Information for Oral Presenters

Author notification letters will be e-mailed to the correspondence author who submitted the abstract. For a quick way to find out the method of presentation and time assigned to a specific abstract, use the author index provided.

ORAL PRESENTATIONS —

Presentation Format:  Oral presentations are scheduled at 15-minute intervals.  A 15-minute presentation includes 10 minutes for speaking and 5 minutes for discussion and speaker transition. Please rehearse your presentation to ensure that you will complete your talk within your allotted time. Session chairs will not allow you to exceed your time limit.

Audio/Visual Equipment:
Each meeting room will be equipped with the following:

LCD projector with single-screen projection configured for 4:3 display aspect ratio
Wireless remote presenter and laser pointer
Wireless lavaliere microphone
Speaker timer
Lectern

Internet access will not be available for presentation use. In some meeting rooms, lecterns will be set on a riser. Please contact Elizabeth Wagganer if you require assistance such as ramp access or modified lectern height.

Speaker Ready Room:

Presentation validation and check-in will be in the Mobley Room which is located on the lower level next to Salon A. Electronic presentations must be tested for readability and submitted to an A/V Tech in the Speaker Ready Room via USB flash drive the day before your oral presentation is scheduled. Oral presenters scheduled in Monday morning sessions should check in their presentations on Sunday evening. Once your presentation has been checked for readability, the conference A/V staff will transfer it to the meeting room computer via the conference network. Speakers will not be allowed to load presentations onto the computers in the meeting rooms. Please bring a copy of your presentation with you to the session in which you will present for quick resolution to unexpected technical difficulties.

Speaker Ready Room Schedule

LIGHTNING TALK SESSIONS:

Lightning Talk Sessions are composed of five-minute talks delivered in rapid succession. Lightning Talks can be prepared in advance or crafted on the fly. They may be serious, lighthearted, or both. You can enhance your talk with A/V, or not. The primary goal is to teach the audience something in five minutes or less. Anyone can participate, from students to senior lecturers. Poster authors are encouraged to give a Lightning Talk.

Instructions for participation are coming soon.

TECHNICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR ELECTRONIC PRESENTATIONS —

These suggestions are not meant to deter creativity or use of the best data available, but provide suggestions for optimum results.

Readability — Keep in mind that those sitting at the back of the room will have difficulty reading information that is not well presented. For the benefit of your entire audience, please keep the following tips in mind: 

Graphics should be simple, well designed, and legible to everyone in the audience.

Presentations are most readable on a dark background with bright lettering. To make certain your slides are legible, view your slides at a distance of 8–10 feet from your computer screen.

Avoid using small fonts (these will be illegible from the back of the room). Break up a complex slide into a series of slides. Avoid including critical information at the BOTTOM of the slide (which is not always easily seen from the back of the room).

Devote each graphic to a single fact or idea. Illustrate major points, not detailed data.

Avoid long or complicated formulas or equations.

Use the minimum number of words possible in titles, subtitles, and captions.

Use bold characters instead of fancy type.

When preparing graphs, avoid more than two curves on one diagram whenever possible. If three or four curves must be used, make certain they are well separated. Label each curve; avoid symbols and legends. Avoid data points unless scatter is important.

Colored graphs are very effective as color adds interest, attractiveness, and clarity to illustrations. Contrasting color schemes are easier to see.

An introductory and a concluding graphic can improve the focus of your talk.
It is strongly encouraged that presentation files (PowerPoint, PDF, etc.) be much smaller than 150 MB.

PowerPoint — can display pictures and text generated with the program or inserted from other sources. If the outside source is a video file, the original file is not saved within the presentation. Source files meeting these criteria must be available on the computer on which the presentation is going to run. Presenters should copy any source video and sound files to the USB flash drive containing their presentation; when in doubt, include the file. Macintosh LZW compressed TIFF files may not display correctly with PowerPoint on a PC.

Fonts — should be standard fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial, or Courier. If nonstandard fonts must be used, they should be embedded in the PowerPoint file. We recommend a minimum font size of 24 points.

Embedded charts, graphs, and object-oriented graphic files — can be difficult to work with. These file types usually are influenced by the version of the program used to create them, often making them translate strangely on a different system. We recommend that charts or graphics be inserted into presentations in a standard graphics format such as .gif, .jpg, or .bmp.

Movies — saved as AVIs have the best chance of success on a Windows machine. QuickTime’s best compression algorithm, the Sorenson CODEC, does not play within PowerPoint. To avoid problems, convert QuickTime files to MPEG formats or AVI (Cinepak).

HTML presentations — must consist entirely of portable files (relative links must be used). All data will be copied from the speaker’s USB flash drive to the hard drive of the laptop. If files are not portable, links between pages could be lost.

** A webserver or Internet connection will NOT be available, so plan accordingly. **

Plug-ins or ActiveX controls — cannot be installed at the meeting. If the presentation takes advantage of a function not built into Internet Explorer or the plug-ins mentioned above, technical difficulties will arise.