A key aspect of presenting your work at a conference or public meeting is being able to speak clearly and use appropriate audio/visual aids. The more experience you have with public speaking, the better, and similarly, familiarity with content design software is a huge bonus.
To maximise engagement with the audience, I have some general suggestions:
- Avoid reading paragraphs from a PPT. It’s boring and impersonal, and you’re likely to overwhelm your audience with information. Instead, use your PPT to highlight a few key words or phrases — ideally shown in a creative way, maybe with mind maps or animations.
- Modulate your tone and diction. Remember that you are talking to real people with real lives, not LLMs. If you want to engage them, to make them pay attention to your work, you need to make them feel like you’re paying attention to them too. Make eye contact, it’s crucial.
- Get your audience actively engaged. If you need ideas: you can do this by taking polls, asking open questions, cracking jokes, or dividing people into breakout groups. To make your presentation stand out, find ways to incorporate any personal hobbies or interests you may have. I like to borrow ideas related to theatre and poetry, myself.
How I can help: I can review the content of your presentation, including any posters or other supplementary content you may have. As someone with professional theatre experience, I can also help you work on your confidence and delivery in front of an audience.