Presenting Technical Topics
Why it’s important to be good at presenting
I have been attending many different presentations recently, and have given a fair amount myself. Most of these presentations are on technical topics (gene expression, aging, proteomics, data science) but I’ve noticed some trends over the years and would like to put them down on proverbial paper for reference. I don’t want to go on for too long about why presenting is important, but I will touch on why it’s important to be good at presenting.
It is my humble opinion that it is essential to be good at presenting because we all will likely have to present something to someone at some point, and I think most people can agree that giving a bad presentation is one of the worst public embarassments you can experience. Not only for the person giving the presentation and failing miserably, but also for the people sitting there having to watch with second hand embarassment. The presenter is stuttering, sweating, fumbling their words, and the audience is trying to look at anything other than the debacle occuring before their eyes.
This really should be reason enough to want to get better at presenting, but if not, there’s also many other great reasons like improved communication skills, networking, etc etc etc.
NOTE: Like I mentioned, this is primarily for presenting “technical” topics, and for presentations that have things like graphs, figures, data, charts, hypotheses, etc. This advice may or may not apply to presenting on other topics (although, I’d be willing to bet a good portion did).
You’re not presenting, you’re telling a story
First and foremost, you’re not presenting, you are telling a story. It doesn’t matter if this is a “lay” presentation, or you’re speaking to a room full of physicists about quantum theory. I can guarantee you that most people do not want to hear about why you used a bonferroni corrected p-value and not a benjamini-hochberg corrected one (well, I should say very few do), but they do want to hear a story.
Most stories have an introduction, a plot, a “climax”, and a resolution or conclusion. Thankfully, with presentations it’s a bit simpler in that you have a question or problem, your approach to solving that question/problem, then your answer/resolution to that quesiton/problem.
How do you know you are telling a compelling story? I am no director or film writer, but I watched a YouTube video once and I heard a phrase that summed it up pretty well. If you feel like your slide transitions have an “and then” feel to it, instead of a “because of x, y” feel, you’re probably not doing too hot.
Now that the 30,000ft view of the presentation is out of the way I want to move on to do’s and dont’s. I don’t want to write too much, and would rather this be a greatest hits type of article. Feel free to come back and reference at your discretion.
Dont’s
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This first one is the half of the battle when presenting. Do not put too much text on the slide. You’re audience is going to do 1 of 3 things when you present a slide with a wall of text. Listen to you, read the slide, or neither.
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Present small figures/graphs that are not interpretable. Everything on your slide should be clear and have a purpose.
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Dont speak too fast. I went to a conference recently and on the way there my girlfriend was practicing a talk she was going to give. I gave a few words of advice that she proclaims were pretty prophetic:
“It’s not silence, it’s punctuation.” - Me 2023
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Don’t let your presentation time be the only time you actually run through your presentation.
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Do not go over the allotted time for your presentation. The audience will forgive a presentation that’s a little short, but nobody likes a presentation that is too long.
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Skip the “outline”, or “overview” slide. Your overview should cover maybe 3 things max. Just verbally say it and skip the slide.
Do’s
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Do run through your completed and presentation in full a minimum of 7 times. This is the number I have found to really get comfortable with the material and figure out what point I’m trying to deliver with each slide.
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Do visit wherever you are giving the presentation before hand to make sure you have an idea of lighting, the projector, where “important” people will be sitting so you can see if they can see well from their vantage. If you can do a run through there that’s even better.
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If you have a say on when you can present, choose mid morning (~10am). This way you’re not pressed for time during set up.
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Ask somebody to watch your run through. Hopefully they are representative of your audience so they can provide feedback as to what is clear and what isn’t.
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Add nice, but minimal slide transitions between slides. I like how the current slide goes up and the next slide comes up from the bottom. I think it gives a movie reel feel.
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Add nice, but minimal decorations to each slide. I like a light pastel background (usually yellow for no particular reason).
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Fully explain each figure, chart, and piece of data on your slide. That means what the axes are, the units, and why the figure is there at all. If there is no reason for the figure to be there and you aren’t going to address it, remove it.
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Think of any and all question’s that could possibly arise and write them down/research them. I go as deep as I can and look at all possible questions and derivations of those questions not only because I want to be able to address them, but if there is a question I think I will be asked that I haven’t looked into I will be unduly nervous.
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Do not ramble when addressing a question. Address the question and move on. If you do not understand the question ask for clarification then address the question, and move on.
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This might be more personal, but I ask to limit questions until the end. If it’s a clarification question that’s ok, but I like to avoid tangential conversation until the end.
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Prepare “backdoor” slides. These are slides that don’t quite fit into the flow of the presentation but will be helpful when addressing questions that might pop up.
How to make your presentation exceptional
- Add flare to the beginning of your presentation. I had to give a presentation on how aging affects cardiorespiratory musculature and my first slide was the image of Oedipus and the Sphinx along with the question “Does anybody know what this is?”. That was probably my best start to a talk that I haven’t been able to replicate since. This allows some back and forth between yourself and the audience and you can build some rappor.
NOTE: Don’t overdo this. It should be one slide and don’t spend half your time letting the audience guess. This isn’t Jeopardy.
- Research your audience and if it’s applicable, add in a reference or joke. For instance, if you’re presenting a scatterplot looking at VO2max and weight and you have a trained cyclist, make a small joke about how “Ted’s (imaginary cyclist) VO2max is actually right here (imaginary VO2max scatterplot and I am pointing at a data point that is very high)”. You get the idea. This doesn’t lend itself well to text.
A note on virtual presentations
Today there are more webinars and virtual presentations which makes presenting much more difficult. You can’t “feel” the room, gauge involvement, or notice body language. The best bit of advice I can give is do everything that you would if it were an in person presentation.
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If it’s on Zoom, set up a mock zoom meeting with a friend so you know how to share your screen.
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Also, DO NOT read from your notes on another screen. Your reading voice is very monotone and it’s obvious your reading. Reading in and of itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn’t sound or feel conversational, which is already tough enough in a virtual format.
Examples
Here are some examples of presenations that I really like, as well as one I gave myself. Hope they help out.
Nate-Velt PhD Defense
My thesis dissertation
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