NASBR Student Presentation Tips

Following the Edmonton 2025 meeting, the NASBR Student Board Members reached out to the judges from the Student Competition and asked them for tips and advice for student presenters. We have compiled that information here. Judges consistently highlighted a few key characteristics of strong student presentations:

1. Tell a clear story and know your audience

• Know your audience. NASBR is a room full of bat people, you don't need to introduce bats the way you would for more general audiences.
• Tell a clear story with a beginning, middle, and end. 
• Clearly state your question, hypothesis, or objective.
• Focus on the results and what they mean. Don't spend too much time on methods.
• Make sure your conclusions answer the question you set out to address.

2. Keep it simple

• Use less text and more visuals.
• Avoid unnecessary background information. (see 'Know your audience' above)
• Focus on the key points rather than every detail of the project.

3. Make it easy to follow

• Use large fonts, figures, and labels. Remember there are people at the back of the room, and people with reduced vision, and people who are color blind. 
• Walk the audience through graphs and visuals.
• Use slide titles and poster layouts that guide the audience through your story. 

4. Practice your delivery

• Speak clearly, loudly, and at a comfortable pace.
• Don't read directly from a script.
• Use pointers and microphones effectively. Remember that if you turn around to point out something with the laser pointer, you aren't speaking into the mic and the audience will have trouble hearing you.

5. Be professional and confident

• Credit images and visual materials. The bat world is lucky to have many excellent photographers who are happy to share their images, and many of them may be in the audience. Make sure you are using their images with permission, and providing image credit.
• Be honest when you don't know an answer. Respond to questions as best you can, but if you don't know the answer to a question it is fine to say that, and connect the question to something that you can comment on.
• Remember that you're the expert on your project and that the audience wants to learn from you.

For posters

• Less is more. Nobody wants to read big blocks of text.
• Design your poster to support conversation.
• Use large, visually engaging figures and graphics.