Guidelines for oral presenters
Technical Details:
You will have about 20 minutes for your presentation, plus 5 minutes for discussion.
Standard equipment in the Auditorium will be:
For computer presentations only: please send ONE file containing your presentation by 1 July 2004 at cristina.dolfi@unifi.it. We will save it on the laptop’s hard disk, in order to gain time during the sessions. Files received after 1 July will not be saved on the laptop computer.
Please name your file with the last name of the presenting author (e.g. Smith.pdf or Smith.ppt).
Please do not send files with transparencies intended for overhead projection.
Five points to keep in mind regarding your oral presentation:
Make sure the audience walks away understanding the five things that any listener to a presentation really cares about:
- What is the problem and why?
- What has been done about it?
- What has the presenter done about it?
- What additional value does the presenter's approach provide?
- Where do we go from here?
Some useful guidelines for preparing your transparencies or computer presentation:
Keep your material simple, easily and quickly readable.
Use at least a 24-point font.
Dark letters on light (or transparent) backgrounds work well for overheads. Light letters (yellow or white) on a dark background (e.g., dark blue) often will be easier to read when the material is displayed using slides or LCD (data) projectors.
Try to limit the material to eight lines per slide, and keep the number of words to a minimum. Summarize the main points - don't include every detail of what you plan to say.
Limit the tables to four rows/columns for readability. Sacrifice content for clarity.
Prefer graphs to large and complex tables.
Don't put a lot of curves on a graphical display - busy graphical displays are hard to read. Also, label your graphs clearly with BIG, READABLE TYPE.
Use equations rarely, if at all: the audience members not working in the research area can find them difficult to follow.
Concentrate on presenting what your results mean. The audience will concede the proof and those who really are interested can follow up with you, which they're more likely to do if they understand your results. Put your material in a context that the audience can relate to. It's a good idea to address your presentation to an audience of colleagues who are not familiar with your research area. Your objective is to communicate how valuable is your work, not just to lay the results out.
When you give references, identify the journal: Smith, Bcs96 clues the reader that the article is in a 1996 issue of Biometrics, and is much more useful than just Smith 1996.
Do not forget to preview your slides. You will look foolish if symbols and Greek letters that looked OK in a WORD document didn't translate into anything readable in POWERPOINT – and it happens!
Please be in the Auditorium 10 minutes before your session starts.
Carefully budget your time, in order to let 5 minutes left for discussion. Present only as much material as can reasonably fit into the 20 minutes allotted. Generally that means 1 slide or overhead per minute maximum.
Talk at a pace that everybody in the audience can understand. Speak slowly, clearly, and loudly, especially if your English is heavily accented
