Preparing a Captivating Conference Presentation Tips and Tricks

Preparing a Captivating Conference Presentation Tips and Tricks from the OWRC’s Graduate Tutors

The Application • Differences across disciplines and conferences • Panels, roundtables and poster sessions • Relevant and novel • Bring your submission to the Odegaard Writing and Research Center (OWRC)

It’s Accepted: What Now? • Funding the conference • Graduate School Fund for Excellence and Innovation • Graduate and Professional Student Senate • Center for Statistics and Social Sciences (for affiliated departments) • Check with your department, the specific conference, and your advisor • Plan ahead • Expectations • Research the conference • Bring your presentation in multiple forms • Practice

So I already have a seminar paper… Papers written for class are a great starting point for presentations, but you will need to modify your work for a new situation and audience. Consider the following during revisions: - READABILITY: If you do read from a paper, keep sentence structures simple and make sure you can pronounce all names/concepts. - LENGTH: Fifteen min. means fifteen min - actually it means twelve. It takes the average reader 2 min. to read one page of double-spaced writing outloud. - THEME: If there is a theme at the conference, make sure your argument and research question respond to that theme. - AUDIENCE: Based on your research, who will be there? What background will they need? What are they interested in or what do they want to know? - CUTTING: You’re going to be cutting from your lit review, your argument, parts of evidence. Make sure the message is still consistent and the argument is logical even as you cut back on information.

Putting Together the Paper • Hook. An interesting anecdote or hypothetical situation is a nice way to bring people into your talk. This anecdote can serve as an “anchor” which you can come back to illustrate your theory or evidence, and to play around with intellectually during the Q&A session. • Question. A single intriguing question is essential. While your paper may contain more than one question, your presentation should only focus on one. Feel free to note that there are some other ancillary questions that arise, but keep the focus on one. • An explanation. Follow up the question with a brief, abstract answer to your question. Note: you may rearrange the explanation and evidence sections if you field/work is more inductive than deductive. • Evidence. Present the proof for your explanation in the most concise, neat and understandable manner possible. • Conclusion. Other questions that remain (to “plant” questions for the Q&A section) or implications of the study. From: Dr. T’s Professional Pointers – “Your Fifteen Minutes of Fame”: http: //faculty. washington. edu/tgill/helpfulhints. htm

Native Americans in The Pacific Northwest • • There are many Native American tribes in Washington state, including the Cowlitz , Hoh, Jamestown S’Klallam, Kalispel, Lower Elwha, Lummi, Muckleshoot, Nisqually, Nooksack, Puyallup, and many others. Today they only have small reservations scattered throughout the state, but once they moved freely across the land lived here and were happy. White people arrived in the Americas and brought smallpox. An epidemic around the 1770’s killed a lot of the Native Americans. The first explorers from Spain came in 1775. The Spanish claimed this area, then the British, then the Americans. In the 1830’s, missionaries came to try to convert the Indians to Christianity. One of them was Marcus Whitman. After a lot of Indians died from European diseases, they got mad at Whitman and killed him and a bunch of other white guys. Washington became a state in 1889. There was a lot of logging. Native people were forced off their land into reservations as their ancestral homeland was chopped down by greedy Americans. Life has not been good for the Native Americans in Washington State.

Do’s and Don’ts for Power. Point Do: • Maximize color contrast • Use readable fonts • Use legible type size • Use visuals Don’t: • Don’t overuse effects • Don’t read off slides • Don’t have large amounts of text

Talk Nerdy to Me! (just replace “science” with “specialization”)

PREZI Hey Goodlookin’ Let’s take a trip to Prezi land.

Experiencing a Conference: Creating Conversations and Networking Attendance: Beyond panel sessions and keynote lectures, be sure to attend luncheons, informal discussions (often “un-conferences”), and happy hour. Networking: Conferences are a great opportunity to meet leading academics in the field and like-minded colleagues! Remember that academia is a small world. You are likely to run into these people over and over again, and you may need them to help you get a job someday. Connecting over Facebook, Twitter, or Linked. In might be preferred depending on the average of conference goers, but business cards don’t hurt. Asking Questions: ASK, ASK! Ask questions during the Q&A (panelists will remember you)! Ask the other presenters on your panel questions! Creating Conversations: Use the language of the field! It helps to begin with larger questions (a line of inquiry) rather than jump into your specialized research. Keeping your questions open allow for more interdisciplinary conversations.