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12.5 Go Through a Checklist!
To further increase your confidence level (especially if you are novice presenter),
you might consider putting together a “checklist” of things to do maybe a day or two
prior to your talk. At that point, it is too late to introduce major changes to your slide
deck, but some fine-tuning should still be possible.
• Do you have a backup of your slide deck file handy (USB stick, cloud)?
• Have you confirmed the exact date and time of your presentation? The allotted
duration (including or excluding the question period)
• Should you sit somewhere specific just prior to your talk?
• Until when can you still make changes to your file?
• Have you done a dry run (Sect. 12.4)? (focus on movies)
• Have you familiarized yourself with the room settings, microphone and remote
control (see Sects. 13.1 and 13.3)
• If you use your own laptop, do you have enough battery?
• Have you sufficiently practiced the first slide? (Sect. 11.5)
• Have you clearly highlighted in your slides the most critical items from your
presentation?
• Have you timed yourself to fit the allotted time?
• Have you anticipated possible questions from the audience?
• Should you make changes to your slides or to what you intend to say, based on
other presentations you have seen so far, or discussions held with other scientists?
Have a checklist ready with some the items above, and anything else that is relevant to you. And then make sure all items get crossed out!
12 Planning
12.5 Go Through a Checklist!
To further increase your confidence level (especially if you are novice presenter),
you might consider putting together a “checklist” of things to do maybe a day or two
prior to your talk. At that point, it is too late to introduce major changes to your slide
deck, but some fine-tuning should still be possible.
• Do you have a backup of your slide deck file handy (USB stick, cloud)?
• Have you confirmed the exact date and time of your presentation? The allotted
duration (including or excluding the question period)
• Should you sit somewhere specific just prior to your talk?
• Until when can you still make changes to your file?
• Have you done a dry run (Sect. 12.4)? (focus on movies)
• Have you familiarized yourself with the room settings, microphone and remote
control (see Sects. 13.1 and 13.3)
• If you use your own laptop, do you have enough battery?
• Have you sufficiently practiced the first slide? (Sect. 11.5)
• Have you clearly highlighted in your slides the most critical items from your
presentation?
• Have you timed yourself to fit the allotted time?
• Have you anticipated possible questions from the audience?
• Should you make changes to your slides or to what you intend to say, based on
other presentations you have seen so far, or discussions held with other scientists?
Have a checklist ready with some the items above, and anything else that is relevant to you. And then make sure all items get crossed out!
12 Planning