UKFIET Conference 2009 - Information for Presenters
- The Convenor of the thematic section in which
your abstract has been placed may have been in touch with you
already about your presentation. If not, you will be able to meet
him/her once you arrive at the conference.
- Your presentation will normally be scheduled in
a 90 minute session alongside two other papers. If there is any
change to this, you will be notified. Your session will be one of
eight running in parallel. Audience size can range from 12 to
40.
- Each session will have a Chairperson, who will
give you a fixed time in which to present your paper. This is
usually 15 minutes, allowing time for questions and comments from
the audience. If there is any change to this, you will be informed.
The Chair’s role is to introduce the speakers, strictly enforce the
time limit and manage the discussion. As a courtesy to your fellow
presenters and your audience, please keep to your time limit and
stop when asked to do so by the Chair.
- If preparing a PowerPoint presentation, you are
advised to limit it to eight key slides. This
allows for just under 2 minutes per slide. If reading from a paper,
you should allow at least two minutes per page of double-spaced
type (e.g. 12 point Times New Roman).
- Please make sure that you know in which room
your presentation will be made and arrive there well in advance of
the start time. All the rooms are equipped with PowerPoint
projector and computer (desktop or laptop). If you intend to use
PowerPoint, please copy your presentation onto the computer desktop
in the appropriate room well before the start of the session
and check that it works correctly.
- Please email a copy of your paper to the
Convenor of your section (contact details on the conference website
www.cfbt.com/ukfiet by 28
August. If possible, bring about 20 hard copies of your paper with
you and also a copy on a memory stick in case you need extra copies
(please note however that we do not offer photocopying facilities
in the conference venue).
- If you intend to submit your paper to either
journal (or both) associated with the conference, you are advised
to follow their house style in preparing your paper. More
information is available on the conference website. You can find
information on house style for IJED at
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/719/authorinstructions
and for Compare at http://www.informaworld.com/COMPARE
Tips on making a good
presentation
Preparation: do prepare your presentation well
and be realistic about how much information you can fit into 15
minutes. Avoid spending too long on introducing your topic – you
won’t have time to give a lot of background information on country
context, educational system, political history etc. Briefly outline
what your presentation will cover, provide only essential
contextual information, and then focus on your central message or
findings. Sum up at the end.
Timing: If using PowerPoint, practise what you
will say about each slide and time yourself. If basing your
presentation on a paper, avoid reading it out in a monotone voice
and try to introduce some spontaneity. In either case, make sure
that you keep to the allotted time of 15 minutes. The most common
complaint received in conference feedback is that speakers overrun
and there is insufficient time for discussion. The discussion time
can be particularly useful to you as presenter, so do make sure
that you can benefit.
Answering questions: listen carefully to the
question and try to answer it succinctly. This is not an
opportunity to add another 10 minutes of presentation! By keeping
your answer short, you will allow more people in the audience to
ask questions and generate a stimulating discussion. Don’t be
afraid to ask the person to repeat the question – or to admit that
you don’t know the answer!
If you are given a free hand by the Chair as to who to pick for
questions and comments, please try to take a good range, i.e. do
not just pick from those on the front row or one side of the room,
or those who look like distinguished professors! Pick from both
male and female delegates and avoid taking more than one question
from any one person (unless of course there are no others). It may
be helpful to the audience if you summarise the question as in
large rooms it is often difficult to hear someone speaking from the
audience. We will not have microphones in the room.
Communication: If using PowerPoint, do not cram
your slides with too much information and do not have so many that
you have to rush through them (try to keep to 8 key slides). Keep
them simple – 3 or 4 bullet points is usually enough – and avoid
complicated diagrams that the audience cannot grasp in the short
time available. Present the information clearly and succinctly.
You will be addressing a diverse audience of academics,
professionals and students, who come from many different countries
with differing linguistic, social and cultural conventions. Please
try to be sensitive to this. Speak in a loud enough voice to be
heard at the back of the room and don’t talk so fast that the
audience can’t follow. Avoid unnecessary jargon and unfamiliar
acronyms - not everyone will know what ZNUG or IDRK stand for!
And, most importantly, try to relax!
I hope you find the above helpful. Good luck with your
presentation and enjoy the conference.
Fiona Leach
Conference Convenor