For Oral Presenters

Instructions

Oral presentations are to be no longer than 15 minutes in length. Please time your presentation in advance with the realization that the actual presentation will take a few minutes longer than your rehearsal. Practice in front of a friend and let them assist you in ways to keep your presentation within the 15-minute limit. At the conference, your session moderator will be instructed to keep presentations inside their time limits, even if that means curtailing talks. This will keep all concurrent sessions on schedule and allow audiences to plan their attendance based on time of day, building, and room number.

Computers and Projectors: CSU Channel Islands will provide computers, projectors, and screens for those of you planning to do PowerPoint presentations. Please do not bring your own computers, projectors, or screens. Your presentation must be in PowerPoint format.

PowerPoint presentations: Here are some general rules for those making PowerPoint presentations. They are necessary to ensure smooth, effective presentations.

Before the Conference:

Test your presentation on a PC if you made it on a Macintosh Computer. The conference computers use Windows 7 installed with PowerPoint 2007. If you prepared your presentation on a Mac, test it carefully on a PC before coming to the conference. Pay special attention to any audio and video clips.
Test your presentation on a different computer from the one that you regularly use. This is the best way to discover any technical problems ahead of time. Test your presentation in its final form using your flash drive, prior to attending the conference.
Bring your presentation to the conference on a USB flash drive. You may also bring a back-up copy on a CD or DVD. Do not e-mail your files to yourself; either bring an external hard drive or your own laptop. We highly recommend that you bring two copies of your PowerPoint presentation, one as a backup.
Prepare a hardcopy backup of visuals so that in the worst-case situation (complete computer failure) you'll still be able to present your work. We will have some document projectors that can project hardcopies under emergency situations. It is better than having no visuals to accompany you presentation should an emergency arise.

On the Day of the Conference:

Oral sessions have tentatively been scheduled to take place at two times during the conference. Oral Session I will be from 8:30 - 9:50 am. Oral Session II will be from 2:00 - 3:20 p.m. There will be more than 30 concurrent sessions at the same time, in 2 different buildings. Be certain to locate your session topic, building, and room number well in advance. This can be done by logging onto this website on November 10th and viewing the tables listing each talk to be given in Oral Sessions I and II. A copy of the tables listing each talk will also be emailed to you November 10th. A map is also provided with each listing for easy location of buildings. Feel free to ask for directions once on site.
Arrive well before your session time. If you are scheduled in the first session beginning at 8:30 a.m.; you should arrive prior to 8 a.m. at the registration desk.
There will be computers available for testing your presentation's compatibility with Channel Islands' computers, but you must arrive early for this. If your presentation involves audio or video clips, or was prepared on a Mac, you'll be asked to have it tested in your assigned presentation room, well in advance of the session start time, at least 15 minutes prior. This is a good idea for everyone but especially those who prepared their presentation on Macs or are using audio or video clips.
Once you've registered, you should arrive at your presentation room at least fifteen minutes prior to the start of the session. Upon arrival to the room, identify yourself as a presenter and introduce yourself to the session moderator.
Presenters scheduled for the second session, Oral Session II, should arrive 15 minutes prior to 2:00 pm, to have their presentations installed on the appropriate session room computers. Recall that the second session runs from 2:00 - 3:20 p.m.
Technical help will be available throughout the day, but presenters should try to anticipate and avoid problems--even a delay of a few minutes caused by incompatible equipment or media can irreversibly spoil a presentation. In that spirit, we encourage you to upload your presentation early.

Guidelines

Oral presentations are carefully prepared to be fifteen minutes long. They are presented as part of a panel of three or four presentations, usually addressing a common subject matter.

In the sciences and some social sciences, presentations are usually made from notes and are accompanied by visual materials such as tables, graphs, and photographs (most often in PowerPoint). In the humanities and some other social sciences, presentations are usually read aloud from a prepared text, sometimes with accompanying visual materials. Work with your faculty mentor to produce an oral presentation appropriate to your discipline.

Preparing and Presenting

Rehearse your presentation in advance with friends or family. Make sure that it is no more than fifteen minutes long. Ask your audience what they have learned to see if you're getting your point across.
Face your audience; speak slowly and clearly and project your voice to the back of the room. Whether you are working from notes, PowerPoint, or reading from a text, make eye contact with your audience as frequently as you can.
If you're speaking from notes, number them so that you won't lose your place, and remember the general outline of the points that you want to make and the order in which you'll make them. If you're reading, read slowly enough to understand what you're reading (at a rate of about two minutes per double-spaced page).
If you are using visual aids (e.g. PowerPoint), prepare them well in advance and make sure they are clear.
Keep words to a minimum on each PowerPoint slide; make sure they are readable from the back of the room. Words should be large enough to read from several feet away, but don't use all caps. Avoid using light colors for words, such as yellow or orange. The size of the typeface should be at least 12 point.
Watch your audience response; if they seem lost, slow down.

Computer-aided Projection and Audio-visual Equipment

Channel Islands will provide computers, projectors, and screens for students making PowerPoint presentations. PowerPoint is the only supported presentation software. All computers are PCs. Participants should not bring their own computers.

Students should bring presentations in a PC-compatible format, on an external USB memory drive.
Presentations prepared on a Mac must be rehearsed at least once in advance on a PC to ensure compatibility.
Presenters will also be provided with document projectors upon request, well in advance. Other media, such as overhead projectors, may be available upon advanced request.
All presenters must indicate clearly the equipment they will need when abstracts are initially submitted.

Participating in a Panel

A faculty moderator will chair your panel. He or she will introduce you and other presenters to the audience, describe the session's topic, keep time, and facilitate brief discussion following each presentation. It is essential that panels keep on schedule; moderators will stop presenters if they appear likely to run over their allotted time.