strategies are you going to use to ensure
    the audience listens and absorbs?

37
Dealing with questions
  • you are still the expert
  • maintain style
  • use other expertise (perhaps someone from the
    group could answer that question)
  • admit you dont know but offer to follow up with
    an answer
  • repeat question back before answering so rest of
    audience can hear
  • ask for clarification if you arent sure

38
When the dust settles...
  • Evaluate and reflect
  • Ask for feedback
  • Did I speak clearly ?
  • Did I look at the audience ?
  • Were you interested in what I was saying
    throughout ?
  • Did you understand the technical/complicated
    aspects ?
  • Were my visual aids used to good effect ?
  • What were my strong points ?
  • What might I improve ?

39
WWW tips
  • http//lorien.ncl.ac.uk/ming/Dept/Tips/present/pre
    sent.htm
  • http//sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_develo
    pment
  • Search for presentation skills

40
Networking
  • Yuk
  • Its just TALKING to people
  • Youve been doing it all morning!

41
Networking Your USP
  • USP Unique Selling Point
  • To clarify this, two questions
  • What value does your work add to your field?
  • How would you convince your supervisor to take
    you on as PhD again?

42
Marketing Elevator Pitch
  • Opportunity spotting
  • Opportunity preparedness
  • Soundbite which will engage
  • Memorable

43
Elevator Pitch
  • Youve just got into a lift
  • Inside is one of the key people you wanted to
    meet at this conference.
  • What do you say to them?

44
WWW links
  • http//sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_develo
    pment
  • Search for conferencing networking

45
Be at your best
  • Plenty of sleep
  • Moderate food and drink intake
  • Have some down-time

46
Post-conference tips
  • Email brief message to any people you met
  • Enjoyed meeting them
  • Thank them for their time
  • Follow up on any offers/promises
  • Organise business cards/handouts and add own
    notes
  • Reflect - what could you have done better?

47
Final thoughts
  • Essential part of academic life
  • Should be hugely enjoyable
  • Work up to super-conferencing
  • Get advice from experts

48
Any questions?
  • www.shintonconsulting.com
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com