Hi,

I am overseas at the moment and will be presenting at a conference next week. i still haven't finished by paper and have been having trouble doing so as I am just so nervous. I have presented at conferences before but this one is specific to my field and everyone there will be very knowledgable on the subject area. There is also quite a bit of interest in my research as it is exploring a relatively new area and i feel quite a bit of pressure to do it justice.

I should be seeing this as a positive since I can build up my contacts and get some really informed insight on my own research. But my impostor syndrome has kicked in and i have this overwhelming worry that they are all going to be thinking what utter rubbish I am talking and wondering how on earth I got to do the research in the first place! I wish I could just get over it and get on with the presentation. It's so silly as I have been looking forward to this all year.

Any words of advice are welcome. Really I think someone just needs to give me a slap!

Oh, I totally recognise what you're saying! I can't give much advice I'm afraid, as I haven't presented at a conference yet - but in September I'm hoping I'll be presenting in pretty much exactly the circumstances you describe, and it gives me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it! So I just wanted to say that what you're feeling is totally normal and natural and not at all a sign of actually being an impostor (I imagine that deep down you know this yourself...) Anyway - I think the thing is to try not to build it up into a huge make-or-break thing. It's a big moment for you, but to everyone else it's just another (hopefully interesting!) presentation. So try to release all of the tension about it so that you can be relaxed enough to enjoy it and get the most from it (easier said than done, I know!). Good luck with it, anyway!

I also totally know where you are coming from. I'm repeatedly getting impostor syndrome and it's pretty debilitating. I presented at a conference in November and was very aware that the audience really knew their stuff. In the end, though, so do you . This means that your audience will be interested in your topic (which is much better than at a more general conference where some people are pretty unengaged with what you might have to say). You'll probably find that you'll have people hanging on your every word, especially since you say it's all a new area, and they'll have lots of interesting and useful comments. You'll also probably run out of time on the discussion section like happened to me, which really surprised me as I'd lost track of time once I finished talking, which must mean I was enjoying myself! I'm sure this will happen to you and you'll forgot about feeling like an impostor.

Is that enough of a slap?! ;-)