TALK session (live – 15-minute time allocation total) – In the process of your research, what questions, ideas, curiosities have you uncovered that you would like to talk with, about, or through with the CityU community? This is an opportunity to talk about a specific part or area of your capstone. It can be a PowerPoint presentation on ideas/themes, one to two questions about your capstone topic posed to the attendees for discussion, or a synopsis of your capstone to this point.
You are free to structure your session in a way that is supportive of your objectives and what you hope to gain. Talk/discussion/Q&A ratio of the 15-minute session can vary depending on your needs or intentions. We strongly recommend that if doing a traditional type of presentation that you keep the talking portion to a maximum of 10 minutes. This allows for 5 minutes of questions/discussion. Please note at the last unconference a number of students used the full 15 minutes for their presentation and unfortunately there was no time for discussion and questions.
You are free to choose how to present your TALK session. Below are some tips and suggestions for preparing your TALK that may be helpful:
Preparing a good presentation always takes longer than you anticipate. The key is to start early and allow enough time to adequately prepare. Knowing the material well and being prepared are the best keys to success in giving a presentation. The following guidelines will assist you in adequately designing a solid presentation.
What does the audience know about the material?
What do you want them to learn?
Try starting with the last point or slide first. If you do not know where you are going it is highly unlikely that you will be able to get there. Plan the conclusion first. Know what you want to convey to the audience, then make the rest of the session and/or slides lead to and support your final points.
Write out an introduction. Start with a 15-word summary. If you can’t summarize your idea in fifteen words, rewrite it and try again until you can.
Outline your story. You want your TALK session to have a logical flow. You are telling a story that should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Tell you audience what you are going to tell them (beginning), tell it (middle), and then summarize it (end).
Stick to the key concepts. Avoid description of specifics and unnecessary details.
Strive for clarity. Are the words you are using unfamiliar jargon or acronyms? Are the words unambiguous?
Background: You need to give a sufficient but not a comprehensive background for your topic. Do not get bogged down covering your entire literature review, rather focus on key research and findings or relevant points. Audiences often enjoy hearing about the reasons that you chose this topic interesting so consider sharing a little about you and your journey as well.
If using powerpoint for your session, use only one message per slide. Each slide should address a single concept. Slides should follow a logical progression, with each building upon the other.
Here are some guidelines for Creating effective POWERPOINT Presentations
Use brevity: Your presentation should contain no more than 10 slides. In general, using a few powerful slides is the aim.
Do not overload your slides with too much text or information. Too much text makes a slide unreadable. Stick to a few key words. If your audience is reading the slides they are not paying attention to you. Keep your points/fragments short, usually 10 to 20 words.
Maintain Parallelism: Use fragments not full sentences.
Use a font of 44 for titles, 28 to 34 for subtitles, and 24 to 34 with a bold font for text.
Use no more than five lines of text on any one slide and use both upper and lowercase text, not all caps.
Use contrast: Light on dark background or dark on light and be consistent. Colours appear lighter when projected so look at on a projection screen ahead of time.
Use as few numbers as possible (they are confusing to the audience).
Try to avoid distracting elements on your slides if not relevant to your topic.
Have all text appear at the same time that the slide does. Do not have text that appears as the speaker talks.
Number each of your slides and give them a title.
If you use charts remember that numbers in charts can be very hard to read.
Presentation Guidelines
Content and Timing – Practice your presentation
Talk through your presentation to see how much time you use for each point or for each slide. It can be helpful to use the “timer” tool in PowerPoint if applicable.
Make a list of keywords/concepts for each point or slide.
Do not attempt to memorize your text.
Do not use PowerPoint or note cards as a “crutch”. Know the content of your presentation.
DO NOT READ YOUR PRESENTATION OR SLIDES. Your audience can read them much faster than you can talk.
Avoid distracting mannerisms in both speech and movement (i.e. saying “um” of shifting your weight from side to side, etc.)
Have a rehearsed opening statement and use it. Do not attempt to improvise at the last moment.
To end on time, you must PRACTICE! When practicing try to end early. Remember you know your capstone best so it is very likely you will have more to say and go longer than you think.
Presentation Style:
Arrive early and have your presentation ready. You will be able to share your screen if using powerpoint so be comfortable with that process. Note: There is an advance feature on zoom that allows you to share your slides as a background and puts you in front of the presentation. This can be a nice way to connect to your audience.
Always introduce yourself whenever you talk.
Be in control, save questions for the end.
Speak clearly with sufficient volume, be loud and clear.
Think about breathing. This limits the “ums” and “aahs” of your presentation.
Make eye contact with the audience if possible on zoom.
Think SLOW! You are almost always going faster than you realize.
Have a conclusion and reiterate. Stress again your value added (tell the people what you told them), this is why you are presenting. What do you want your audience to do? What do you want them to remember?
Always leave time at the end for a few questions.
If you have trouble answering a question you can always use statements such as, “that’s a really good question,” or “I’m glad you asked me that,” to buy yourself time to organize your response.
Do not be afraid to say “I don’t know” or “give me your email and I will get back to you on that question.”
Be sure to provide an email or contact information so participants can follow up with you offline if they have more questions. Network, network, network!!!
Check out the following link for a demonstration on creating an ineffective followed by an effective 10-minute presentation using powerpoint.
https://scwrl.ubc.ca/2016/07/21/10-tips-for-the-10-minute-conference-presentation/