Oral presentations (non-poster) should be limited to 15 minutes in length. Talks will typically be organized into hour-long panels with 3 presentations (occasionally 4) followed by a short question and answer session. CURCA staff and volunteers will covene and monitor these sessions. Please bring your presentation slides or other visual aids to be projected for the audience on a USB and also email them to yourself as a back-up plan. If you can bring a laptop, that would be good third back-up.
Arrive early to load your presentation prior to the start of the session.
Reminder on time: Please do time your presentation in advance to make sure it does not exceed 15 mins. Running over time can cut into your fellow presenters' opportunity to speak; it may also mean there is no time for q & a. The schedule will be posted online in advance so you will know your time slot and how many sessions are scheduled within the hour. The convener for each session will help you keep presentations on schedule.
If you will be performing, please contact the organizers to share your particular needs. More time and space may be available upon request.
All presenters assigned to a session should plan to stay through the entire session. You are also part of the audience for the others in your time slot! Please do invite others to attend the session to see your work and the work of your peers. Some sessions may be recorded for later viewing by friends and family who are not able to attend URCAS. This will depend on IMS tech availability, as determined by that office. If zoom recording is available, recording links will be added to the conference schedule on the main URCAS page.
Some tips for your talk:
1) Pitch your talk to include a non-specialist audience. Remember that your audience comprises students and faculty of a variety of different disciplines. It may also include community members and family members. Aim to explain your work in a clear and simple language that is accessible to the entire audience; define technical terms, spell out acronyms, etc.
2) Remember that you are the expert in the room on your research or creative work, your process, and your experience through this project. The audience looks forward to learning from you and wants you to enjoy talking about your work. If topics arise in q&a that require further thought, you may want to thank the questioner and let them know you will continue to think about their question or point. One goal of disseminating research is to get good ideas for next steps. Feel free to ask for clarification or repeating of complex questions.
3) Use your visual aid, such as powerpoint slides, to help you and your audience organize and move through your points. Do not put full sentences or complete information on slides, esp. in a small font. Remember that if your audiences is reading the slides, they are not listening to you. Design slides to aid memory and organize information, not to compete for the audience's attention. A picture can say a thousand words that concretize your information, methods, etc.., without distracting the audience like a paragraph of text might.
4) Your faculty advisor is your best source of guidance for what your presentation should look like given the nature of your work.
5) For presenters drawing from a larger project, you may only be able to present the highlights from your work.
6) Time your talk and ask a friend to listen and point out any unclear passages.
7) Expect the useful question, "what brought you to this topic?" and spend some time pondering its connections to other aspects of your academic and personal life.
