======= Date Modified 05 16 2009 21:16:19 =======
Dear all,

First presentation of my paper is coming up in a couple of days and I'm freaking out. I have spent all my energy to writing the paper during the last 2-3 weeks and getting the results. Eventually, got so tired and missed 2-3 days doing nothing although planned to prepare for the presentation. Now I have 2 days left and am thinking to cancel my presentation. I'm freaking out that my Professors and PhD colleagues will tear it off to pieces and that they might find my paper non-sense or something way off. Anyway, just feel not very good about it... I can, of course, manage to stack all I have in Power Point slides and rehearse a bit and just present. But, is it enough? May be I should have prepared longer? How long did you, guys, prepare after having written your paper (I mean, just Power Point and organizing your thoughts stuff)? Thanks in advance for your replies.

Hi Sheyana,

I assume you are presenting at a conference? Sorry if that sounds like a stupid question, I was just a bit unsure!
I don't have a huge amount of advice to give but having recently returned from my first conference I can say this: don't be afraid to explain when you are presenting that this is a work in progress and that you are hoping to get feedbck. That puts everyone at ease and it means you don't have to go on the defensive if somebody starts attacking your work- which, by the way, they won't!
I had my paper prepared quite a while in advance but I still felt completely unprepared and terrified. I would say that the experience is always worthwhile, even if you only come out of it knowing what you did wrong!
You have 2 days so just rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, if only to make yourself feel better. Go through the whole thing again and again out loud and practice with Power Point.

Good luck and I am sure you will be just fine (up)

Hi, Keep_Calm! (like your nick:-)

Thank you so much for chiming in and giving an encouraging reply! Sorry I didn't answer right away, had to prepare for the presentation. But I did read your post and it gave a good push. Especially when you said "the experience is always worthwhile, even if you only come out of it knowing what you did wrong!"

It was just an internal weekly Seminar between my PhD colleagues and Professors. The presentation went not bad, wasn't perfect with nice critique and comments, but, no, they didn't eat me8-) Now I know more or less which details one needs to pay attention to in presentations. Some things that seem not very essential and minor to yourself might need clarity and more scrutiny from others point of view and it's good.