Tips for conference presentations

The doctoral and postdoctoral research fellows sent a questionnaire to the PIs at RITMO the other day. The aim was to collect information about conference presentations. It was a great set of questions, so I am posting my answers here, a little more elaborated than in the questionnaire.

Being nervous

Have you ever been nervous to present at a conference? How did you cope with this?

Yes, I have been nervous many times. My first conference presentation was nerve-wracking. I thought about it continuously for the last couple of weeks before I went there. My approach was to prepare as if it was a music performance. I remember repeatedly rehearsing the lecture in my hotel room the day before. The presentation was scheduled first on the last day of the conference, the day after the banquet, so very few people showed up. Still, the preparations were worth the extra effort; I was happy about my performance.

I have also had some bad experiences during performances. I have tried to demo on the fly several times and have gotten into various issues that led me to abort the trial. I see many people have pre-recorded videos or animations looping in performances. The improvising musician in me still thinks it is cool to do a live demo, but only if I am sure it will work out.

One thing is to control your own machinery; it is more challenging when something doesn’t work in the conference venue. I have had countless projector problems, although things generally work well (at least on Ubuntu) nowadays. At music conferences, there are usually decent audio playback systems. However, at a psychology conference, I once came to a conference room where there were no speakers. Nowadays, I usually bring a small portable speaker as a backup if I have important audio I want to play.

The best way to avoid problems is to test, test, and test more. I always test the setup as soon as possible, even a day or two before my presentation. It is usually best to do this after the day’s last presentation. Moreover, you should test again in the break before you are “on”.

In the past, I spent more time fine-tuning my presentations. Nowadays, I am lazier and focus more on content and delivery than slides. I prefer to use Google Presentation since I can easily share and run the slides from someone else’s computer. This also makes it easy to embed videos (from YouTube). It does not look as neat as a fine-tuned Keynote or PowerPoint presentation, but there are generally fewer problems. I am also exploring other types of presentation modes. For example, I use a “2-dimensional” presentation when talking about my book Sound Actions. That gives me the flexibility to go into as much depth as needed (vertically), while keeping track of each chapter (horizontally).

Challenging questions

Have you ever received challenging questions following a conference presentation? How did you respond?

Yes, many times. They can be challenging in different ways:

  • Sometimes, I get irrelevant questions from people who don’t understand what I am speaking about. Then, I try to re-explain some of the core findings politely.

  • It is more challenging to reply to harsh criticism from someone with a different approach, e.g., a musicologist criticizing a music psychology approach or vice versa. Then, explaining the project’s starting point and arguing why you cannot do everything in one study is important.

  • The most embarrassing thing was when someone pointed out an error in my analysis during a Q&A session. I had overlooked something and was unable to reply properly. It felt terrible, but I corrected the error in an updated paper, so it ended well in the long run. The person who asked the question realized I got embarrassed, and we chatted well afterwards. I generally avoid asking those types of questions myself. If I spot something weird, I instead try to approach the person in a break.

General advice

Do you have any general advice related to attending conferences? (for example, tips for how to dress, navigate networking/social interactions, ask questions following presentations, etc.)

I would suggest always dressing up a little for a presentation. Males could put on a shirt if they usually wear a T-shirt or a jacket if they normally wear a shirt. It should not be overdone, but it shows that you respect the audience. In any case, you should dress in a way that does not distract from your content. Ultimately, you want people to remember what you said, not how you looked.

Time management is critical at conferences. Plan well! Look through the schedule and identify speakers and/or topics you are interested in. Do not try to attend everything; you will be exhausted. Instead, take a break when there are less exciting presentations.

I generally find the breaks the most important part of a conference. That is when you can interact with people. So it would help if you were mentally ready for the breaks so that you are ready to talk to people.

It may be intimidating to walk up to strangers, but do not be shy; conferences are all about networking. As a PhD fellow, I was sometimes unsure about walking up to “famous” professors. As a professor, I can say there is no problem in approaching us (at least me!). However, please do not put me in a problematic public situation by asking why you did not get a PhD fellowship at RITMO or what I think about a colleague. I am more interested in hearing about your research and discussing my own.

Poster sessions may be the easiest way to interact with people you find interesting. Then, they are ready to share their research. Don’t talk about yourself at another person’s poster, though; you should listen to what they have to say. You can also invite them to your poster or talk or suggest meeting up for a coffee later.

It is fine to ask questions in a plenary session, but not too many. People may get grumpy if the same person asks many questions in each session. It may also be more valuable to ask questions in person during a break, as then you may get a better answer.