Guidelines for Conference Paper Presentation

Presentation sessions at the ISTR conference comprise four, fifteen minute presentations that deal with a similar topic or theme. The short length for presentations presents a challenge for many presenters who are used to developing their ideas over an hour or more! These guidelines are offered to assist you in presenting your work in a timely and informative manner. Good presentations contribute to the overall quality of the conference and to the value of the conference as a venue for your own and other presenters' work. Please make use of them in designing your presentation.

1. Please Do Not Read From Your Paper. This is particularly important at a multidisciplinary conference such as ISTR, where you will be presenting your ideas to a broader group than the (potentially) specialist group that will read your paper. In any case, most listeners want a presentation focused on key ideas, rather than a rushed attempt at the full text.
   
   
2. Please do ensure that your presentation bears some relationship to the abstract on which your audience members based their decisions to attend. To do otherwise is to set them up for frustration and disappointment.
   
   
3. It isn't possible to pour a conference paper into a 15 minute presentation. Instead, summarize the storyline of your paper, then present some 'cut' of your work that will encourage people to read the whole story. For example, if you are reporting on the results of a survey, outline the project, perhaps with contextual details that explain your particular role or interest in the work, then focus on an aspect of the results that has proved interesting, or (for example) difficult to interpret. As a rule of thumb, depth beats breadth; four points made well will come across better than 15 rushed through.
   
   
4. A visual presentation is very helpful for your audience, as long as it is legible and large enough to view / read. PowerPoint equipment will be available in each presentation room. Please do not try to put your entire presentation on the PowerPoint slides. Each slide should list just the main points that you will talk on. You may wish to have handouts of the PowerPoint presentation for the audience, as they may prove useful in the discussion / question period.
   
   
5. If you cannot prepare a PowerPoint presentation, summarize your presentation on a single sheet of paper and bring 30-40 copies to hand out to your audience and co-presenters.
   
   
6. Please practice your presentation several times before traveling to the conference. Present it to colleagues or co-workers who can help you improve it and who can alert you if it is unclear or boring. If you have students, do give them a dry run—they are great judges of presentability and they give honest feedback.
   
   
7. Please keep to time. Session moderators will not give you extra time as this will cut into someone else's presentation or into the question and answer period.
   
   
8. Be prepared to deal with questions; to give clarification, additional information, and comment on problems in a frank, candid and helpful manner.