How you present spontaneously

You are attending a seminar and are suddenly addressed directly by the speaker: “What is your opinion?” There is no time for long reflection. How do you react now? Do you have a suitable answer ready?

Honestly, this situation rarely occurs in the presentation. In a seminar such a direct question is not common either. More often than not you come into this situation in small talk or in conversation with other colleagues. However, it is common during or after a presentation in which you speak to an audience yourself. If only you could answer spontaneously and quick-witted! What can you do for it?

 

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How your poster presentation works

Poster presentations are an integral part of science conferences since the 1960s (Rowe, 2017). Google spits out millions of tips about how to design posters and in terms of content. But how do you present yourself during the poster session? How do you maximize attention? How do you position yourself as an expert in your field? The online tips are so far – well, very modest. This blog post is meant to change that. Read more

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Stories make science exciting again

“Sometime they’ll give a presentation and nobody will come.” I experienced that again and again while I was a student and researcher. There are conference sessions in which just three people sit in the audience listening to a presentation that is at most mediocre. Only three, because the topic is extremely special and because many presentations recite a bunch of numbers, data and facts.

As students, we can learn a lot of undoubtedly interesting stuff – otherwise we would not have decided to study a particular subject. But most professors do not give much thought to how this material is taught. No wonder with the continuous pressure of publications, project proposals and the day-to-day administrative stuff. The unloved teaching is only the odd one out. But without preparation and training only natural talents may succeed with both instructive and exciting lectures. Unfortunately, this happens far too rarely.

 

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Strong end and a stimulating discussion

Simon prepares the last section of his science presentation. He wants to draw a clear conclusion by presenting new findings and discussing them with the audience. As in the beginning and middle part, he is accompanied by his mentor Sarah, who can draw on her wealth of experience and provides Simon with valuable information for his performance.

The first impression at the beginning of a presentation can be reinforced or revised in the closing and the follow-up discussion. It is Simon’s second chance to be positively remembered by the audience.

The majority of presentations end in the classic way: contents are summarized once again. Resulting conclusions and a “thank you” follow before the moderator leads over to the discussion.

 

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The Science Story: Highlights in midst of the speech

Simon is a PhD student and is currently preparing his conference presentation. He has already improved his start after a meeting with his mentor Sarah. Now he asks himself: How can I present the results of my study concisely? What details are my audience interested in and what new insights do they gain? How does the transition between the individual sections work?

 

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First sentence is yours!

Sarah and Simon met at a science conference. Sarah works as a research assistant at the Chair of Migration and Intercultural Communication, Simon is a PhD student. Both meet again two weeks after the conference: Sarah supports Simon in preparing his presentation for the next conference. They discuss the draft and Simon rehearses his presentation. He starts with the sentence “Dear Ladies and Gentlemen…”

 

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Research and emotions

Sarah’s presentation was easily understandable and entertaining. In the discussion she gained new ideas and insights. At the coffee break she is approached by other people who want to learn more about her project. Simon is a PhD student at the symposium and listened to the presentation with interest. He wants to know how Sarah prepared her successful speech.

 

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Present your project with PechaKucha

PechaKucha is a special presentation format that was developed in Japan in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham, two architects working in Tokyo. For the PechaKucha (pronounced: “petschaktscha”, Japanese for “chit-chat”) you use exactly 20 slides which you present in 20 seconds each. Each presentation lasts exactly 400 seconds or 6:40 minutes.

 

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Socialize with small talk

Whether at conferences, job interviews or even more so at networking events: When you want to talk to people you do not know yet, small talk can break the ice. The art of small talk is to find and share common interests. So it is better you don’t go like a bull at a gate.

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Presenting clearly – for scientists and experts

A promising recipe for high-quality presentations is the proper language style: Use plain language! Speak in a way so that you are understood immediately and easily. Allow no space for average presentations.

You can skip the obvious at the beginning like in the following speech excerpt confidently: “Good day, dear audience. It is great that so many of you have appeared. My name is Wolfgang Schneider. I will first provide an overview of the research area, then I will present the methods before I move on to the actual results of our project. For the sake of completeness, I will list the literature sources on my last slide…”

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