Hi all

:-(

I find myself presenting at a day long conference with 15 speakers, each and every one of whom is a scholar/researcher of standing, and two senior post docs.

I am 10 months into my PHD, all the other speakers are profs, research directors and so on (my supervisor will be in the audience, and is also a speaker)

Guys, oh please help me with any suggestions?

I am scared!

I'd love to hear some advice about this too as I guess I'm gonna find myself in a similar situation soon enough.

Dont be scared bug, your going to blow their socks off, I just know you will do well.  Judging from your previous posts you dont do anything without thorough preparation and receiving impressive results. This is just part of the process towards your illustrious career.  Just act confident and remember that the other speakers are not infallible. Sorry I cant offer any really practical advice, but I'm sure you'll get more helpful responses from other posters :-)

You can actually work this to your advantage insofar as you make it clear from the outset that you are early in your investigations. Then during the course of the presentation you make some sort of tentative interpretation/conclusion but go onto say that you'd really welcome other people's thoughts on this, perhaps as a discussion after the presentation - a chance to network!

Occasionally you get someone who will go out of their way to come up with a stinker of a question. Invariably they are probably known to the rest of the community for being like that (wait for the groans). A friend of mine who had it done to them replied "Hmmm. Good question. Next?"

hey bug :)

Don;t you worry yourself about it, it's never ever going to be as bad as you can imagine. As mentioned you seem like the kind of person who works uper hard and you'll be well prepared for your talk. There are 2 main things that freak people out at talks: the actual speaking in front of an audience, and the questions at the end. From what I've heard from everyone I've met so far, people seem to fall into either category. Personally I'm more of a questions freak, I'm ok hiding the nerves during the actual talk but the questions just terrify me!

For the talk, just practice it like mad before you go. Don't try to learn off rote what you will be saying, it's best to have a general idea of what you want to talk about, put the main points on Powerpoint so you don't forget and include plenty of images so it's not too texty or people will just get bored. The more interesting your slides are the less they will look at you which might help :) Remember the 6 P's... Poor Preparation Preceeds Piss Poor Performance :) If you get confused and lose your train of though just stop, take a drink of water and stay calm and it will come back, and no one will know the difference.

For questions, don't worry, no one is there to make you look stupid (unless they are a bit of an idiot and if they are well known then everyone else will know they are just being mean too). Just remember that you know what you are working on, only you (and your sups) know the decisions you have made for why you are doing what you are doing and therefore there is no wrong answer. If anyone asks a question that floors you just say that's a good point and you'd like to discuss it after, if you can't think of any other response.

Above all, don't panic, just enjoy it! I bet you any money after the first few minutes you'll relax into it and be wishing you had more time at the end to keep on going! It's fun talking about your PhD and getting feedback from others in your field and any replies you get will benefit you in some way.

Hope that helps, best of luck! (up)

======= Date Modified 25 Aug 2009 20:47:35 =======
oh thanks you guys! See, my dilemma is from a larger thing.... see in a xingle conference I am doing a multipanel poster, a paper (where I am the only sad student) and a paper with my sup which she is presenting, but I am working with her on that, plus I have to submit an essay to a journal in 2 days after final revisions (which are done but its still not endnoted)...plus there's two other panels I am organising (one with 4 scholars) and another with senior phd students, the preps for which are all happening NOW, plus there's.... I am going mad.

So I have not (unlike you kind folk have said) had ANY time to work on this paper and am Sh*& scared! I'm usually prepared for stuff but this time, time has made a complete fool of PhDbug.

I totally LOVE public speaking so give me a podium and I'll rattle off, so it;s not the speaking bit, it's the *content* unfortunately that's the flaw now and that's why I am worried :-(

I understand why you'd be nervous, you've obviously got a lot of things drawing your attention away from this paper. But I think it's understood that sometimes these things are very much 'work in progress'... I attended a workshop recently where one of the speakers was pretty much just floating an idea, one which he acknowledged faced serious objections that he had no ready answers to - but he didn't look stupid or underprepared, just unafraid to put an idea out there and accept feedback on it.

As for being the only student - I appreciate that must be a bit overwhelming, but on the other hand you're not under the sort of pressure the 'big hitters' are under to present something worthy of their formidable reputations!

Tx....hmm work in progress it of course is, I am not expected to present findings at the end of my PhD first year :-) I think it's the eternal human desire to satisfy self and all, and to make every single thing wrap up and come together, even while we know every individual step need not wrap up as long as the whole PhD does!

It sounds to me like you have a bit too much on your plate, and that is your main problem. This is very common for a PhD student, mainly because saying 'no' to a supervisor seems impossible. However, I think you should sit down with your supervisor and explain what you have on your plate (I know you may think they know this already, but in my experience that is probably not true). Say you really want to have some time to focus on your presentation, since this is a very big deal for you. Possibly your supervisor can do more of the work on her paper/presentation, and possibly the article can be submitted a bit later, or by someone else. Saying 'no' is one of the hardest things for a researcher to learn, because we are so used to balancing everything and think that people would only ask if we should be able to handle it. But that is just not the case. Your are asked to do things because others are delegating. It is perfectly ok to say, I have too much right now...ask someone else.

======= Date Modified 28 Aug 2009 18:07:03 =======

======= Date Modified 28 Aug 2009 18:59:56 =======
Hmm, point noted Hazyjane, and I agree that there are cases when things are 'passed on'. But, there are plenty of instances also (at least as I see with peers in my dept) where 'opportunities' are made available, and its up to indiv students to pick. This does not mean however, that things cannot get stressful (even if you've piled your own plate by choice).

The entire post however well intended seemed (and still seems to me) to be focused on the explaining-to-supervisor angle, which I find understandable, now that you draw my attention to it, although not entirely unsurprising as I had to scan my posts to see how it would have seemed I was holding someone else responsible for not being considerate enough.

I hate getting into fights, most of all forum fights where emotions/sentiments as intended by the authors are lost in translation/misunderstood via typed words etc, and where all words exchnaged are presevred in print. But apologies to ST who intends well, although I maintain that there is no reason to believe anyone is forcing anything on me.

PS to add an edit: I just thought of how like our spoken words, our written words too reflect on our moods at times... I have RSI starting and maybe that made me snap and snarl in my post? Did it? Did it not? I could not say, but I apologise to ST and HJ both. I am not deleting anything of what I said for people should get to see. But I truly am sorry if I snapped at anyone. Sorry, really, and I just want to say that I have piled my own plate and things are fine except for the mad rushes at times and the stupid early RSI.

Thank you for the apology, Phdbug, although I don't think you really need to apologise to me at all. I'm sorry to hear about your RSI. I hope it is a temporary aberration and doesn't prevent you achieving what you desire.

thanks Hj, am hoping the exact same thng too.

xx

Bug