Conference and presentations - How often do you participate? (Nov/02/2008 )

Hey people,

All year round, we have conference stuff like that. How often do you participate in one? And when it comes to presentation, did anyone feel that theirs isn't that "good" for a presentation?

Sometimes, I do think that way: What I did seem to be not that new nor interesting. What would people think? etc.

My supervisor has indicated to me that I'd be going to a conference in Paris next year (that if it's accepted) and as much as I liked travelling, I'm feeling kinda apprehensive at the moment.

Cheers.

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In my previous work, I didn't have them. Three years - five seminars total and one conference. Two of these seminars was done by me!
So now I'm, like, WHEEE! SEMINARS! Unless it's more than two a week, then I am a bit pissed off because of the experiments. It's the art of talking, really. What you are talking about is secondary.

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I like to talk about my work....with or without audience
What I mean: If you like what you are doing and if you are fascinated by your topic you will be able to give a good talk.

Like telomerase said: What you are talking about is secondary. At meetings the topics of the talks are usually not new; they have been published somewhere already. Most people want to get introduced to a topic, but not to much details, and a little bit of entertainment (but not too much of course).

And what other people think....lab work is boring most of the time. But when you look at the data produced over a period of boring work you can see how exciting the results are! So I would not bother about others when giving a talk; I would try to convince them that my topic is the most exciting they can think of

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I don't feel that mine is not good for presentation. I just know I'm not good at presenting. At all. I have huge problems to talk in front of the audience. I know I need to overcome that, but it would take some time.
Helps a little if the subject I talk about is something I really understand or have ideas to share. But often it's not the case. So far (apart from the lab seminars and theses and so) I talked once on a company seminar (and got paid for that!) and it was horrible I think, at least for me

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So maybe this helps a friend of mine said he is always thinking of a cow that is eating grass, so he calms down

@trof: Maybe you should video-tape one of your talks and look at it afterwards, so you can see what you are doing good and wrong....

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I usually practice in front of imaginary audience, and memorize the whole thing, along with jokes and gestures. Then I am usually too focused on my role to be nervous, that comes later. If it's not practiced, I'd get horribly shy and stuck very quickly.

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Yeah I know all the regular hints an no-doers in presenting, but I have to take approach that fits me. I found out my brain can't process all the information from the hall (like it's said to interact with the audience) and be able to speak at the same time (I have a problem even looking at someone in a dialog, when it's needed to fokus or think). So I tried it the way I just pretend there's no audience, I just speak it like I would imagine it. Not good for the general guidelines, quite works for me.

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I can be taken off the topic very easy too; but as I had to teach a lot during the last year I got quite good in ignoring the background.
But I can understand your problem very well.....but nevertheless I think it will become better if you practice talking (and think of cows )

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Practising is very important. Though I'll never be really good in presenting something, regular practise helped a lot. We do here a literature seminar, in which everyone has to present interesting or new papers. It's much more effective than doing it alone. And before someone visits a conference, s/he can do test presentations (a final test, then slide for slide is commented/corrected if necessary) and it is surprising how many mistakes, lack of clarity, useless slides, bad lay-outs, etc one can find. And you know if you keep the time limit.

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Cows? You can always use an old stege trick...when you feel so intimidated and almost passing out from sheer anxiety and nerves....just imagine your audience all in underwear..that shld do it ...

You did the work and you know your stuff...the practicing shld give you enough confidence to present your project well and convince a tough audience...and a well-placed joke or an interesting but relevant comment/improv would lighten up what could be an otherwise very serious hence dry, soporific or academic presentation....

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