Information for oral presentations

Audiovisual equipment and software format at the congress center:

• All oral presentations must be done using PowerPoint.
• Computers at the congress center operate on Windows XP and are loaded with MS Office XP and Adobe Acrobat 7.0. Please note that presentations stored with a newer version of PowerPoint (e.g. 2003) might not work. Therefore, save your files in a format that is compatible with MS Office XP.
• Avoid all non-standard Windows fonts (e.g. maps from GIS: ArcView causes problems because it installs its own fonts).
• Try to keep your presentation as small as possible. Very large PowerPoint files can cause problems during the presentation. Reduce size and resolution of pictures and use the compression utility included in PowerPoint (look under “Help” in PowerPoint for instructions on how to do this).
• Avoid animations as the software to run them may not be installed on the congress center computers.
• Mac users are asked to check their presentations at home on a windows PC to avoid any surprises.
• As a backup, speakers (in particular those working on a Mac) should also bring a copy of their presentation as a PDF.
• Each meeting room is equipped with a digital projector and all presentations will be loaded at a central site. Do not bring your personal laptop to present your talk.
• Name your file with your last name and session number (e.g. if your last name is Gomathi and you are in oral session 20 save your file as “GomathiO20”; if you are in symposium 8, save as “GomathiS8”; if you are a plenary speaker, save as “GomathiP”)

How and when to load your talk:

 ***If you are speaking on Monday 14 August, you must submit your PowerPoint presentation using an FTP site by Friday, 11 August 2006, 6:00 am CEST. If you want your presentation to be checked to determine that your formatting works on the congress projectors, please submit by Thursday, 10 August, 6:00 am CEST. If there are any problems, contributors will be contacted by email and should be prepared to resend the presentation the same day. The easiest way to upload the presentation on the server is to open the directory using MS Internet Explorer. Use the following URL: ftp://IOC:submit!@ftp.terramare.de . Here you will find a list of plenaries, symposia and oral talks for Monday 14 August. Simply drag your presentation from where it is stored on your computer over to the correct session on the FTP site. If you have any problems, please email gregor.scheiffarth@ifv.terramare.de

***All other speakers should bring their talk on a CD or USB key to the reception counter on the day prior to giving their presentation.

Practice room:
There will be a room for delegates who wish to view their presentations before they are scheduled to speak. This room location will be announced at the congress.

Length of presentations:

Plenaries: 55 minutes
Symposia:
Introduction to topic by convener: 4 min
Keynote speakers: 25 minutes (20 min talk, 5 min questions)
Contributed papers: 18 minutes each (15 min talk, 3 min questions)
Standard oral papers: 15 minutes each (12 min talk, 3 min questions)

Note: in symposia and standard oral sessions we have budgeted 3 min between talks so delegates can move between sessions.

Time keeping:

We will use a centralized system to keep all concurrent sessions on time. The end of the coffee or lunch break is marked by playing music for 3 minutes. When the music ends the chairperson must immediately start the session. Symposium conveners will start with a four minute introduction and, without a centralized signal, will then introduce the first keynote speaker. Two minutes before the scheduled end of all other talks, we will broadcast the song of the Bluethroat to alert the speaker to finish the presentation. At the end of the scheduled talk we will broadcast calls of the House Sparrow. Speakers should stop talking and ask for questions. The chairperson should stand up, but if the speaker needs more time you can leave out the questions. At the end of the question period, music will be broadcast for 3 minutes while delegates move between sessions. When the music ends it is time to introduce the next speaker.

Tips for effective oral presentations:

1. Start with an interesting opening to catch your audience’s attention and move quickly into the background to the topic.
2. End with a summary or conclusion that links back to the introduction.
3. Do not read your talk. Prepare a set of points relevant to each power point slide and rehearse.
4. Do not read your slides, the audience will have already done so. Make your points in other words.
5. Point out axes on your graphs before explaining the results displayed.
6. Maintain eye contact with the audience and speak loudly and clearly.
7. Keep to your time limit, leaving time for questions.

Visual aids:

8. Keep slides simple: no more than 3 bullets per page and no more than 5 words per bullet. Avoid complicated tables and graphs. Avoid busy backgrounds and complicated animation effects.
9. Make one major point per slide.
10. Do not scan in tables and figures from publications- redraw them in a simpler format.
11. For slides with several bullets (points), reveal them one at a time. Otherwise your audience will read them ahead of you.
12. Use large font and colours that are easy on the eye. Remember that a percentage of your audience may be red-green colour blind. Never use black font or lines on a blue background. Avoid red lettering.

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