Title : Powerpoint Presentation Skills For ScientistsArticle Category: Powerpoint Presentation Skills
Keywords : powerpoint presentation skills, successful presentation, presentation tips
Keys to a Successful Presentation
1. Make clear to your participant
2. Powerpoint slides
3. During presentation
4. Keep the audience spellbound
1. Make Clear To Your Participant
- Purpose of your talk (about what?)
- Communicate with your participant (duration, presentation format)
- Do not underestimate to your audience
- Convey your enthusiasm about your work
2. Powerpoint Sildes
- Clear title
- Make outline first!!
- Highlight words for stressing
- Don’t too much words
- Give reference published data; borrowed figures
- Use slides effectively, don’t too much
- One concept per slide
- Use color to highlight & organize
- Be consistent
3. During Presentation
- Present the nice opening with ice breaker
- Budgeting your time about 2-3 minutes/slide
- Know the fuzzy borders between experimental evidence and speculation
- Closing the presentation / public speaking with conclusion and recommendations
4. Keep The Audience Spellbound
- Share interesting tidbits
- Give unique examples/analogies
- Humor disturbs slumber
- Engage your audience by asking questions
- Conversational style
- Do not read your slides
- Vary voice tone
- Genuine enthusiasm
- Don’t overgesture with pointer, etc.
- Face your audience
- Eye contact
Other presentation tips
Talk slow down!
Provide overheads, handouts for emergency
Ref. for this article: Powerpoint Presentation Skills For Scientists written by: Diane Hannemann & Anindita in ppt format.
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Part of the contents of the slide:
Keys to a Successful Presentation
- Know your Audience
- Make it Clear!
- The Heart of the Matter: Sharp Figures & Pretty Pictures
- Prepare & Practice
- Zzzzzz …
- How You Say it Matters
- Not Compatible?
- Closure
powerpoint presentation skills for scientists
Know Your Audience
- In your field - can jump in with brief background; non-experts - need more set-up
- Purpose of your talk (Convince? Update? Teach?)
- Communicate with your audience
- * size matters
- * formal vs. discussion format
- Convey your enthusiasm about your work
- Don’t talk over their heads; don’t talk down to them
powerpoint presentation skills for scientists
Make it Clear - Structure
- Controls number of slides & provides balance
- - Budget 2-3 minutes/slide (e.g. 30’ talk = 10-15 slides)
- Have one story to tell:
- - decide on underlying issue to be addressed
- - divide into logical, hierarchical sub questions
- - talk should be series of answers to these questions
- Zoom-In (intro) and Zoom-Out (closure)
powerpoint presentation skills for scientists
Make it Clear - Concept
- Style & format
- - use color to highlight & organize
- - be consistent (audience knows where to look)
- Read through presentation and see if main points stand-out
- - Heading = WHAT or HOW
- - Summary statement = CONCLUSION
- “Speaker Support”
- - It doesn’t carry you -- you are the focus
- - It supports your message
powerpoint presentation skills for scientists
The Heart of the Matter
Sharp Figures & Pretty Pictures
- Clear title
- Highlight particular areas/words
- Don’t crowd with too much info
- Give credit where credit due
- - reference published data; borrowed figures
powerpoint presentation skills for scientists
The Heart of the Matter:
- Sharp Figures & Pretty Pictures
- Show bad
- showing a lot of unreadable info “for effect” - bad!
- if it can’t be read -- it’s a waste & it annoys audience
powerpoint presentation skills for scientists
Prepare & Practice
- Timing (how many slides & length of talk)
- Memorize intro and first few lines
- Beware of over practicing
- - Don’t memorize entire talk -- stiff & BORING!!
- -1X = 10-fold improvement
- - 2X = twice as good
- - 3X = polish
powerpoint presentation skills for scientists
Zzzzzz …
- Talk to your audience
- Engage your audience by asking questions
- Keep it interesting:
- - share interesting tidbits
- - give unique examples/analogies
- - humor disturbs slumber
- Tiny type kills (use at least 18 point font ... ?)
powerpoint presentation skills for scientists
Verbal Skills
- Slow down!
- Don’t read your slides - use as cues
- Vary voice tone (conversational)
- Genuine enthusiasm
- SPEAK-UP
powerpoint presentation skills for scientists
Body Language
- Eye contact
- Stand straight - breathe
- Don’t over gesture with pointer, etc.
- Face your audience
powerpoint presentation skills for scientists
Not Compatible?
- Ask ahead of time what equipment provided:
- - overhead projector vs. PowerPoint
- What format used:
- - PC vs. Mac?
- What type of disk acceptable:
- - floppy vs. Zip 100, Zip 250?
- Emergency back-ups:
- - overheads
- - handouts
powerpoint presentation skills for scientists
Closure
- Summary of conclusions
- Zoom-out (relevance or application of your work)
- Next steps (if appropriate)
- Acknowledgements
powerpoint presentation skills for scientists
Scientific Talks - Summary
- Know your audience & their needs
- Tell them a clear story developing each point upon the previous
- Show them the evidence (sharp figures)
- Keep them awake by engaging them
- Give them great delivery -- prepare, practice & SPEAK-UP!
- Share your enthusiasm for your work
- Sell your message with a strong summary of conclusions
powerpoint presentation skills for scientists
