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Keep the message simpleYour audience will remember at most three points from your talk.
A simple message might be:• Respect your audience• Respect your colleagues• Respect yourself
Image: Patrik Kaufmann
Respect your audience• Ask yourself: “Why have these people come to
listen to me?”
• Set the context
• Explain what is new
• Explain why it is interesting
• Learn from your mistakes (and those of others)
Image: Guillaume Dargaud
Respect your audience
• Talk to them, not the screen
• Make eye contact with the full room
• Aim to inform, not to impress
• Don’t patronise or “talk down” to them
• Don’t keep saying “I don’t have enough time to cover this...”
Image: Guillaume Dargaud
Death by Powerpoint
• Colours• Fonts• Sizes
• Transitions• Entrances• Gimmicks• Backgrounds
Be economical with the number of different
PowerpointPowerpoint
• Colours• Fonts• Sizes
• Transitions• Entrances• Gimmicks• Backgrounds
Be economical with the
number of different
Readability
• Use very high contrast (but not too high!)
• Remember that some folk are colour blind• Use a large font size (>24 pt) This is 24 pt
• Use “clean” fonts, eg Arial or Optima– This is Arial. This is Helvetica. This is unreadable.
• If overlaying an image, use “transparency” to improve contrast
• Leave a margin for projector misalignment
Images
• Keep the original aspect ratio, but don’t be afraid to crop ruthlessly
• Make sure the image adds to, rather than detracting from, the message
• Images can be absorbed fast – watch the TV news and you will find that each image appears for an average of 5 seconds
• Compress the file when finished
Jokes
• Can help connect with the audience, but
• Can also dilute your message
• Can easily cause unintentional offence– Steer clear of sex, religion, politics and most
other things that are funny
• Very few physicists make good stand-up comics, but you never know...
Keep the message simple
Your audience will remember at most three points from your talk. A simple message might be:
• Respect your audience• Respect your colleagues• Respect yourself
Technicalities I
• Check setup beforehand– Talk to auditorium staff about lighting and sound– Check the projector focus– Stand at the podium to see how it feels
• Find (and test!) the laser pointer• Keep a backup on USB memory• If you plan to use a different computer:
– Fonts, movies etc may not work on different computer
Technicalities II
• If you plan to use your own laptop:– Ensure “Sleep mode”/screensaver is off (ie, switch to
“Always on” or “Presentation”)– Switch off WiFi searching, Skype, reminders and virus
updates– Run off mains power
• No risk of batteries going flat• Computer will run faster
– Take a careful look at your desktop…
Respect your colleagues
• Properly acknowledge all images
• Properly acknowledge your collaborators and co-workers
• Give credit to prior work
• Clearly distinguish your contribution from that of others
• Thank your sponsors
Milky way
Raw image of March 29th 200640sec exposure
Satellite trail
SMC
LMC
Image: A. Moore & Gattini Team
Just because you found something on the web, that doesn’t mean you can use it without acknowledgement (or indeed permission).
Image: www.dandennis.com
Respect yourself
• Dress appropriately
• Be confident– Or at least pretend to be confident
• Avoid:– picking your nose– sniffling or scratching– fondling yourself
The voice-over
• Talk slowly and clearly– Not everyone in the audience is necessarily
fluent in English
• Explain technical terms, but avoid being patronising
• Avoid jargon and TLAs (Three-Letter Acronyms)
• Modulate the pace and the intensity– particularly with long presentations
• No reading! Learn the first few sentences and closing remarks
The audience from hell will be…
• Talking (maybe in other languages),• Texting their mates,• Allowing their mobile phones to ring,• Listening to MP3 players,• Emailing and web-surfing,• Typing noisily on their laptops,• Allowing their computers to make noises,• Snoring…
Smile – and try harder to engage them!
The auditorium from hell…
• Is noisy, hot and stuffy
• Has the sun shining on the screen
• Has an out-of-focus, misaligned projector with bad ghosting and keystone
• Has a miserable sound system that constantly breaks into feedback...
• ...and prevents you from relating to the audience
Timing
• Never go over time...
...Ever
• Talk to session chair beforehand about timing cues
• Use a crib sheet or “hidden” symbols on your slides
• Practice; then expect real talk to take 20% longer
Nerves
• Everybody is nervous before a talk– If you are not nervous, it is time to retire...
• Remember to breathe
• Find a friendly face in the audience
• Make fear your friend
• Don’t forget to visit the “little astronomer’s room” before your talk...
...and before you put on the cordless mike!