Professional Presentation

Science communication only happens when the audience accurately receives and retains the key concepts that you are trying to communicate, so it’s vital to begin by thinking about your audience’s capabilities. How does the human eye process visual information? How does the brain interpret verbal input? What are the limitations of human learning? What are the best proven strategies for enhancing memory retention? Guided by best-practice studies in narrative, biology, and behaviorial science, this series will help you to improve the accessibility and impact of your work.

Workshops marked with * can be customized with specific examples, if you would like to contribute a specific presentation that your group will recognize.

Conference-Style Presentations

Professional Presentation Series

This series was initially developed to help early career researchers improve their conference presentations, but any of the 90-minute sessions can be presented independently, and the first three are generalizable to almost any kind of oral presentation with slides.

• *Session 1. Storytelling: For a lot of scientists, storytelling is the hardest part of conference presentation. You have a ton of fascinating information, but organizing it so that it is logical, easy to follow, and compelling takes a lot of practice. Today we’ll talk about some of the handiest tricks for helping your audience to stay engaged and focused through your entire presentation.
• *Session 2. Slideshow: People have both a physiological and a psychological response to the arrangement of graphics and words on every slide, so you can strategically use color, font, and images to help your audience understand and remember your content. Today’s talk will address best- and worst-practice slideshow construction.
• Session 3. Body Language & Vocal Tone: A formal presentation actually begins before you open the first slide or speak the first word because people are already evaluating how you dress, how you stand, and how you engage with the audience. Today’s talk is all about how you project confidence, modulate your voice to keep your audience interested, and generally improve the energy of your presentation. The talk will also address variance in body language between cultures and offer tips for international and multilingual presenters.
• Session 4. Integrating Presentation into the Conference: Today’s talk is more of a catch-all category that encourages you to think about maximizing the conference experience to meet both short-term goals (e.g. ace the presentation) and long-term goals (network to situate yourself for your next job). We will discuss how oral and poster presentations work more comprehensively and offer best-practice tips for navigating common hazards (microphone failure, awkward questions) and go through bonus notes on how to be a stellar session moderator.

(4x 90 min)

Poster Presentations

Best-Practice Poster Presentation Series

This workshop is structured around two complementary talks:

• Session 1. Best-Practice Poster Design: When someone is walking through a poster session, they begin scanning posters from a distance. What features of the poster tend to attract audience members? What features might cause them to move on without pausing? This talk explores best-practice design principles that will help you engage more audience members with your idea, setting you up for great networking conversations.
• Session 2. Best-Practice Poster Presentation: The most important benefit of a poster session is the networking, but networking is only really effective if you know how to engage the people that come talk to you about your work. This talk will help you navigate that awkward moment when you’re standing by your poster but no one has yet come to talk to you, engage new audience members more effectively, and follow up on the poster session so that the networking has longer-term value for your career.

(2 x 90 min)

Pitch Presentations

* Elevator Pitch

During informal networking, you sometimes get the chance to meet with someone who can meet a specific need (a job, a partnership, information, etc.), but asking someone for something out of the blue can be very hard. This talk is designed to help you understand the fundamental components of a elevator pitch, so that you can be prepared to promote your cause on a moment’s notice.

(90 min)

* Full Pitch Presentation Series

Whether you’re pitching a new research idea to a grant funding body or a new business proposition to potential investors, it is important to explain that work in a way that makes your potential stakeholders excited about investing in your idea.

• Session 1. Story: When you need funding for a major project, you need to explain that need in a way that is meaningful for stakeholders, and the foundation of that pitch is a strong story. This presentation talks through the science of how the brain makes decisions and explains the kind of story line that best supports directed decision making.
• Session 2. Slides: The human brain is great at dual-processing visual and verbal information, but it is terrible at dual-processing verbal and verbal information (imagine reading a journal article while listening to an audiobook and then being tested on your comprehension of both). This talk will explain how the brain interprets visual information and which techniques can most efficiently communicate information to stakeholders within a limited timeframe. We will also talk about offloading detailed information into a separate handout (alternate-reality slide deck or brief technical report) so that you’re separating two key functions: clear communication of the core narrative and providing complex details for further analysis.

(2x 90 min)