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How to prepare and deliver an effective oral presentation

• Related content
• Peer review
• Lucia Hartigan , registrar 1 ,
• Fionnuala Mone , fellow in maternal fetal medicine 1 ,
• Mary Higgins , consultant obstetrician 2
• 1 National Maternity Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
• 2 National Maternity Hospital, Dublin; Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medicine and Medical Sciences, University College Dublin
• luciahartigan{at}hotmail.com

The success of an oral presentation lies in the speaker’s ability to transmit information to the audience. Lucia Hartigan and colleagues describe what they have learnt about delivering an effective scientific oral presentation from their own experiences, and their mistakes

The objective of an oral presentation is to portray large amounts of often complex information in a clear, bite sized fashion. Although some of the success lies in the content, the rest lies in the speaker’s skills in transmitting the information to the audience. 1

Preparation

It is important to be as well prepared as possible. Look at the venue in person, and find out the time allowed for your presentation and for questions, and the size of the audience and their backgrounds, which will allow the presentation to be pitched at the appropriate level.

See what the ambience and temperature are like and check that the format of your presentation is compatible with the available computer. This is particularly important when embedding videos. Before you begin, look at the video on stand-by and make sure the lights are dimmed and the speakers are functioning.

For visual aids, Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Mac Keynote programmes are usual, although Prezi is increasing in popularity. Save the presentation on a USB stick, with email or cloud storage backup to avoid last minute disasters.

When preparing the presentation, start with an opening slide containing the title of the study, your name, and the date. Begin by addressing and thanking the audience and the organisation that has invited you to speak. Typically, the format includes background, study aims, methodology, results, strengths and weaknesses of the study, and conclusions.

If the study takes a lecturing format, consider including “any questions?” on a slide before you conclude, which will allow the audience to remember the take home messages. Ideally, the audience should remember three of the main points from the presentation. 2

Have a maximum of four short points per slide. If you can display something as a diagram, video, or a graph, use this instead of text and talk around it.

Animation is available in both Microsoft PowerPoint and the Apple Mac Keynote programme, and its use in presentations has been demonstrated to assist in the retention and recall of facts. 3 Do not overuse it, though, as it could make you appear unprofessional. If you show a video or diagram don’t just sit back—use a laser pointer to explain what is happening.

Rehearse your presentation in front of at least one person. Request feedback and amend accordingly. If possible, practise in the venue itself so things will not be unfamiliar on the day. If you appear comfortable, the audience will feel comfortable. Ask colleagues and seniors what questions they would ask and prepare responses to these questions.

It is important to dress appropriately, stand up straight, and project your voice towards the back of the room. Practise using a microphone, or any other presentation aids, in advance. If you don’t have your own presenting style, think of the style of inspirational scientific speakers you have seen and imitate it.

Try to present slides at the rate of around one slide a minute. If you talk too much, you will lose your audience’s attention. The slides or videos should be an adjunct to your presentation, so do not hide behind them, and be proud of the work you are presenting. You should avoid reading the wording on the slides, but instead talk around the content on them.

Maintain eye contact with the audience and remember to smile and pause after each comment, giving your nerves time to settle. Speak slowly and concisely, highlighting key points.

Do not assume that the audience is completely familiar with the topic you are passionate about, but don’t patronise them either. Use every presentation as an opportunity to teach, even your seniors. The information you are presenting may be new to them, but it is always important to know your audience’s background. You can then ensure you do not patronise world experts.

To maintain the audience’s attention, vary the tone and inflection of your voice. If appropriate, use humour, though you should run any comments or jokes past others beforehand and make sure they are culturally appropriate. Check every now and again that the audience is following and offer them the opportunity to ask questions.

Finishing up is the most important part, as this is when you send your take home message with the audience. Slow down, even though time is important at this stage. Conclude with the three key points from the study and leave the slide up for a further few seconds. Do not ramble on. Give the audience a chance to digest the presentation. Conclude by acknowledging those who assisted you in the study, and thank the audience and organisation. If you are presenting in North America, it is usual practice to conclude with an image of the team. If you wish to show references, insert a text box on the appropriate slide with the primary author, year, and paper, although this is not always required.

Answering questions can often feel like the most daunting part, but don’t look upon this as negative. Assume that the audience has listened and is interested in your research. Listen carefully, and if you are unsure about what someone is saying, ask for the question to be rephrased. Thank the audience member for asking the question and keep responses brief and concise. If you are unsure of the answer you can say that the questioner has raised an interesting point that you will have to investigate further. Have someone in the audience who will write down the questions for you, and remember that this is effectively free peer review.

Be proud of your achievements and try to do justice to the work that you and the rest of your group have done. You deserve to be up on that stage, so show off what you have achieved.

Competing interests: We have read and understood the BMJ Group policy on declaration of interests and declare the following interests: None.

• ↵ Rovira A, Auger C, Naidich TP. How to prepare an oral presentation and a conference. Radiologica 2013 ; 55 (suppl 1): 2 -7S. OpenUrl
• ↵ Bourne PE. Ten simple rules for making good oral presentations. PLos Comput Biol 2007 ; 3 : e77 . OpenUrl PubMed
• ↵ Naqvi SH, Mobasher F, Afzal MA, Umair M, Kohli AN, Bukhari MH. Effectiveness of teaching methods in a medical institute: perceptions of medical students to teaching aids. J Pak Med Assoc 2013 ; 63 : 859 -64. OpenUrl

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7 Steps to Delivering a Technical Presentation

June 21, 2021 - Dom Barnard

So you want to share the fruits of your technical labor with a presentation? Perhaps, you’re an engineer, a maker, a coder, or a designer, and you’re looking to discuss a research study, explain a process, or demonstrate a product.

Regardless of the agenda,  speaking to a group  can be intimidating. However, there are steps you can take to deliver an effective technical presentation that gets your point across and appeals to the audience.

Whether you’re presenting in person or via  web conferencing software , the following tips and best practices will help you be prepared, feel more confident, and set up the tools you need to conduct your presentation without any issues.

Know your subject matter

A great presentation isn’t about reading a bunch of slides – your attendees are capable of reading much faster on their own.

If you are going to pack your slides with dozens of details and bullet points, you might as well ditch the slides and write an article instead. It’s difficult for the audience to listen to a presenter and read a lot of information at the same time.

Your job as a presenter is to be the expert that your attendees expect you to be. Keep your slides simple and minimal. In fact, 91% of people say that  well-designed slides  help  boost their confidence  when giving a presentation.

Remember that your slides are not the star of the show, you are. Help your audience understand and make sense of what they are reading in your slides. To do this, make sure you are using a  suitable structure  for your presentation.

You can do these things only when you’re well-versed in what you’re presenting. The slides are supposed to be your outline, or simply a table of contents to remind you what to cover during the presentation.

Know your audience

Knowing your audience  is crucial for any presentation, but it’s even more important for a technical one. If your audience is as experienced and comfortable with the topic of your presentation as you are, then you don’t want to dumb it down to the extent that it bores them.

On the other hand, you don’t want to give a complex presentation to an audience with no clue of what you’re talking about.

There may also be times when your attendees are people with different levels of technical skill, experience, and interests. Then your job is to make sure that the content of your presentation is relevant and doesn’t alienate any of those segments.

Image Source:  Digital Clarity Group

To understand how technical you need to be, consider what your audience might already know and how much is required for them to understand to meet your goal.

If your objective is to acquire funding, for instance, your audience will be more interested in financial benefits than the technical details of your product. The idea is to meet the needs of your audience, not to fuel your passion for engineering.

Configure your IDE

Since you’re delivering a technical presentation, there may be instances where you’ll want to walk your audience through your development environment, code scripts, software demos, or other technical components.

However, you may have adjusted how things look on the screen according to what’s the most convenient for your usual workflow. And what’s good for working in your day-to-day routine may not render well as you go full screen in presentation mode.

If the attendees can’t decipher what’s on the screen, they’ll get confused and will find it hard to focus on your talk. So it’s important that you customize whatever you’re going to show in your presentation such that it’s easily readable and viewable.

There are several steps you can take to make this happen. First of all, don’t use dark backgrounds. Light-colored backgrounds are easy on the eyes. Second, adjust your font styles and sizes to make sure they’re big enough.

And finally, learn to zoom in on specific areas as required, depending on whether you’re using a  Windows PC  or a  Mac system .

Practice Presentation Skills

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Minimize distractions

Nothing is more annoying than to keep getting disruptive notifications or popups from in the middle of your presentation. These can be from your operating system (Windows or Mac), or apps such as Slack, Email, Twitter, and more.

At times, these notifications can be personal, embarrassing, or contain confidential information that you don’t want your audience to see.

Therefore, it’s best to make sure in advance that there are no unpleasant surprises. Before you get up to give your presentation, turning off your notifications can go a long way.

This will also reduce the number of processes running on your machine and free up available resources. As a result, the resource-intensive programs that are part of your presentation will run a lot smoother. Here’s how to turn off  notifications for Windows ,  Google Chrome , and  Mac .

Get the right equipment

If you want to be a master presenter, you should have the proper tools for the job. The basics include a desktop or laptop machine with good configuration, a big display screen, presentation software (usually MS Powerpoint or Keynote), and a clicker/pointer device.

A clicking device, like the  Logitech Wireless Presenter , can help you switch slides from wherever you are in the room, point to a specific part of a slide, and add an overall professional touch to your presentation.

In addition, you should have any cables (HDMI, VGA, USD, etc) and adapters required to connect the devices you are going to use for the presentation.

Conrad Delock USB 3.0 Network adapter

If you have no idea about what will be available at your presentation venue, then carry one piece of each of the commonly used cables and adapters. You’ll thank us later.

Rehearse in advance

Practice your slides and your demo multiple times before the presentation, even if you have presented the exact same thing in the past. Do not make any assumptions about your actual presentation environment based on your practice environment.

Technologies and situations change, and you may find things that catch you off guard. Run through everything at least once the night before just to be sure.

Practice your presentations with  interactive exercises .

Even better if you can record yourself during these rehearsal presentations and watch the recordings later to find areas of improvement.

Also, if you’re relying on downloading or doing something in front of the audience that may require a high-speed internet connection, don’t assume you’ll have access to such a network during your presentation. Download and install whatever you need ahead of time.

Finally, enjoy the experience

You’re giving a technical presentation, but that doesn’t mean it has to be boring, or that you have to be serious all the time as you talk.

It’s okay to have fun, crack some jokes,  tell a story ,  ask a rhetorical question  or invite participation from the audience when presenting. In fact, a study showed that presentations that don’t let the audience participate see a  drop of 14%  in engagement.

Don’t worry too much about things going wrong. See every presentation as a dialogue with your attendees and an opportunity to learn and be a better presenter. If you are enjoying yourself, so will your audience.

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16 Oral Presentations

Chapter attribution.

David McMurrey and Cassandra Race

Oral Presentations

A common assignment in technical writing courses—not to mention in the workplace—is to prepare and deliver an oral presentation, a task most of us would be happy to avoid. However, while employers look for coursework and experience in preparing written documents,  they also look for experience in oral presentations as well. Look back at the first chapter. Remember how important interpersonal communication skills are in the workplace.

The following was written for a standard face-to-face classroom setting. If you are taking an online technical writing course, oral reports can be sent in as “scripts,” or audio versions can be transmitted live or recorded. In any case, students may evaluate each other’s oral reports by filling out a form like the one provided at the end of this chapter or responding through the discussion board.

If you can believe the research, most people would rather have root canal surgery without novocaine than stand up in front of a group and speak. It truly is one of the great stressors. But with some help from the resources that follow, you can be a champion presenter.

For additional information on oral presentations and public speaking in general, see Effective Presentations . This is part of an online tutorial series provided by Kansas University Medical Center. This section has many resources that will be helpful to you.

Topic and Situation for the Oral Presentation

For the oral report in a technical writing course, imagine that you are formally handing over your final written report to the people with whom you set up the hypothetical contract or agreement. For example, imagine that you had contracted with a software company to write its user guide. Once you had completed it, you’d have a meeting with chief officers to formally deliver the guide. You’d spend some time orienting them to the guide, showing them how it is organized and written, and discussing some of its highlights. Your goal is to get them acquainted with the guide and to prompt them for any concerns or questions. (Your class will gladly pretend to be whoever you tell them to be during your talk.)

As you can see, you shouldn’t have to do any research to prepare for this assignment—just plan the details of your talk and get at least one visual ready. If you have a report topic that you’d prefer not to present orally, discuss other possibilities with your instructor. Here are some brainstorming possibilities in case you want to present something else:

• Informative purpose: An oral report can be primarily informative. For example, as a member of a committee involved in a project to relocate the plant, your job might be to give an oral report on the condition of the building and grounds at one of the sites proposed for purchase. Or, you might be required to go before the city council and report on the success of the new city-sponsored recycling project.
• Instructional purpose: An oral report can be instructional. Your task might be to train new employees to use certain equipment or to perform certain routine tasks.
• Persuasive purpose: An oral report can be persuasive. You might want to convince members of local civic organizations to support a city-wide recycling program. You might appear before the city council to persuade its members to reserve certain city-owned lands for park areas, softball and baseball parks, or community gardens.
• Topics: You can start by thinking of a technical subject, for example, solar panels, microprocessors, drip irrigation, or laser surgery. For your oral report, think of a subject you’d be interested in talking about, but find a reason why an audience would want to hear your oral report.
• Place or situation: You can find topics for oral reports or make more detailed plans for them by thinking about the place or the situation in which your oral report might naturally be given: at a neighborhood association? at the parent–teachers’ association meeting? at a church meeting? at the gardening club? at a city council meeting? at a meeting of the board of directors or high-level executives of a company? Thinking about an oral report this way makes you focus on the audience, their reasons for listening to you, and their interests and background. As in all technical writing situations, identifying and understanding your audience is of the utmost importance.

Content and Requirements for the Oral Presentation

The focus for your oral presentation is clear, understandable presentation; well-organized, well-planned, well-timed discussion. You don’t need to be Mr. or Ms. Slick-Operator—just present the essentials of what you have to say in a calm, organized, well-planned manner.

When you give your oral presentation, we’ll all be listening for the same things. Use the following as a requirements list, as a way of focusing your preparations:

• Situation : Plan to explain to the class what the situation of your oral report is, who you are, and who they should imagine they are. Make sure that there is a clean break between this brief explanation and the beginning of your actual oral report.
• Timing : Make sure your oral report lasts no longer than the time allotted. Your instructor will work out some signals to indicate when the mark is approaching, has arrived, or has passed.
• Indicate the purpose of your oral report
• give an overview of its contents
• find some way to interest the audience
• Visuals : Use at least one visual—preferably slides using presentation software (such as Powerpoint) or transparencies for the overhead projector. Flip charts and objects for display are okay, but avoid scribbling stuff on the chalkboard or whiteboard or relying strictly on handouts. Make sure you discuss key elements of your visuals. Don’t just throw them up there and ignore them. Point out things about them; explain them to the audience.
• Explanation : Plan to explain any technical aspect of your topic clearly and understandably. Don’t race through complex, technical stuff—slow down and explain it carefully so that we understand it.
• Transitions : Use “verbal headings”—by now, you’ve gotten used to using headings in your written work. There is a corollary in oral reports. With these, you give your audience a very clear signal you are moving from one topic or part of your talk to the next  Your presentation visual can signal your headings.
• Planning : Plan your report in advance and practice it so that it is organized. Make sure that listeners know what you are talking about and why, which part of the talk you are in, and what’s coming next. Overviews and verbal headings greatly contribute to this sense of organization.
• summarize (go back over high points of what you’ve discussed)
• conclude (state some logical conclusion based on what you have presented)
• provide some last thought (end with some final interesting point but general enough not to require elaboration)
• or some combination of these three
• Questions : And certainly, you’ll want to prompt the audience for questions and concerns.
• Timing (again) : As mentioned above, be sure your oral report is carefully timed. Some ideas on how to work within an allotted time frame are presented in the next section.

Preparing for the Oral Presentation

Pick the method of preparing for the talk that best suits your comfort level with public speaking and with your topic. However, plan to do ample preparation and rehearsal—some people assume that they can just jump up there and ad-lib for so many minutes and be relaxed and informal. It doesn’t often work that way—drawing a mental blank is the more common experience. A well-delivered presentation is the result of a lot of work and a lot of practice.

Here are the obvious possibilities for preparation and delivery:

• Write a script, practice it; keep it around for quick-reference during your talk.
• Set up an outline of your talk; practice with it, bring it for reference.
• Set up cue cards, practice with them, and use them during your talk.
• Write a script and read from it.

Of course, the extemporaneous or impromptu methods are also out there for the brave and the adventurous. However, please bear in mind that up to 25 people will be listening to you—you owe them a good presentation, one that is clear, understandable, well-planned, organized, and on target with your purpose and audience.

It doesn’t matter which method you use to prepare for the talk, but you want to make sure that you know your material.  The head-down style of reading your report directly from a script has problems. There is little or no eye contact or interaction with the audience. The delivery tends toward a dull, boring monotone that either puts listeners off or is hard to understand. And, most of us cannot stand to have reports read to us!

For many reasons, most people get nervous when they have to give oral presentations. Being well prepared is your best defense against the nerves. Try to remember that your classmates and instructor are a very forgiving, supportive group. You don’t have to be a slick entertainer—just be clear, organized, and understandable. The nerves will wear off someday, the more oral presenting you do. In the meantime, breathe deeply and enjoy.

The following is an example of an introduction to an oral presentation. Use it as a guide for planning your own.

Oral Presentation: Enhancement of the Recycling Program

Valerie and I represent the Austin Coalition for Recycling, a group that was founded in the late 1960s, partly in response to rising utility bills and partly out of a concern for the environment and its resources. High utility bills not only hurt each of us in our pocketbooks but also hurt the quality of life of our city as a whole.

We are all particularly proud of what a fine city we live in and what wonderful citizen involvement there is herein a whole range of civic activities. These things make our city special and ought to be the force that enables us to make a recycling program an integral part of the city’s waste management program. Backed by the City, a new powerful recycling program will contribute enormously to keeping Austin the wonderful place it is.

Valerie and I want to talk to you about how recycling works currently, how it will work once integrated with the city’s waste management program, how this integration will benefit our city, and what you can do to support this plan.

Delivering an Oral Presentation

When you give an oral report, focus on common problem areas such as these:

• Timing —Make sure you keep within the time limit. Finishing more than a minute under the time limit is also a problem. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse until you get the timing just right.
• Volume —Obviously, you must be sure to speak loud enough so that all of your audience can hear you. You might find some way to practice speaking a little louder in the days before the oral presentation.
• Pacing, speed —Sometimes, oral presentators who are nervous talk too fast. All that adrenaline causes them to speed through their talk, making it hard for the audience to follow. In general, it helps listeners  understand you better if you speak a bit more slowly and deliberately than you do in normal conversation. Slow down, take it easy, be clear…and breathe.
• Gestures and posture —Watch out for nervous hands flying all over the place. This too can be distracting—and a bit comical. At the same time, don’t turn yourself into a mannequin. Plan to keep your hands clasped together or holding onto the podium and only occasionally making some gesture. Definitely keep your hands out of your pockets or waistband. As for posture, avoid slouching at the podium or leaning against the wall. Stand up straight, and keep your head up.
• Verbal crutches —Watch out for too much “uh,” “you know,” “okay” and other kinds of nervous verbal habits. Instead of saying “uh” or “you know” every three seconds, just don’t say anything at all. In the days before your oral presentation, practice speaking without these verbal crutches. The silence that replaces them is not a bad thing—it gives listeners time to process what you are saying.

The following is an example of how topic headings can make your presentation easy for your listeners to follow.

Excerpt from an oral report

As you can see from the preceding, our fairly average-size city produces a surprisingly large amount of solid waste. What is the cost of getting rid of it? I can tell you from the start that it is not cheap…

The next sentence indicates that the speaker is moving on to a new topic (“cost”).

[discussion of the costs of disposal]

…Not only are the costs of getting rid of our garbage high, as I have shown, but it’s getting harder and harder for city officials to find areas in which to get rid of it. The geographical problems in disposal…

Planning and Preparing Visuals for the Oral Presentation

Prepare at least one visual for this report. Here are some ideas for the “medium” to use for your visuals:

• Presentation software slides —Projecting images (“slides”) using software such as Powerpoint has become the standard, even though maligned by some. One common problem with the construction of these slides is cramming too much information on individual slides. A quick search on terms like Powerpoint presentation will enable you to read about creating these slides and designing them intelligently. Of course, the room in which you use these slides has to have a computer projector.
• Transparencies for overhead projector —The overhead projector used with transparencies seems to have been relegated to antiquity—but not entirely. If you have to use this method, you will design your visual on a sheet of blank paper, then photocopy it, and create a transparency of it.
• Posterboard-size charts —Another possibility is to get some poster board and draw and letter what you want your audience to see. Of course, it’s not easy making charts look neat and professional.
• Handouts —You can run off copies of what you want your listeners to see and hand them out before or during your talk. This option is even less effective than the first two because you can’t point to what you want your listeners to see and because handouts distract listeners’ attention away from you. Still, for certain visual needs, handouts are the only choice. Keep in mind that if you are not well prepared, the handouts become a place for your distracted audience to doodle.
• Objects —If you need to demonstrate certain procedures, you may need to bring in actual physical objects. Rehearse what you are going to do with these objects; sometimes they can take up a lot more time than you expect.

Avoid just scribbling your visual on the chalkboard or whiteboard. Whatever you scribble can be neatly prepared and made into a presentation slide, transparency, or posterboard-size chart. Take some time to make your visuals look sharp and professional—do your best to ensure that they are legible to the entire audience.

As for the content of your visuals, consider these ideas:

• Drawing or diagram of key objects —If you describe or refer to any objects during your talk, try to get visuals of them so that you can point to different components or features.
• Tables, charts, graphs —If you discuss statistical data, present it in some form or table, chart, or graph. Many members of your audience may be less comfortable “hearing” such data as opposed to seeing it.
• Outline of your talk, report, or both —If you are at a loss for visuals to use in your oral presentation, or if your presentation is complex, have an outline of it that you can show at various points during your talk.
• Key terms and definitions —A good idea for visuals (especially when you can’t think of any others) is to set up a two-column list of key terms you use during your oral presentation with their definitions in the second column.
• Key concepts or points —Similarly, you can list your key points and show them in visuals. (Outlines, key terms, and main points are all good, legitimate ways of incorporating visuals into oral presentations when you can’t think of any others.)

During your actual oral report, make sure to discuss your visuals, refer to them, guide your listeners through the key points in your visuals. It’s a big problem just to throw a visual up on the screen and never even refer to it.

As you prepare your visuals, look at resources that will help you. There are many rules for using PowerPoint, down to the font size and how many words to put on a single slide, but you will have to choose the style that best suits your subject and your presentation style.

The two videos that follow will provide some pointers. As you watch them, make some notes to help you remember what you learn from them. The first one is funny: Life After Death by PowerPoint by Don McMillan, an engineer turned comedian.

Life After Death by PowerPoint

You may also have heard about the presentation skills of Steve Jobs. The video that follows is the introduction of the I-Phone…and as you watch, take notes on how Jobs sets up his talk and his visuals. Observe how he connects with the audience…and then see if you can work some of his strategies into your own presentation skills. This is a long video…you don’t need to watch it all but do take enough time to form some good impressions.

Steve Jobs iPhone Presentation

An Introduction to Technical Communication Copyright © by sherenahuntsman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Using PowerPoint or Prezi Effectively

Using powerpoint or prezi effectively  (view pdf) .

Powerpoint and Prezi presentations are meant to serve as visual aids that can enhance audience engagement and their understanding of your speech. These 10 tips will set you on the path to presentation success.

Best Practices

• Only use bullet points . You should not have full sentences on PowerPoint or Prezi because they distract from your speech and you want your audience to listen, not read. Use short fragments or keywords to keep your presentation organized.
• Have a backbone slide . Have a slide that demonstrates the direction your presentation will have by outlining the major elements of your speech.
• Use Animations VERY carefully.  It may look nice, but it can also be a distraction. Only use them if they play an essential role in your presentation (such as concealing a bullet point for a later point in the presentation).
• Make sure the text is visible.  Your text should be large enough to be visible from the back of the room for someone with average eye sight. Sometimes, the text may get lost in the background of the slide (especially if the background includes a picture) or the text color is too close to the background color. Be sure to avoid red/green and blue/yellow color schemes as people with colorblindness may not be able to differentiate the text from the background.
• Keep the focus where you want it.  If you are going to incorporate a graph or a quote into your presentation, be sure to have a slide with only the graph or quote, allowing you to speak about it to your audience and to use it as a reference. If you use an image, you should generally limit yourself to one image per slide.
• Cite your sources . For many of your presentations, you will be using outside sources. If so, be sure to cite them in the proper format on the last slide or throughout your presentation. For pictures, include an indication of the source next to the image. Be sure the pictures you chose are freely available for use. See creativecommons.org for great searching tools.
• Show a slide when it’s relevant. Use black screen or a blank slide to hide slides you’re not ready to show the audience. If you are going to speak for any length of time without a relevant slide, add a slide to your presentation that is simply black. You can keep your audience’s focus on you rather than on the slides.
• Provide a warning when necessary. If you are using graphic images that may seem unsettling to members of your audience, be sure to let them know before revealing the image(s).
• Have a backup. Sometimes you lose wifi access and sometimes your USB drive suddenly stops working. Be prepared by being able to access the presentation in multiple ways (e.g., have a copy in your email and on your laptop that you bring with you).
•   Do not depend on the PowerPoint or Prezi. Technical difficulties occur all the time, so you may have to deliver your presentation without a PowerPoint. Also, you should not have to read off the PowerPoint or Prezi. Remember: you are the expert on the subject!

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Oral Communication Center

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Oral Communication Center Director

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Oral presentation instructions

Prepare your oral presentation

Instructions on preparing your slides for presentation and publication are below. Oral speakers will attend the conference and present live to an audience. After your live presentation is finished, SPIE will publish the in-person recording of your talk (slide capture with audio, no camera footage of speaker). Your presentation recording will be published and archived in the conference proceedings on the SPIE Digital Library.

Important dates

*Contact author or speaker must register prior to uploading

Step-by-step guide to a successful oral presentation

Create your slide presentation

The most successful presentation slides are graphically rich presentations of your research that both highlight the main points and fill in the most interesting details.

Your presentation slides should include:

• All slides formatted for easy understanding of the information on each slide
• Explanations for each graph, picture, and table
• Media file(s) embedded in your primary presentation as a slide
• No automatic slide advance timings

Fonts The session computer will have the standard font sets included in Windows 10, as well as PowerPoint. Please refrain from using custom or purchased fonts, as these will not be available and may impact how your presentation looks.

Aspect ratio The meeting will be utilizing 16:9 aspect ratio projectors (widescreen) in all rooms. To utilize the full screen, you should create your presentation in widescreen format. The standard 4:3 format will work but it will not fill the entire screen when in presentation mode.

Media files As a precaution, bring all media files with to the meeting, even though you’ve embedded them in your slide presentation. While we can help with many aspects of your talk on-site, we can’t “fix” a missing media file.

Presentation file types All file types are accepted except LibreOffice, and there are no file size restrictions. Keynote presentations will need to be exported as .pdf files. The computer has the following software installed.

• Adobe Reader
• Google Chrome

In PowerPoint, save your file as a .pptx. Do not use .ppt, .pps, or other formats, as this will affect your file’s ability to open correctly.

Upload your slide presentation

It is recommended that presenters upload their slide presentations before going to their conference room. There will not be an option to use your own device. Should you require assistance with uploading or presenting, technicians will be available. Always bring a back-up copy of your slide presentation and media files with you to your session onsite.

1. Upload in advance

Advance upload options for your presentation will be available at a later date. 

2. Upload onsite

Bring your USB device at least two hours before your session begins, or the day before if presenting in the first morning session, and load it directly on the presentation computer.

Bring your presentation file on a USB device to your presentation room at least two hours before the session start time to load your file on the presentation computer. Please be respectful on ongoing presentations and choose a break to do this.

P resent in person

• Bring your presentation file on a USB device to your presentation room at least two hours before the session start time to load your file on the presentation computer. Please be respectful of ongoing presentations and choose a break time to do this. If needed, SPIE staff will be available to assist with the transfer of your slide presentation file to the conference room computer.
• Arrive in the conference room at least 10 minutes prior to the start of your session
• Locate the session chair for your session and check in with them so they know you have arrived
• When it's time to present, simply walk to the lectern and open your slide presentation file that you pre-loaded to the computer
• When your presentation is finished, make sure to close your slide presentation file in preparation for the next presenter

Audiovisual equipment in meeting rooms

• LCD projection - 16:9 aspect ratio; 1920 x 1080 resolution
• Lapel microphone
• Audio connection from the laptop
• Laser pointer and slide advancer

Publication of your presentation

• After your live presentation is finished, SPIE will publish the in-person recording of your talk (slide capture with audio, no camera footage of presenter). Your presentation recording will be published and archived in the conference proceedings on the SPIE Digital Library.
• SPIE retains rights to distribute and market the official published SPIE recording of the presentation; the presenter retains copyright of all presented content.

Contact your Program Coordinator (listed in your SPIE.org account )

Roberts Academic Medicine Handbook pp 389–393 Cite as

How to Prepare and Give a Scholarly Oral Presentation

• Cheryl Gore-Felton 2  
• First Online: 01 January 2020

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Building an academic reputation is one of the most important functions of an academic faculty member, and one of the best ways to build a reputation is by giving scholarly presentations, particularly those that are oral presentations. Earning the reputation of someone who can give an excellent talk often results in invitations to give keynote addresses at regional and national conferences, which increases a faculty member’s visibility along with their area of research. Given the importance of oral presentations, it is surprising that few graduate or medical programs provide courses on how to give a talk. This is unfortunate because there are skills that can be learned and strategies that can be used to improve the ability to give an interesting, well-received oral presentation. To that end, the aim of this chapter is to provide faculty with best practices and tips on preparing and giving an academic oral presentation.

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Krantz WB. Presenting an effective and dynamic technical paper: a guidebook for novice and experienced speakers in a multicultural world. Philadelphia: Elsevier; 2017.

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Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

Cheryl Gore-Felton

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Gore-Felton, C. (2020). How to Prepare and Give a Scholarly Oral Presentation. In: Roberts, L. (eds) Roberts Academic Medicine Handbook. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31957-1_42

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How Technology can Improve Your Speaking and Presentations

The past few months have been busy on the speaking circuit. I love traveling to new cities and meeting people in different industries. It’s always a fun time to spend learning about an industry and the nuances involved for their specific marketing needs.

Preparing for a Presentation

When I am speaking at a conference, I really like watching other speakers and learning other aspects of marketing. I noticed some real issues at some of the conferences that I attended, as it seems as though many of the speakers were completely unprepared to present. It took away from their time, their message and their credibility. If you are going to present at a conference or in front of any group of people, it is in your best interest to be prepared, especially on the technology side.

Technology: A Speaker’s Best Friend – Or Worst Enemy

The two technical issues that are consistent problems for speakers are:

The Key to Presenting Without Problems: Your Tools

• Connecting to the projector
• Using video during the presentation

Your Projector Connection

This is why moderators need speakers to show up early and test the connection and the presentation well ahead of the scheduled speaking time.  I always try to get to the room at least 30 minutes prior to my scheduled time (60 minutes if I’m the keynote). In this way, I know everything is connected, on, and working. Then, I can relax.

I am amazed at the speakers that show up 5 minutes before their scheduled presentation and are a flurry of activity attempting to get connected. If problems will happen – it’s then.

I am amazed at how many speakers brought laptops that were well over 5 years old.  I’m sorry, but that is ancient technology in this day and age. If you are a professional speaker that is getting paid to talk, then the tools of your trade need to reflect the same quality you want to present. No craftsman allows his tools to become old, rusty and imprecise. Many of my friends are tradesmen, and they take extraordinary care of their tools, as the tools are a direct reflection of their craft and their work.

Here’s the rule: The older your laptop, the more trouble you will have connecting to a projector. Chances are, the older the laptop is, the more RAM is consumed by programs running in the background, and the older the OS will be. Older computers are less responsive, have more “stuff” on them, and create the most problems.

I saw one speaker spend nearly 15 minutes of his presentation time trying to CTL+F7 his laptop onto the projector. By then, he’d lost the audience – literally. They started walking out without hearing a word or seeing a slide. Your tools need to be as sharp as your skills.

Using Video in Presentations

Many moderators and organizers will ask if you have video in the presentation. One organizer states that she preferred no video in any presentations, as there is always  a problem and hassle in getting it to work. Again – this comes back to preparation.

If you can’t embed the video into the presentation, and you are relying on an active internet connection to stream it, you’ve made two bad decisions. You can’t ever rely on a good internet connection, and you can’t rely on video that is not embedded, tried and tested. If using video requires you to get out of the presentation and open another program, it is a distraction and takes away from the continuity of your talk.

The new version of Microsoft PowerPoint may have improved video embedding. I know when I used PowerPoint, I never embedded video because it was either impossible or unreliable. If it is unreliable, then don’t do it . However, you’ll only know if it is unreliable if you test it live – on more than one projector.

My Mac Geek-Out

I don’t want to come off as a lemming – but I love my MacBook Air and Keynote . When i switched to this combination, the quality of my presentation increased dramatically. Keynote has a higher resolution and creates sharper fonts and images. Transitions are subtle, but beautiful. As an added bonus, you can embed video into the presentation. The most impressive feature is the ability to edit the video’s start point, finish points and poster frame. You don’t have to watch the whole thing, or switch programs – you edit it to show only the relevant part!

Using my MacBook has also eliminated connection issues by 99%. I plug it in – and it works. Simple, elegant. Now, it’s not to say that once in a while there has been some goofiness with the projector and the presenter display – but if you familiarize yourself with the screen options and issues, you’ll find that they are easily fixed. The 1% connection issue was a bad adapter. Which is why I now travel with a backup.

Pro Tips: Presenting well is all about minimizing external factors. Never rely on “external factors” to make your presentation successful. Mitigating possible problems and controlling as much as possible should be your mindset. Don’t rely on : reliable internet connections compatible internet connections presentation remotes being provided ideally placed screens ideally placed projectors everything to work, all the time

Mitigating possible problems is part of being prepared.

In order to be prepared, i travel with a presentation kit;.

My Presenter Toolkit

• I received a grid-it technology organizer as a gift, and fits right in my travel bag.
• (2) Mac Video to VGA adapter
• 1 iPhone to VGA adapter**
• 1 Mac Video to HDMI
• Presentation remote
• Spare batteries for the remote
• Business Cards
• Charging cables
• Travel toothbrush and toothpaste (if you ever speak during a dinner engagement, you’ll be glad to have this)
• USB drive with presentations

It is all about contingency planning. Anticipating possible problems and deal with them before they happen.

Use the best tools available to present a quality experience, and always test them. when you can present a repeatable performance, and know that you are prepared for just about anything – you’ll do fine..

** Yes, I have given a presentation from my iPhone. This is why I have the Keynote App and Dropbox on my phone, and the iPhone to VGA adapter. I was in a client’s office and did not have a presentation that suited the situation. Without wi-fi available, I was able to download the presentation to my Phone through Dropbox, and play it through the Keynote app. It worked out very well, and was a completely unnoticeable difference. Though I think the client was more impressed at the presentation being given from an iPhone than the presentation itself…

Related Articles:

5 semi-pro speaking tips, make your presentations memorable, consistency and clarity, about the author: matt bailey.

The ‘upgrade’ technology part is of prime importance! I have myself seen some of my students bring their presentation made, say, in the outdated version of PowerPoint – Obviously they felt no need to check if eveything was working BEFORE they actually came to talke and when they did – it suddenly turned out that the program version their presentations were saved in and the program we had installed on the computer would not coalesce – and so the problem started.

You should always check the devices before you start – I completely agree with you Mr. Bailey. But you can never teach that to people ;)

Oh yes, if you are not prepared to give a speech and you haven’t checked all the equipment you are going to be using – you might find yourself in a pretty bad situation. Especially if the computer you are using is not yours which sometimes happens – a mismatch between the software might really be a problem!

Overall you point a very important thing Matt – a good speaker, the one who speaks to a big audience on a regular basis should always invest in new equipment.

Advice about the presentation kit would be very useful for me. I’ll use it as such check list before my presentations.

People want to be engaged by slideshows, imagery and videos. So make the most of everything modern technology can do for you when you are hosting an event.

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Oral Presentation   Guidelines

Timing of Oral Presentations

12-15 minutes to present 3-5 minutes for Q&A

Submitting Your Presentation On Site:

All speakers must have their presentation on a USB and bring it to the session room 15 minutes prior to the sessions start time so it can be uploaded onto the session room computer.

During Your Presentation:

The meeting room will have a PC laptop at the podium.  Once the presentation is launched, the speaker will control the program from the podium using a computer mouse or the up/down/right/left keys on a keyboard.

Apple Mac computers will not be provided in the IEEE session rooms. If your presentation is created in Apple’s “Keynote” presentation software please save your presentation in PDF format. Mac Users working in PowerPoint are advised to use True-Type fonts whenever possible to avoid formatting issues when viewing on a PC.

Additional Information

Computer Equipment

Session room PC will be provided with the following configuration:

Processor: a minimum Core i7 4 GB RAM Minimum 1280 X 800 resolution at 24 bit color depth Microsoft Windows 10 Microsoft Office 2016 Windows Media Player (Version 12) Adobe Acrobat Reader (Latest Version)

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• Research Week
• Research Week: April 15-18, 2024

Research Week: Oral Presentations (In Person)

Additional Navigation

Oral presentations will be held throughout the week and scheduled based on the research category. Please consult the Research Week Schedule .

Oral presentations must follow the guidelines below.

Categories and Judging Rubrics

• Theoretical Proposal
• Textual or Investigative
• Creative and Artistic

Oral Presentation Guidelines

Oral presentations will take place in technology-enhanced rooms in the Jerry Falwell Library. IT support will be on standby for any technical difficulties. All presentation rooms include:

• a projector with large screen
• an audio system
• wireless internet
• a laptop preloaded with the approved presentation file that was submitted in the proposal portal.

Oral presentations:

• must be no more than 15 minutes in length.
• may use any of the 16×9 PowerPoint presentation slides found on the bottom of this page . ( PowerPoint files must be converted to PDFs before they are submitted .)
• will have a moderator stationed in the front row of the room to track the presentation time and give the presenter a three-minute warning.

Participant Guidelines

Students must:

• review the  Research Week Schedule  in advance to ensure availability to participate at that time. ( Rescheduling of presentation times is not allowed due to the availability of judges .)
• be physically present and present from the front of the room.
• check in  at the welcome desk in JFL’s upper atrium between  8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.  on the day of their assigned presentation time.
• bring their presentation on a USB flash drive and keep a copy of it in their email as a backup.
• be ready to present at their assigned location  at least 10 minutes prior to their presentation time. ( The schedule is strictly enforced. )
• be prepared to answer questions in the five minutes immediately following the presentation.
• dress professionally .

Best Practices

Please review the video created by the Jerry Falwell Library on Best Practices for Giving Virtual Presentations .

Helpful Resources

Students are encouraged to explore last year’s oral presentation proposals and slide presentations .

Professional Courtesy

Attendees are asked to be quiet and respectful of others while they are presenting. No one will be allowed to enter the room once a presentation begins, and leaving during a presentation is highly discouraged.

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Oral Presentation Guidelines

Please be sure to work closely with your faculty mentor as you prepare for the conference.

Practice & Set Up Before the Conference

• Although oral presentations can be stressful, your confidence and level of comfort will be greatly improved by practicing your presentation. You should work closely with your faculty mentor as you prepare and practice your presentation. Your talk should be 12 minutes in length with 3 minutes for questions and answers.
• Please work closely with your faculty mentor  to be sure that we are aware of your technology needs well ahead of the meeting.
• Please test your presentation on a PC ahead of time . All presentation rooms are equipped only with PCs.
• If you plan to use a PC for part of your talk, bring a copy of your final presentation (PowerPoint, etc.) with you on a USB/flash drive. Please also send your presentation to yourself via email so that you can access it in the event that your flash drive malfunctions.

On the Day of the Conference

• A schedule of presentations and rooms will be sent to all presenters and their mentors in advance and will also be available at registration.
• Room moderators will be present to assist you. You may want to visit your presentation room before the conference to get a sense of the setting and where you will be positioned.
• Please plan to attend other CREATE events also - other talks, poster session, art exhibit, live performances, etc.

During Your Session

• Please check in with the faculty moderator of your session a few minutes before the session begins. The moderator will introduce presenters as well as assist students with staying within time limits.
• It is considerate for presenters to stay for the entire session they are scheduled in, if possible.
• Be aware that some people in the audience may move between sessions in order to see other presentations. Moderators will explain that moving between sessions should be done during the question period or immediately thereafter, to minimize disruption to the presenter.
• Oral presenters are allotted 12 minutes for the presentation and 3 minutes for questions . If you go over your 12 minutes, then you will have less time to take questions. You will not be permitted to go beyond 15 minutes .
• Moderators are directed to keep to these time limits, and to have students start their presentations at the assigned time so that conference participants can move between sessions and not disrupt speakers.