Giving effective presentations

1. Giving effective presentations Bill Dennison Future Environmental Decisions 6 Nov 2010

2. Outline • Communicating your message • Preparing effective slides • Presenting your talk

3. Outlines • Communicating your message • Preparing effective slides • Presenting your talk

4. Communicating your message takes preparation • Develop an overall theme/story • Connect your main themes • Keep to about five key points • Target your audience More than knowing the software

5. Communicating your message takes preparation • Get to the point—show data / main information within five minutes • Develop visual elements • Avoid jargon or acronyms • Stick to time limit—plan on one slide per available minute Every slide should have visual elements

6. Designing a good scientific PowerPoint presentation • Title slide – title, authors, affiliations • Outline of talk – explain organization & preview conclusions • Body of talk – format consistency, on-going summaries (e.g. ‘active’ titles)

7. Designing a good scientific PowerPoint presentation • Conclusions – take-home messages, stimulate questions • Acknowledgements – specify roles • Extra slides for questions

8. Outlines organize your main themes • Communicating your message • Preparing effective slides • Presenting your talk

9. The Slide Master provides consistency

10. Active titles can summarize key points Inactive titles: Barriers to EBM Impacts of low rain fall Water quality combined index Active titles: Communication identified as a barrier to implementing EBM Lack of rain resulted in high salinities A combined index of water quality show degradation downstream

11. Combine visual elements to provide context • Feeding operations situated close to streams

12. Reduce your file size by using the right photo format and resolution • Photos at high resolution can dramatically increase the file size • Use appropriate file formats (JPG, PNG, GIF) and resolution (~96 DPI) • If necessary, use PowerPoint's built-in compression function 300 DPI, 1,500 KB 96 DPI, 480 KB

13. Outlines organize your main themes • Communicating your message • Preparing effective slides • Presenting your talk

14. Presenting your talk • Preparation is essential • Arrive early to check equipment • Grab the audiences attention “Opener” • Provide appropriate background

15. Presenting your talk • Thoughtful transitions between points keeps your audience focused on your theme • Orient the audience to each slide • Be enthusiastic and pace yourself • Assess your audience and situation and respond if necessary

16. You are giving a talk, not reading a speech • Text can be used to: • Remindyou of the key points of the talk • Providethe audience with enough information to interpret graphics • Text should NOT be used to: • Distractaudience from your words (people will read a new slide before listening to you) • Replacethe need for you to talk by having a complete text provided on the slides

17. Summary • Be well prepared • Aim to impart only a few key points • Use common structure for audience • e.g. title, introduction, methods, results, conclusions • Use well prepared visual elements

18. Conclusion • Invest time and effort into a quality presentation • You owe it to your audience • You owe it to yourself • Visual elements, slides, and presentations can be reused many times

19. And now … Title Pursuit • This activity will help you create active, informative titles • Each group will examine the visual elements on a slide and create an appropriate active title

20. 1850 1994 1972 ? 1953 37.3% 57.0% Forest 14.3% 51.6% 4.6% 8.0% Residential 0.3% 15.5% 0.0% 1.2% 2.3% 4.3% Urban 57.0% 32.8% 28.5% Agriculture 85.5%

21. 1850 1994 1972 The watershed has changed from agriculture to forest and residential 1953 37.3% 57.0% Forest 14.3% 51.6% 4.6% 8.0% Residential 0.3% 15.5% 0.0% 1.2% 2.3% 4.3% Urban 57.0% 32.8% 28.5% Agriculture 85.5%

22. St. Martin River watershed

23. Land use in the St. Martin River watershed is mostly cropland and forest St. Martin River watershed