Presentations in Medicine & Science

• Effectively communicate your ideas to any audience
• Demonstrate your expertise in your area
• Generate interest
• Create networking / collaborative possibilities
• Establish your reputation as an effective communicator

1. Know your audience
2. Know the Rules
3. Create an interesting story
4. Present crisp, clear, clean slides
5. Have an engaging and confident delivery
6. Master the Q & A period

Who will you be giving this talk to?

• Have something for everyone

What is the format:

• How long is the talk and how long for questions?

What should you bring with you?

Technology Issues

• PC vs. Mac, slide controllers, laser pointers, loading all presentations from individual / personal jump drives into a single shared computer.

Who will introduce you?

What is the venue like?

• Room Layout, lighting, seating, etc

An oral presentation should look like this:

The Beginning:

• Contains “the hook”
• Introduction
  • Big picture relevance
  • Background
• Defines the question  problems you are seeking to answer /solve
• Establishes the format and style of the talk

The Middle:

• Defines your hypothesis
• Describes your methodology
  • Contains key findings or results
  • Clearly explained
  • Easily identifiable
  • Logically linked to the point you are trying to make
• Summary / recap with regards to the objective of each or your main points

The End:

• Discussion of the results
  • How do the results relate to each other?
  • How do the findings support your hypothesis?
  • How does it address the question you were looking to answer?
• Addressing the bigger picture
  • How does it impact, change or influence your field or specialty?
  • How does it impact “me”?
• Where does it go from here?
• Acknowledgements

Where do you start?

• Start in the middle with your data
• Choose the best – less is more

What’s next?

• Work your way outward
• Data summary, methods, hypothesis

Closing up the ends

• Tackle the hard stuff
• Conclusions, “your questions”, background, hook

Philosophy of a SlideFflow

Characteristics of any Good Slide

• A title this is a declarative statement
  • Key finding, a result, a statement of importance
  • Is the key piece of information that listeners remember
  • It can be used as a sign post
• Figures should be large, clean and crisp
• Labels and text should be clearly readable
• Added arrows or indicators that point to difficult things to see
• Sufficient white space
• Helps, not hinders, the person “telling the story”

Slide Basics:

• Backgrounds
  • White, black or dark blue
  • “Artsy” or picturesque backgrounds are distracting
• High picture / text ratio
• Bulleted information
  • Succinct
  • Key pieces of information
• Consistent formatting appearance
• Custom animation
  • Avoid unless absolutely necessary
  • Aid to making a point
• Fonts
  • Type
    Arial, Times New Roman
    Avoid using all capitals
  • Size
    Titles- 36 to 40 pt
    Subtitles – 28 to 36 pts
    Rule of Thumb – can it be seen on the screen easily
  • Color
    Contrast with background for easy readability
    Primary colors, avoid pastels

Element 5: Have an Engaging and Confident Delivery

• The talk is not a spoken paper
• Good slide language
• Pace
• Position
• Transitions
  • Topic to topic and slide to slide
• Be engaging and personable
• Eye contact with the audience
• Be excited about the material

Element 6: Question and Answer Period

• Make sure you understand what is being asked
• Repeat the question
• Avoid long digressions; suggest discussing following the presentation
• Don’t take the bait
• Not all questions are “great”
• OK to say “I don’t know”

• The best talk is one you can do without slides
• Any talk is a professional networking opportunity
• Start preparing early
• Put yourself in the audience’s shoes