your first (conference) presentation ☁️
time yourself, please: i practiced once with the presentation in front of me, twice more while driving, and then again in front of a couple of colleagues. each stop time was different, but i had a good gauge of how much content i would be able to cover. be the person who finishes two minutes early, you’ll win hearts.
use notes if you want, just don’t go overboard: depending on your field, the norm might be to stand up and just read your paper. if that’s you, ignore this, i guess? print out your presentation (at least a version of it), and jot down notes to help clear your head. make sure they’re easy to follow. honestly, notes are a smidge overrated. two of my colleagues were unable to use their (quite extensive) notes during their presentations, and did perfectly! trust yourself to know your material / research...you are the expert!
be comfortable: no need to dress ritzy, just dress confidently. whatever that looks like for you, that’s what i’m talking about. i wore a skirt and shirt, and some wedges (in hindsight, a great choice because the the podium was really tall...and i’m not). someone else wore a smart blouse and pants, and was sitting on the floor playing with a puppy right before our panel! they were definitely comfortable.
breathe: if you don’t have time to edit, fine. if you do have time, then don’t. you know how it goes, when an artist is never satisfied, and eventually their changes ruin their entire work? applicable here. if you have anything to add, it’ll come to you during the presentation, or someone will ask you about during the Q&A session. what’s done is done, and within the next two hours, this will all be over!
do not rush your presentation: know what the main points of your presentation are. there have to be some things that are more important than others. if your moderator is flashing five minutes, skip the little details! DON’T speed read your notes / the presentation / talk at 200 wpm. your audience will not be able to keep up. maintain your poise and control. the important thing about practicing your presentation is learning how to adapt it to the time constraints you have.
enjoy the Q&A session: if you are getting questions, that means your presentation really made an impact. congrats! don’t drop the ball here, but continue to have that confidence. if someone asks you a difficult question / one you didn’t consider, thank them for bringing up the topic, and say that you would like to look into that further (even if you never do lol). heck, you may come away with some helpful information!
finally, some short points:
do not read from your slides. explain / illustrate them. your audience can read!
do not read from your notes. they are there for little reminders (key words, quotes), not as a crutch.
gesture and move about. have some energy in your presence, and loosen up. if you seem happy and excited, your audience will feed from that.
it’s okay to pause. if you’re out of breath, stop. if you need to collect your thoughts, stop. do not follow it with an apology, it’s natural!
