A couple of months before your talk, you can: 

• decide which facets of your research you will present (for instance, in your third year, your most developed project with a compelling storyline; in your fourth year, a novel exploration or new development you wish to receive feedback on);
• review background literature that provides context for your work;
• decide on key figures you’ll present and redesign figures to best fit the broad BATS audience. Keep data figures simple and clear. Avoid extraneous details or distracting information you will not describe orally;
• attend your peers’ BATS and identify good practices from their communication to emulate. Knowing what to expect the day of your presentation will help you prepare and calm your nerves.

A couple of weeks before your talk is a good time to: 

• make an outline of slides, with explicit take-home messages as titles (one message per slide);
• assess how you will allocate the 15 minutes of your talk to each of its sections: introduction (motivate the “what” and “why”), main (methods, results and their interpretation), and  conclusions (summary and future directions).

The week of your BATS:

• refine your slides, prioritizing clear figures and slide titles, checking that your slides are not too text-heavy;
• practice practice practice, by yourself at the computer at first, then standing in front of a small assembly; strive to depend less and less on your notes;
• get feedback from several sources, including importantly friends or colleagues who are “naive listeners” and not too close to your work (thus representatives of the BATS audience); they will help you identify gaps in your background, obscure notations, or clunky transitions;
• build an appendix / set of supplementary slides that help you address questions.

We can help you:

• choose what to present if your project has multiple directions
• decide on the main takeaway or “story” of your talk
• shorten your talk
• practice your talk
• ensure your talk is clear to a wide, non-expert audience
• clarify your transitions
• and more! We will work with your goals at any stage of your preparation.

The feedback and suggestions from Comm Fellows are specific to your project, the stage of your research, and your talk. Fellows welcome your questions and work with you to apply effective communication strategies. Some questions include:

• What should I change for the 4th-year talk vs the 3rd-year talk?
• What content can I include in my presentation if I don’t have many results to show? 
• How can I shorten my talk? 
• What are some strategies to make data-heavy slides more digestible? 

Appointments with the Comm Lab can be 30 or 60 minutes long. To make the most of your time with a fellow, we suggest making 60 minute appointments for BATS.

Your 15-minute BATS talk can be divided into:

• an introduction (2-3 minutes), explaining why your topic matters, summarizing current knowledge, and stating your hypothesis or goal, 
• a main body (~10 minutes) where you’ll present your methods, results, and their interpretation and implications, and
• a conclusion (2 minutes), summarizing your findings, proposing future directions, and reiterating the impact of your work.

Also include:

• an acknowledgments slide to give credit to your collaborators, lab members, supporters, and funding sources, and
• a visual summary slide to show as a useful guide while you take questions.

You can estimate a rough number of slides from the length of the talk and the time you expect to spend per slide. Typically, expect to spend around 60 seconds on each slide, though you may want to spend longer on very important or complicated ideas to allow the audience to digest it. This means that a 15-minute talk could have 10-15 content slides.

Remember that this is an estimate—practice presenting your talk to get a feel for timing, and ask for feedback on the amount of material you cover.

Your lab mates and peers will have the most relevant examples. Comm Lab is working on annotating BATS example slides – check back soon!

Another great way to get ideas for slide design is to attend BATS (or other seminars) as an audience member. Note aspects of slides that you find especially appealing or clear.

Begin by rehearsing unscripted to get a feel for the flow of your talk. Don’t worry about mistakes at this point. It can be helpful to record your speech or use voice-to-text to transcribe your talk and identify points of improvement—either in your verbal delivery or in the content of slides.

Next, start practicing with presenter notes in a comfortable location, then transition to conditions more similar to the actual talk (e.g., in a large conference room, using a clicker, with one or two friends who can help simulate Q&A). 

Appointments with Comm Fellows are also a great way to rehearse your talk!

Nervousness is perfectly normal—presenters often feel anxious no matter how much they’ve prepared. This is not a reflection of how well you’ll do; in fact, a little bit of nerves can help you stay focused and on top of your game!

Just before your talk, do a quick run-through of your opening lines, as this is where you will likely feel most nervous.

In the moment, try to focus on the content you’re delivering instead of yourself to redirect your energy to the presentation. Additionally, smiling can help you relax and improve how the audience responds.

Pause, and take a breath. A pause might feel like it’s in slow-mo while you are presenting, but it happens frequently and will not compromise the integrity of your talk. In fact, the audience might appreciate an extra second to digest.

A pause is way less noticeable than you think—and much less noticeable than pointing out the forgotten lines. Avoid saying “oops” or apologizing. (This also goes for any time you mis-speak; just correct it and move on.)

To help reduce the chance you’ll forget something, practice your talk without notes. See where you tend to stumble. Come up with reminders for these areas and aim to present the whole talk without notes by the end of your practice sessions.

Practice presenting your talk multiple times and adjust the amount of content to fit under 15 minutes. It is more effective to present less material well than to rush through many slides.

When practicing, make a plan for area(s) you can shorten if necessary (e.g., reduce explanation of future directions). Keep track of time during the talk so you know if you need to shorten these sections.

For BATS, it will be okay if you go a little bit over; this just cuts into your question time. However, do your best to practice within the time limit. (Keep in mind for the future that some conferences/presentations have much stricter limits.)

Practice, practice, practice! Filler words are habitual and you may not realize when you use them. Ask for feedback from a friend (or a Comm Fellow), or alternatively record yourself and listen back to identify when filler words tend to creep in. 

During the talk, let it go—a few filler words are part of natural speech. Other factors have a larger influence on the audience’s ability to understand you.

When practicing your talk with an audience, have them ask you questions to simulate the Q&A!

Make a list of potential questions, and solicit input from both subject experts (e.g., labmates) and those outside your field (e.g., friends in another lab) to cover a range of topics. Comm Fellows can also help you brainstorm potential questions.

Remember, BATS is not an evaluation, so it’s okay if you don’t have an answer. Presenting to a wider audience is a great way to identify potential oversights in your project or explanation and to receive suggestions for improvement.

If you have a well-informed guess, offer it while mentioning that you don’t know for sure. If you really aren’t sure, simply state that you don’t know and will follow up later. When appropriate, you can redirect to others’ expertise, for instance by pointing out a collaborator in the audience who might have an answer.