This is pretty much what I wrote in the one goal thread but I don't want to hijack the thread so I thought I'd start my own. I would really appreciate any feedback - as is evident, I am prone to panicking about these things.

Eep I have my first conference presentation next week and I need to do the slides today. The paper was written and submitted about a month ago so I am hoping that it shouldn't be too much trouble to make the slides. There is an issue however (I 'm not sure how big of an issue it is?) in that the paper I submitted outlines what we plan to do during the course of my PhD and the associated project but since the paper was submitted some of the things we were going to do we may not be doing anymore. The thing that we most likely won't be doing was the main focus of the paper and is in the title. So I have a bit of a dilemma - do I just present the paper as written or do I admit that there is some doubt over what we will do? The problem is that I don't know for definite if we are/ are not going to do it yet. I did stress in the paper that a project was a work-in-progress.

Sorry for hijacking the thread - back to it.
Goal 1 - re-read paper

Not a good day - I was too anxious to get my slides done- they are half done from the last time I looked at them. I feel like I should be much better prepared by now. Is 3 days enough time to prepare slides, get to know the paper really well and practice the presentation? My stomach has butterflies and I can't concentrate so I am thinking of not even trying to work tonight and instead relaxing the my OH. That makes me feel like I'm being really lazy though. Oh and I am shopping with my mother in the morning to try find something to wear to the conference and the dinner so I probably won't be able to start working tomorrow until after lunch

Hi Ev

I think 3 days is plenty of tiem to do your slides and familiraise yourself with the paper.

Regarding the paper being work in progress - i htink that will be fine - as lots of conferences I have been to people have presented really sketchy stuff and have been fine. I think it is good to say it is work in progress and ask for suggestions.

Which conference is it you are going to? I am at a conference next week - maybe its the same one? Is it in west London?

Thanks Jesponclough! I really just needed someone to say it was doable in the time left. I guess I'm a bit of a perfectionist and want to be as prepared as I can - especially since I fully expect to be a bag of nerves on the day!

As for the conference, mine is in Ireland so not the same one as you are attending. I hope you enjoy it :-)

Hey Ev, don't stress too much about your slides. You have enough time to do it, you can get it done in a day and then have a day to go over everything and then you've got a day spare! Just make sure you know exactly what you want to say before you start writing them. Also, I think it should be fine presenting something different from what the original paper was, academia and projects are organic thing, they change over time depending on how the research goes, and it's much better showing you can change according to new info and new findings, rather than being dead set on one thing in particular. Good luck!