Science Conference Presenter Tips 

You may have the information and the POWER but does the audience get your POINT?!

© Weatherthings

• Record yourself doing a presentation. Watch it and ask friends or family for an honest critique.
• Learn what your nervous motions are so you can curb them.
• Load your presentation and test it on the playback computer well before your presentation.
• If you are using your own computer make sure you have enough cables and connectors to handle most AV situations!
• Regardless of how powerful your message is, you still need to engage and entertain the audience with energy, humor, and a little theatre.
• Share your enthusiasm for your topic with the audience.
• Watch your audience to see if they are following, or even awake.
• Consider that some of the audience may be students, guests, or spouses so try not to talk too far over their heads.
• Don’t point all over the screen for no reason with a laser.
• Don’t read every word on your slides verbatim. The audience is already doing that. Spoken words should add to what is on screen.
• Don’t show page after page of text paragraphs, especially when the font is tiny.
• Don’t talk to the screen. Face the audience and talk to them.
• Don’t try to present your entire project/thesis in the short time allotted. You must only give highlights and conclusions.
• Never point a laser at the audience. 
• Avoid being monotone.
• Use your hands and body language.
• Graphics should be colorful and fill the screen.
• Backgrounds should be subtle.
• Wear lavalier microphones about 6 inches below your chin, on your lapel or tie. Don’t let the cord dangle where you might knock it off.
• Keeping the microphone closer to your mouth reduces feedback.
• Don't stand right under a ceiling speaker since that often causes audio feedback.
• Use animations, movies and video where appropriate but don't just add them because you can. Animation should highlight a point, not distract from it.
• Make sure all of your file types are compatible with the computer that your presentation is on.
• When having someone advance the slides for you don’t keep saying “next slide.” Simply make eye contact with the person and nod your head.
• Turn off your ringer on electronic devices and ask the audience to do the same.
• Ask audience simple questions to keep them engaged.
• Leave time for questions at the end.
• While your images may look great from two feet away on a computer screen, they lose quality for a viewer in the middle of a room. View your slides on a computer monitor from ten feet away to get a sense of what the audience will see.
• Use bold, simple fonts with colors that set them apart from the background.
• Graphs with multiple parameters will benefit by layering the parameters on one at a time, slide by slide.
• Make sure graphs and charts have large, clear legends.
• Prepare for the worst case scenario where the AV equipment fails. Have a plan "B" which is at least a hard copy of your presentation highlights.
• Have fun, enjoy your own presentation. If you can't, the audience can't either!