Using an outline to guide you through your presentation is helpful. This allows you to structure your ideas logically and keeps your talk within the allotted time frame.
Researching the audience is also key to creating an engaging presentation. Understanding your audience can help you decide how much background information to provide and how to present complex data points.
Know Your Topic
Conferences bring like-minded people together under one roof to learn from each other and share their experiences. Many conferences also have an educational component with speakers giving presentations on a variety of topics.
When you present at a conference, you’re presenting to individuals who already possess knowledge of your topic. That’s why it’s important to know your topic well and focus on building an exciting presentation that will keep audience members engaged throughout your talk.
Be sure to include compelling statistics and a memorable call to action at the end of your presentation. This helps to leave attendees with a thought-provoking idea that they can take back to their own association offices and implement. It also provides a sense of closure that draws your presentation full circle.
Know Your Audience
Knowing your audience, or at least being aware of the type of audience that you’ll be presenting to, will allow you to shape your message in a way that is more relevant. Whether the audience is graduate students or professionals, or whether they’re familiar with the topic of your research or not, understanding what they’ll want to take away from your presentation will help you tailor your content and delivery.
This will also allow you to gauge how much context to provide. For example, if you’re presenting to an audience of non-scientists, you’ll need to avoid technical jargon and focus on the big picture. However, if you’re presenting to a group of IT professionals, it may be appropriate to delve into more advanced details.
Know Your Space
Presenting at a conference is a big deal. It exposes months or even years of work to a group of peers and allows them to see your thought process and level of knowledge on a subject. It also gives you the opportunity to share your research findings and potentially open doors for new collaborations.
Getting to the venue in plenty of time, and walking around the room before the audience arrives will help you become familiar with your presentation space. This will allow you to get comfortable with the room and make any necessary changes in advance of your audience arriving.
If there are two screens in the room, for example, ask them to be turned off so you can face your audience. This will make the experience more intimate for your listeners and make it easier for you to engage them with your ideas.
Know Your Technology
Whether you’re using virtual reality headsets, interactive touch screens or simple projection on a wall, know how your technology will work in the room ahead of time. Conferences are large events that bring together like-minded people from all around the world to share information, so it’s not uncommon for presentations to have some technical mishaps – so be prepared!
Many presenters fall into the trap of constantly looking back over their shoulder or at their laptop screen when presenting. This is a big distraction to the audience and prevents you from maintaining eye contact with the room. A confidence monitor can help you avoid this issue by showing you what your audience sees, so you can stay focused on the presentation and still manage to stick to your allotted time. Anticipate questions that might arise from your audience and prepare concise answers to help keep the conversation flowing.
Know Yourself
Many conference presenters rely on visuals to help reinforce or complement their ideas or points. However, they can also overwhelm audience members with too much information. Its best to keep it simple.
Its important to practice your presentation out loud and pay attention to how you sound. Recording yourself and asking for feedback can help you determine whether or not your speaking style fits the topic at hand.
During your Q&A session, remember that its okay to say you dont know the answer to a question. In fact, its better to be honest and offer to look into the issue and get back to them rather than improvising an answer that may not be accurate. Providing your contact information in the final slide or at the end of your talk shows that youre willing to follow up with participants.