Plenary and Concurrent Session Speaker Guidelines

All plenary presentations are 25 minutes: 20 minutes for the talk and 5 minutes for a question and answer period.

All concurrent session presentations are 20 minutes: 15 minutes for the talk and 5 minutes for a question and answer period.

Please arrive 45-60 minutes before the start of your session.  A laptop computer will be provided by the meeting.  Bring your presentation on a USB flash drive to load it on the conference computer.  Label your presentation with your last name and presentation number, i.e. Chen12.
  
The following equipment will be available in the session meeting rooms: laptop computer, data projector, laser pointer, lavaliere microphone and a speaker timer. The operating system will be Windows XP and software will include Microsoft Office XP, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Quick Time, Windows Media Player. You do not need to bring your laptop to the meeting room. However there will be connections for presenters to use their own laptops. Speakers using their own laptops must have a VGA HD 15pin female output.

Tips for an Effective Scientific Talk

1. Have a take-home message.  The most common mistake is to try to present a full paper or seminar on fast-forward.  Your goal should be to convey the question you asked, the general approach you used, and one key result -- essentially, the single core figure that gives a paper its title.
    
2. Start with your question.  The first slide should say what your question is and why you're excited about it -- not "I'm in the X lab and we work on Y", but "One of the most basic questions in neurobiology is..."
    
3. Explain your system.  Not only how it works, but why you chose it -- why, of all the million ways you could have approached your question, you picked the one you did. 
    
4. Follow the scientific method.  It is always tempting to cut down on slides by showing only results, one after the next.  Don't give in.  Remember, your goal is to get across a single key result, and everything you say should be aimed at making that one point shine more brightly.  For each experiment, state the specific question, then the experimental approach, then walk through the result, and finally explain what new model it suggests and how it leads logically to your next question.
    
5. One slide, one idea.  You might also be tempted to save time by loading up each slide with all the data you can fit -- again, don't give in.  Distill your results to one key central image that conveys a single point, and make it LARGE so it can be seen from several rooms away.  The slide title should clearly state the slide's core idea (eg, "yfg-1 is required to clear dying neurons" -- not "genetic analysis of yfg-1").
    
6. Use pictures.  Imagine you are being charged $50 for every word of text on a slide -- use the minimum wording needed to get your idea across, and substitute a simple drawing wherever you can.  If you're not a Powerpoint artist, use markers on paper and scan it in -- this looks great and is much more interesting than plain text.
    
7. Tell a story.  Use emotionally charged language to tell the story as it happened -- "we wondered;" "we were surprised, confused, excited, disappointed"; "our prediction was completely wrong" -- these all punch up a talk and give a better sense of how you think and how the work really unfolded.

Guidelines for Preparing PowerPoint Presentations

Pictures/Images: Use common image formats that are cross platform such as JPG, PNG, GIF and BMP.

Fonts: Use common cross platform fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial and Courier.

Animations: Use simple entry animation effects, such as fly in/out, appear and dissolve.

Tips for Effective PowerPoint Presentations

Your PowerPoint presentation should help clarify ideas, emphasize key points, show relationships, and provide the visual information your audience needs to understand your message. Please consider the following suggestions as you plan your presentation:

1. Keep visuals clear and easy to read. Abbreviate your message. SIMPLE graphs, charts and diagrams are much more meaningful to an audience than complex cluttered ones. Remember too many lines of text and it may cause the audience to begin tapping on their smartphones.
    
2. Avoid using too many patterns and graphics in one frame.
    
3. Use a minimum of words for text and title frames. Five to eight lines per frame and five to seven words per line are the maximum-fewer is better.
    
4. Use upper and lower case lettering, which is more legible than all capital letters.
    
5. Vary the size of lettering to emphasize headings and subheadings, but avoid using more than three sizes per frame.
    
6. Select sans serif type (example: Arial) which projects better and is easier to read than serif type.
    
7. Maintain the same or similar type sized from frame to frame, even if some frames have less copy than others.
    
8. Keep all type horizontal, even in charts.
    
9. Consider color with care. A dark background with highly contrasting text and graphics is most readable. Cool colors (example: deep blue, turquoise, purple) appear to recede and make white or light colored text more readable. In one study, blue was found to be the most effective background color for projection. Do not use red for text; it is extremely difficult to read.
    
10. Highlight your main point or heading with a dominant color (example: yellow for the heading, white for body text). Avoid the use of intensely bright or saturated colors that compete with the text.
     
11. Maintain a consistent color scheme. Use no more than six colors throughout your presentation.
     
12. Select backgrounds to enhance your text or graphics. A background that transitions smoothly from lighter to darker shades of the same hue can be effective. Some software packages permit the gradation from one color to another. A textured background can be effective, but it should not detract from or compete with text or images.
     
13. Consider photographs for added interest. Combined with simple, straightforward graphics, illustrations, cartoons and artwork, photos can bring another dimension to your presentation.
     
14. Remember the basics of good design: Plan a template. Use colors consistently with light fonts on a dark background. Keep text clear and easy to read.

If you know in advance of the conference that you must cancel your presentation, or if you must change presenters, please contact Anne Marie Mahoney, at Mahoney@genetics-gsa.org or (301) 634-7039.