Presentations Part 3: The Big Day Is Here
Plus, the Music Highlight
So you have spent months preparing and practising and…the big day is here! You are about to present.
Here are some tips and things I have seen help me too:
(Here I am in 2010, presenting at the very first conference my sister Eugenia and I had organized, for our very own educational institution which was called The Loras Network!)
Make sure you arrive early at the venue or online room so you can 1. find the room you are presenting in, 2. check if you can set up your laptop or poster or anything you need, 3. (this might seem ridiculous but it is necessary) find the nearest restroom to your presentation room, so you can go and freshen up before and use it whenever you need it. You can also see how big your room is, how many chairs there are for the attendees and generally where you can move around - beware of any cables on the floor! You don’t want to trip over while you are presenting. If you are presenting online, make sure you have a comfortable chair and a nice background - preferably a template from your university or a nice bookcase in your home or office 📚
Have a drink near you. Preferably something in a closed bottle so you don’t spill it, water or iced tea or something like that - and preferably non-carbonated so it doesn’t go psssh psssh every time you open it ; ) And do take time for a sip even while you are presenting or answering the audience’s questions. You will be there for some time and you need to hydrate. Plus, your mouth goes dry from speaking so much so you definitely need to drink something.
Move around a bit. I always tell my students to move a bit and not stay planted to the same place, but not move too much so the audience is distracted. In a face-to-face presentation, moving around and not hiding behind a desk is in my opinion the best, except if the conference expects you to stand at a podium (my least favourite way of presenting) - or maybe you’re on a panel so you have to sit at a table. If you want to stand, you can ask - it worked for me at a conference in 2016 😄
Enjoy it! There is a general fear that there will be someone in the audience who will ask you a difficult question or who will be aggressive. Don’t let that get you down - if you do not know the answer, just be honest. If the person is difficult, stay as calm as possible and try to deflect their negativity. Answer their question and move on to the next person. The truth is, I have been presenting almost since the beginning of my career 28 years ago - and I have never really had a negative experience. I have had people who disagreed with me, but in a really civilized manner. Audiences are mostly supportive and I have been in a presentation where the presenter was challenged negatively by a listener, and the audience immediately sped to defuse the situation - it was an absolutely lovely moment. I can’t tell you how many times I have learned things from my audiences, and I always see it as a a give and take situation. Feedback is always a learning experience - take it in and you will learn a lot.
The Music Highlight
A gem from the 90s for today! It was a huge hit and has made a huge comeback for younger people, because it’s used a lot on social media 😄