00 Hi! This is Tom Tobin from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, - - PDF document

00 Hi! This is Tom Tobin from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with four quick but powerful tips for how to give a “rock star” conference

• presentation. Make sure you have a sheet of paper and a pen handy,

because this is an interactive presentation. 01 We’ve all been to that presentation, where the facilitator reads a series

• f bullet points to us right off the screen. Ugh. There is a better way.

02 But first, a quick quiz. There are many factors that influence how audiences perceive conference presentations. Some are listed on the

• screen. Four of these, though, have a much, much greater impact

than the others. Care to guess? Go ahead, pause the video here, write down your picks, and then un-pause. 03 Did you pause and write down your ideas? Well, if you said “Time,” “Visuals,” “Detail Level,” and “Interaction.” you are correct. The other factors do help, but not as much as these top four. 04 The first thing that sets rock stars apart is their time management. Most presenters just plow right in with data and narratives. But rock stars? They do four things differently. 05 First, engage your audience, and do it right away. Ask them a question, get them to do a poll, ask for comments, get two brave volunteers to help you with a task—anything to get people with you, instead of just being in the same room. 06 Second, tell stories. Sure, having impressive research data sets to support your new theory is methodologically sound. But pick one story that exemplifies your topic, trend, or idea, and your audience will listen better and remember it longer. 07 Have you ever gone to a presentation where the first ten minutes were all about the presenter’s institution? “We are a small private college in a wooded area, and we have 2,356 students and 1,805 faculty

• members. We were founded in 1877 when two prospectors got lost

and though they had reached California.” Yeah, none of that. Get right into what you want people to think about and remember. Unless it has to do directly with your topic, omit it.

2

08 This fourth one is the real rock-star time secret. Plan only enough presentation for 2/3 of your allotted time. For a 45-minute session, plan 30 minutes of material. Two good things will happen. When you go longer than you had planned (and you will), you’re still good. And you’ll actually have time for questions and conversation at the end. Bonus! 09 Okay, grab that piece of paper and think about your specific topic. Write down one thing that you will do to engage, tell stories, get to the point, or leave 1/3 of the time “empty.” Pause the video here, and un- pause when you have some ideas written down. 10 The second thing that rock stars do is use visuals. Big, huge, un- mistakable images. Every concert venue has a giant screen. Every conference presentation room has one, too. Coincidence? Nope. 11 PowerPoint and other slide-deck software are designed to make you want to put lots of words on the screen. Resist this temptation. Words should be cues for what to say, not a script you’re reading from. 12 Make your text big, use sans-serif fonts, and make the contrast clear between a darker background and lighter text. This gets in the way of readability at a small scale (like on your laptop screen or on a handout), but it enhances readability at a distance and on a big screen. 13 Got pictures? Don’t relegate them to just a part of your slides. 14 Whatever you’ve got, whether images or text, use all of the space you have available. If granny in the back row can read your slide and see the image without her glasses, you’re a rock star. 15 Visuals do not need to be representations of exactly what you are

• saying. Find images that are close to, but not quite the same, or find

unexpected images to set a tone or get people thinking. We remember what is unexpected. Also, chocolate. 16 Now, add some ideas to your plan on that piece of paper. Write down how you will reduce text, increase readability, fill the frame, and find

3

unexpected visuals. Pause the video here, and un-pause when you have some more ideas written down. 17 Congratulations! You are half way to being a conference rock star. The third thing that rock stars do differently is in the level of detail that they share—and where they do it. 18 Your research is complex. Your presentation should not be. Give your audience an overview of your idea, process, or conclusion—and give them a simple set of take-aways to remember. Four or fewer is ideal. They’re not your conclusions. They are reminders that point to your

• conclusions. This presentation itself only has four: time, visuals,

details, and interactions. 19 Your research is complex. So all that detail that you might want to share in your presentation should get shared—in your handouts. Put in the charts, graphs, tables, dense white-paper theory stuff. The real point

• f a rock-star presentation is to get people interested in learning more

about your ideas. That “more” should be in your handouts. Oh, and give them to your audience after your presentation. Otherwise, they’ll just start reading during your session. 20 Sometimes your point is your information. When you share data, show patterns that can be discerned without looking at the labels. Don’t provide more than two or three trends in the same data set. 21 Present one idea or comparison at a time and be sure to explain verbally what people see on the screen, such as this clear graphic showing the difference that sea-level rise makes when storms strike the coast. Your data visualizations are the place to take your time, speak about the details, and really tell your audience what they should take away. 22 You are almost finished with your presentation plan. Head back to your piece of paper and write your four (or fewer) take-aways, what kind of information you’ll put into your handouts, and what ideas require data

• visualization. Pause the video here, and un-pause when you are

ready for the last rock-star technique.

4

23 No concert is complete without the singer talking with the audience, whether it’s call-and-response, or just “hey, Cleveland, how’re you doing tonight?” Interaction between you and your audience is so important, it was the very first technique under “Time:” engage with the audience right away. There are three more rock-star moves for interacting with your participants. 24 The first one is “10 and 2.” In driver’s ed, they used to tell us to keep our hands at 10 and 2 on the steering wheel. Even though they teach “9 and 3” to 16-year-olds today (because of airbags, if you’re wondering), the concept of 10 and 2 is a great one for presentations. If you give information for 10 minutes, make sure to have 2 minutes

• f some kind of action for participants to take. Don’t cheat on this

ratio, either: for every 5 minutes of you talking, allow for 1 minute of audience interaction: writing ideas, talking with a neighbor, playing a game, doing a scavenger hunt on their phones: just not you talking. The act of taking a break is what makes information stick from the presentation. 25 To get better interactions, remember QQQ: Qualitative versus Quantitative Questions. Instead of asking, say, “how many of you have encountered student dishonesty in online courses,” re-frame it

• qualitatively. “How often do you encounter online cheating?” “What

happened the last time you identified dishonesty online?” Just shifting away from closed-ended to open-ended questions increases interaction! 26 Use short quizzes to keep people’s attention. Here’s a one-question quiz: which of these clouded-leopard kittens is cuter? Of course, make the questions fit your take-aways. This one reminds you to use the unexpected in your presentations. See what we did, there? Oh, and it’s the one on the right. 27 Okay, this is the last part of your plan. Jot down your ideas for chunking up your material with breaks for interaction, shifting to qualitative questions, and using quizzes to keep your audience engaged. Pause the video now, and when you un-pause, you’ll be well prepared—rock star!

5

28 Oh, yeah . . . One last thing. Literally, one last thing. We remember the ends of our experiences more clearly than any other parts. So be sure to include a succinct recap of your ideas at the end of your presentation. 29 That’s it! When you incorporate these time-management, visual-design, detail-selection, and interaction strategies into your session, you will be a conference rock star! 30 The whole DT&L team is here to help you to be a rock star. Share your ideas, questions, and suggestions at the e-mail address on your

• screen. Thanks for watching, and happy designing!