Speed Presentation

Advice for presenters:

1. Do not assume that because a speed presentation is much shorter than a regular presentation that it is less work to prepare. Compressing your work into four minutes of speaking and a few images takes substantial planning and practice.

2. Some speed presentations tell a complete story from introduction to take-home message; others simply introduce an intriguing topic and encourage the audience to explore the issue with you during the discussion period. The best presentations do both, summarizing your work for the majority of audience members who will not be talking to you afterwards and enticing a significant portion to talk further with you.

3. The 4-minute time limit will be strictly observed. You will be given warnings when you have 30 seconds left and 10 seconds.

4. You may find it handy to have some props to use during the discussion section: hard copies of key figures, maps of your study area, photos of your subject, copies of reprints, etc.

5. Do not be disheartened if few people come to your table during the discussion section. Just because people are more inclined to talk to one of the other 14 or so presenters in your session does not mean that they did not find your presentation valuable and interesting. Audience members usually want to meet presenters whose work is closest to their own.