Information for Speakers and Presenters
This information is for speakers, poster presenters, panel participants, workshop leaders, and moderators. We want to make sure that you understand your role, and have the guidelines necessary to share your information in the best way, and help everyone stay on time. Thanks for helping to make this conference happen!
Speakers:
Poster Presenters:
Beyond Environmental Sustainability Panel Participants:
Moderators:
Speakers:
- You have been given a specific time allotment - generally 15-20 minutes. This timeframe is based on the attention span of normal people (there are studies showing this), and you should design your presentation to fit within your allotment. A good rule of thumb is one slide per minute, and we highly recommend that you practice out loud at least twice beforehand.
- You will be speaking to an audience of high-caliber engineering students and professionals, and can assume a basic level of technical knowledge. Don’t go overboard with technical details - people will ask you if they’re interested.
- We will provide projectors, VGA cables, and a laptop with PowerPoint. If you have a Mac and/or use Keynote or Prezi, let us know so that we can help make technology swaps as painless as possible.
Poster Presenters:
- The poster fair will be 1.5 hours long. You are free to look at the other posters, but are encouraged to stand by your poster the majority of the time.
- You will be provided an easel to stand your poster on. Please keep poster dimensions less than 36” x 48” in size.
- On Saturday there will be space available to store your poster during the conference.
- For advice on creating an effective and memorable poster presentation, consult http://www.csun.edu/plunk/documents/poster_presentation.pdf. We encourage you to minimize the use of text as much as possible, and focus on figures and images that convey your message in a succinct and easy-to-understand fashion.
Beyond Environmental Sustainability Panel Participants:
- The panel discussion on Saturday will be 1.5 hours long (90 minutes). There will be three panel speakers all of whom will be given 15-20 minutes of presentation time (the attention span of a normal person). A good rule of thumb is one slide per minute, and we highly recommend that you practice out loud at least twice beforehand.
- After each presentation, there will be about 10 minutes of discussion time. Ideally, we would like the panel to discuss among themselves for the first 5 minutes before opening the discussion up to audience input and questions for the next 5 minutes.
- We would like the conversation to stay focused on the often hard to quantify socioeconomic factors in sustainability, with each panel participant offering input from their area of expertise during their presentations, and drawing connections between the themes of each presentation during the discussion period.
- We will provide projectors, VGA cables, and a laptop with PowerPoint. If you have a Mac and/or use Keynote or Prezi, let us know so that we can help make technology swaps as painless as possible.
- Workshops have 1.25 hours, or 75 minutes (the length of many classes), and you can plan activities for the full time. There is space between each session for a quick break and overrun time - but don’t plan on using it!
- People have an attention span of ~15-20 minutes, so it is best to avoid talking for longer than that in any one stretch. In addition, workshops should be participatory - include activities to get participants engaged and have something to take home with them.
- A sample breakdown of the time might look like this:
- Introductions - 10 minutes
- Main topic background/initial skills - 15 minutes
- Activity 1 - 20 minutes
- Secondary topic(s) - 15 minutes
- Activity 2/Discussion - 15 minutes
- Rooms will have projectors, VGA cables, and laptops are available if you need one (Mac or PC). If you need other materials or specific room layouts, let us know and we will work with you to accommodate requests.
Moderators:
- Moderating discussions is a practiced skill. You have been chosen for your background in the subject, and have information to share, but simultaneously are asked to help other people talk! These guidelines are intended to help, but they aren’t hard and fast rules.
- Your role is threefold:
- To watch the clock to avoid time running out before key topics are discussed
- To steer the discussion away from tangents that may be irrelevant or only relevant for a small portion of the group
- To ensure that everyone has the opportunity to talk - encouraging quiet people and gently reining in talkative types.
- Spend the first 5 minutes having everyone do a quick introduction - name, field, interest in topic, and a random question of your choosing. We’ll provide paper for nametags - make sure they’re visible.
- Have a list of questions ready that cover major aspects of the topic. For pre-meditated topics, you can prepare these, for less planned sessions, spend time with the group identifying things everyone wants to talk about.
- You are allowed to be a *bit* of a jerk - if someone is talking for a long time (1 minute or more) without clear interest from others, or is monopolizing time, cut them off gently and suggest bringing the discussion back to a current central question.
- Take notes, or make sure notes are taken, particularly of major points of agreement. If appropriate or necessary, collect contact information to distribute notes afterwards. An iPad or other tablet is an excellent approach to this. Conference staff can also post notes online for general reference if the group agrees.