After ~10 years of academic research, I have learnt that presenting well & selling your work is as important as doing research. You need to communicate well, and doing so can open doors (jobs, promotions, funding). It’s always a work in progress but here are some tips: @PhDVoice

1/n It helps to think of your work like a story. What’s the storyline? Don’t just present data slide after slide. It is likely it will come across as monotonous or boring.

2/n Know your audience. Are they aware of your sub-field? Do they know the terms? Are they experimentalists or computational folks or from humanities or mix?

3/n Be confident, speak clearly and hold steady speed. This is often hard to achieve for new researchers but practice is key!

4/n Stick to time limit! People often feel irritated when presenters go over the time limit (>5 mins). You need to have some way of pacing your talk (a timer, a bell or just slide pacer):

5/n take time to introduce your topic. Not doing so will leave people wondering in the middle of the talk as to why or how something is relevant.

6/n Never add too much text: Less text, the better. Add figures that help people quickly understand what you are saying.

7/n Add slide numbers. Try to spend at least 1 min per slide. It helps also for folks to come back to specific slide. Use text animation sparingly but it helps to have things appear one after the other.

8/n A lot of things can stay in background slides that you can bring up when someone asks for it during the question hour.

9/n Keep your story simple (yes you can still deliver all the important details) without complicating things for your audience. You have likely worked on something for years but the audience have only dozen or so mins to digest.

10/n Picky a good (often bigger) font size. People cannot see things clearly with smaller font sizes and this is particularly disadvantageous for old folks in the audience.

11/n Watch YouTube videos of people giving talks. Some have very charming presentation style. Try to focus of why you like their talk and what you can learn from them.

12/n Personally I like to use simple templates. Using complicated design templates can be distracting. Pick colors that are color blind people friendly.

13/n Don’t forget to thank people during and at the end of the talk. Spending 30s to a min acknowledging people who have helped you is not going to hurt your talk. It shows you respect their help and showcases collaboration!

14/n This is an interesting figure that speaks to audience attention.

15/n If you use images or need to put references, put it in the same slide (this is not a paper). Use people’s names (it makes them happy). Just use small font.

16/n Don’t forget to thank the funding agencies who funded your work! Often funding managers attend conferences and they will appreciate it.

17/n Finally, just practice! Good luck and follow me for more advice! @suhas_prameela