Presenting in a conference

In an attempt to respond to one of the queries, I shall talk about my experience of presenting in conferences and how the conference can be rewarding to you. In an oral presentation, you are supposed to talk about a topic, a process, a concept, a theory, a framework, an experience, or an issue based on what you have read, published, researched, or experienced.

To present in a conference, you need to register your interest by sending an abstract (word count varies; better check the requirements set by the conference organisers) and other details, and then wait until you received a confirmation that you have been accepted to present in the conference. Once you are accepted, you have to confirm that you are still interested in presenting (also see their requirements regarding how to turn up).

You start preparing your presentation (e.g. PowerPoint slides), but ensure that your slides cover what you have mentioned in the abstract. If you present something that does not match the content of your abstract, you may not have the interaction that you expect to have with the audience. The audience makes the decision to attend your presentation after reading your abstract. Once they are interested, they come to listen to you. After finding you presenting something different from the abstract, they may keep using their phones (not listening to you), or may leave the room. You should remember that the point from presenting in a conference is to disseminate your research or communicate with the academic community to obtain feedback or receive interesting questions that you may need to consider in your research. Thus, you should keep your promise that you talk about what you said in the abstract, so the conference will be rewarding to you. To capture the audience’s interest in your presentation, you state clearly in your abstract the interesting parts that you would like to showcase in the conference

Besides capturing the audience’ interest, you have to speak clearly and up (not shouting) while presenting, so everyone can hear and understand you. You have to focus on the necessary parts that you need to showcase. For example, if you are presenting the results you obtained so far, then you may need to explain the methods used, how data are collected and analysed, and any other processes implemented to achieve so. If you think understanding the results requires presenting some literature, you may then have to give an overview of the concept or theory related to that. The audience may ask for more details. You can be savvy by adding more details in hidden slides. Once the audience asks for so, you can point to the slides containing those details and of course you have to explain. If there are prizes – not in all conferences – you may have the chance to win if you did perfectly well. A Good presentation may get you a prize.

The audience decides whether to listen to you in the first seven seconds. Therefore, I recommend starting with catchy statements, and not starting with your names and affiliations because the details are provided in the conference booklets with your abstract. Sometimes the chair may introduce you to the audience, so you do not have to go through that again. You may find the following video useful – how to start a conference presentation and engage your audience (https://virtualspeech.com/blog/how-to-start-a-presentation). You also may find excellent oral presentations from TED Talks (Check this on YouTube).

In some conferences, presenters may have the chance to present for 20 minutes and have 10 minutes for questions. In your abstract, you can mention that you will present more than one aspect from your research.  If so –  though the aspects are interrelated – you have to ensure that you present the first aspect clearly, and then move on to present the other aspects. If they are really interrelated, you need to tell the audience how they are interrelated. You have to prepare yourself, and ensure that 20 minutes are enough for presenting more aspects. You can have a mock presentation at home, by recording yourself, or inviting a colleague listening to you so he/can give you feedback on how you look like while presenting. The conference organisers will stop you as 20 minutes are over. There will be warnings like 5 minutes left, 2 minutes lefts, or 1 minute left. These warnings help you, as you may have to skip the details and move to the important bits and the conclusions. However, you never allow that to happen. It might be frustrating, especially that you travel for a conference and sometimes you pay the conference fees (££, $$, etc.), and then at the end your research is not well communicated to the academic community.

Having not finished your presentation and you have been asked to stop, there are other ways how you still can communicate your research to academics. Some academics may attend the conference, and then you may need to have a word with them, especially if they share the same interest. You can ask their contact details or follow them on social media, to maintain a good academic relationship. As you may have some breaks during the conference, you can have a chat over a cup of coffee, talking about your subject area or the topic that you presented. Conferences are a good way to build academic relationships.

If you have met an academic from the same discipline, you can try to get his contact details, and then talk to your supervisors discussing the possibility of using him/her as an examiner for your PhD. I perfectly understand that the PhD student should not have direct contact with the examiners. Your supervisors or the director of studies should contact, if you think that he/she will be a good examiner, following the university policies and regulations.