LC-0510 - Conference presentations D, Lecture, 14.1.2022-4.2.2022

- Choose the topic and your point of view: what´s the main point and what do you need to leave out.

- Define and think about your audience: what does the audience know already? How specific do you have to be? You can focus on the audience on this course or you can think about some other audience. What´s their point of view? What´s interesting / relevant / exciting from their point of view? What motivates them?

- Try to be clear: if possible try to find a link to every day life, use concrete examples and simple language. Use power points / prezi / something else: lose the text and use pictures if possible. Power points are for the audience and they should make the presentation easier to understand. Still: you are more important than your power points. PPs are not the presentation, you are.

- Plan a logical structure: how do you motivate the audience in the beginning? Be clear with your topic: what are we talking about and why? Are you presenting something specific related to your research or one part of an entity? Or just introducing your topic in a general manner? 

You can also activate the audience, if you want to. (well.. this might be risky if people start talking too much) 

In the beginning you can have an outline of the presentation or then not. You choose. (You can also just mention what you´re going to talk about without a slide)

Plan also the end: what do you want the audience to remember?

- You can use notes, but don´t write too much.. are you sure you need the notes or are the power points enough? Power points can work well as notes, but remember: they are for the audience, not for the speaker.

- Talk it out loud and check the time! You can give a 10, 15 or 20 min. presentation. (choose in advance) If you want to give a longer presentation, please ask in advance.

- In front of your audience:
Presentations = communication: focus on your substance and your audience. Try to live with your nerves: it´s normal to be anxious / exited / nervous.. People are probably not going to notice, so don´t worry. Or if they notice something, they´ll probably interpret it as energy. The audience is on your side and they really want to focus on your presentation. (at least on this course)
Let it show that you´re interested in your research: that motivates the audience too!

Remember also the pitch! Plan a 30 seconds pitch about your research in a way that it works for my grandmother Kaija. Keep it simple and concrete!

Please contact me if you have any problems or anything to ask: rinna.toikka@aalto.fi