Presentation Information

ORAL PRESENTATION INSTRUCTIONS

All Oral Presentations will have a total duration of 15 minutes. It is highly recommended that presenters use 12 minutes for the presentation and allow 3 minutes for questions and transition. 

Priority is given to presentations from Spallanzani and Villa Awardees, as well as Student Oral Honors.  Student Oral Honors oral presenters may only present in a session designated for student presentations (they may not present in a topical, plenary, or other special session later in the symposium). 

All presentations will be in PowerPoint on a Windows computer, therefore, Mac users should verify that their presentations work well in a Windows environment.  Anyone using video or sound clips should make sure in advance that they will operate seamlessly with the presentation equipment provided – no extra time will be allowed for compatibility issues.  

Please do read the following documents:

How to Avoid PowerPoint Presentation Problems

Slides should consist of short headings and main points with relevant graphics.  Do not overcrowd information on slides.  Use large fonts that will project clearly and be readable by people in the rear of a large room of up to 400 people.  Avoid complex tables and graphics.  If you have to tell the audience, “you can’t read this,” then please do not include it.  For example a phylogenetic tree can be simplified to show only the major branch points not every branch on a complex tree. 

There are many good resources available on giving effective oral presentations.  We encourage presenters to seek guidance and feedback on the preparation of their presentation.  Some excellent resources include:

Alley, M.  2013.  The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical Steps to Succeed and Critical Errors to Avoid.  2nd Edition.  Springer.

Brigham, R. M.  2010.  Talking the talk: giving oral presentations about mammals for colleagues and general audiences.  Journal of Mammalogy 91:285-292.

Langin, J.M.  2017.  Tell me a story!  A plea for more compelling conference presentations.  Condor 119:321-326.

Please NOTE:

• Please upload your presentation file. Your file should be name as following:

Room_Day_Time_lastname.ppt or Room_Day_Time_lastname.pptx

For example:

GretzkyB_Thursday_1145am_Viquez.ppt   or

GretzkyC_Thursday_0430pm_Bernard.pptx

• NASBR uses a 16:9 (widescreen) projection format. It is highly recommended that you format your slides to be 16:9.  If your slides are in the old 4:3 format they may not occupy the entire screen (black borders on the sides) and will appear small to the audience.