I have been accepted to present a paper at a conference at a postgrad symposium next month. Yipee.

This is my first conference and getting a bit nervous about the whole experience. I do have experience speaking to large crowds but not about my research.

So wanted to ask a few questions and opinions on these types of events.

The paper has to be a max of 20mins long, and i have always worked on approximation of 1 slide per minute. The conference is a general media conference but not specific to my field so i want to introduce my topic (as it is new research) before i go into my ideas. Is this a good idea. How much detail should i go into on the theory within the presentation? As this in my first conference and first year as a research student how do i handle questions that i don't understand or don't have the answers to.

Any information will be great as a complete novice at this.

Thanks

Tigger 8-)

I am in my 3rd year now and my first conference appearance was in my first year. The initial nerves give way to complete cynicism(!!)

Here are my tips:

- Choose your conferences carefully. Make sure there will be people there related to the field that might be interested.
- Keep an eye out for possible publication opportunities linked to the conference. To be of any value, a publication would need to be in an edition of a journal that is double blind peer reviewed. "Conference proceedings" are not much kop really.
- Present what you have already written at the conference. Don't be writing something fresh. It's really not worth the effort. Luckily I've been able to present work from each chapter of my thesis at various conferences and the greatest benefit has been having to distill my argument (or the key part of it) from a 20000 chapter to a 2500 word paper. It really forces you to focus on what you want to say and will aid your re-drafting of your chapter.
- Don't expect too much from conferences. How many times have you sat down and switched off after 2 mins? Exactly. People rarely listen. You will get good eye focus until about 7 mins and then the 7 minute itch kicks in and you might as well be talking to the wall.
- Hope that you get a slot in the morning preferably on the first day. People are full of energy and raring to go. From after lunch on the first day its down hill from there.
- Use slides but don't over use them. Use them for short sharp definitions of key concepts and nothing more. Put further reading suggestions and put your email address too just in case.
- Don't go into detail. You are presenting your research and 90% of the attendees will not be overly familiar with the area never mind the argument or the concepts.
- Relax. At the end of the day nobody will remember your "performance" as such. You prob won't get any decent feedback.
- Don't fret about questions. It's unlikely anyone will have listened enough. Generally people ask questions so they can talk about themselves and their research. Smile and nod.
- Go to the dinner. You might get lucky.

'- Go to the dinner. You might get lucky.'

- Haha, great reply Larry!

I tend not to go to conference dinners so maybe that's been my problem:$

LarryDavid is right though; try not to get too stressed - easier said than done I know. Less is def more re: slides - even a slide a minute is quite a lot. Postgrads, in my experience, don't tend to get asked too many difficult questions but even if you do, you could 'admit' that it's not something you had thought of/factored in etc but that it is an angle worth considering. Flatter the questioner and ask them to elaborate what they mean, or if they could point you to any references etc.

20 minutes is not long; trust me it will go by in a flash, or is that a blur??? Use the opportunity to network but also to go to other presentations and note the different presentations styles - what works etc, what falls flat on its face. As Larry says, don't have too much on your slides; a few key points which you then talk around. Nothing is more boring than sitting through a presentation where the person essentially presents exactly what is on their slides. Makes you feel they could have set the timer on their powerpoint and not bothered actually talking.

good luck with it(up)