Tips and tricks for Occupational and Environmental Medicine trainees on how to plan and present their Ramazzini Presentation to the best of their ability.

Content | Presentation | Questions

Content

Don't include too much

• It is very tempting to want to tell your audience every interesting detail of your study, but it can be hard for an audience to take in a lot of information.
• By including too much content, you risk the audience knowing less about what you did, rather than more.
• If in doubt, less is best.

Keep slides simple

• If you have several bullet points on the same slide, consider making them visible one-by-one, or two at a time by using an animation effect.
• Applying animation effects gives you control of how the audience is receiving your presentation and will encourage them to listen to what you're saying.
• Don't go crazy when applying animation and other ‘whizz-bang’ effects.
• Remember, your content is the champion of your presentation.
• Again, if in doubt, less is best.

Text legibility

• Use font that is big enough and clear enough to be read by the audience.
• Consider whether the contrast between the text and slide background used is legible.
• Show restraint when using colour, font size and/or arrows to highlight key points.
• Remember, keep the slide background simple.

Pictures, diagrams, graphs and tables

• Adding pictures and graphics can make for a more stimulating presentation.
• Use images to highlight or emphasise a point you're making.
• Images and graphics that are irrelevant to your presentation could detracting from your overall presentation.
• Don’t take a table out of a paper and insert it into your presentation as it's extremely difficult for the audience to read.
• When displaying tables, only feature a few rows.
• Likewise, keep your diagrams and graphs design simple so that the audience will be able to understand at a glance.

Presentation

Keep it brief

• Don't spend too much time on one aspect of the content in your presentation.
• A mistake often made is spending too long on the introduction, which leaves you having to rush the rest of your talk.

No excuses for going over time

• Practice your presentation beforehand.
• If you realise you're running out of time during your presentation, don't rush through the rest of the presentation but rather skip a few slides and keep going.

Consider the audience's perspective

• Think about what it would be like to listen to your talk.
• What would help you to understand?
• What would keep you entertained?
• Introduce the audience to your presentation with a summary – “In today’s presentation, I will cover…”.

Perform to the crowd

• Speak, look at and be engaged with your audience.
• Try not to read your presentation for the sake of the audience.
• If you do need to read, make sure you look at the audience as much as you can and work hard not to sound like you are reading.
• Avoid looking at your slides on screen as it can force you to turn away from your audience and the microphone.
• Commonly, a computer screen will be in front of you so use the cursor on screen to highlight something if necessary – this is preferable to a laser pointer, which can be hard to see and track when in motion. 
• If you need your slides to remember your presentation, bring a paper copy of your slides as backup but still avoid using it.
• Describe your graphs and figures – it’s likely the audience can’t view the slide clearly and will be left still thinking about it after you've moved onto the next slide.
• Be you – use your talents like humour, dramatic or witty asides, storytelling – anything that you feel could increase your presentation's X factor (not compulsory, of course!)

Your voice matters

• Don't be monotone – sounding like a drone will instantly make the audience switch off.
• Modulating your voice to assist with emphasis on important points, to break up a long, dense content and help the audience have a more pleasurable listening experience.
• Speak slowly and try not to rush your presentation because of nerves or time pressures.

Questions

Take your time

• Listen carefully to the question.
• Don't be afraid to clarify something to help you answer correctly.
• It can help to paraphrase a question as it assists those in the audience who haven’t heard the question as well as buy you a little time to think.
• Always pause before answering to gather your thoughts and deliver a simple, concise answer in response.

Control yourself

• Question time isn't an opportunity for you to present another part of your talk.
• Never engage in an argument with an audience member, rather diffuse the interaction respectfully.
“I’d be happy to talk to you further about that afterwards” “It looks like we have different views on that, but I’d be happy to talk to you further about that afterwards”
• Remember, you have the microphone therefore you're in control.

Answer honestly

• Don’t make up answers or try to fudge it – answer the questions you're expected to know something about but if you are not sure, say so.
• Don’t be afraid to say you're not sure rather than getting yourself tied up in knots, take pause for a moment.
“I’m not sure about that. I'll need to think about it and I’m happy to get back to you after the session.”
“That’s a good point. I hadn’t considered that. Off the top of my head I’m unsure about the implications, but I’m happy to discuss it with you after the session.”