Presentation Styles
Today I presented at the Reading e-Research Open Meeting. My presentation is on that website, but that set of slides is my notes rather than the presentation slides I displayed. My usual presentation style is to use many slides. Instead, for this fifteen minute presentation I decided to try a different style and I went minimalist. In the presentation I showed two slides [1] – two and ten from the longer presentation – and drew similar images to those on slide three [2].
I found this to work fairly well. Certainly it stopped me from just reading the slides and just stand and talk about my research. I could have used some better flash cards/notes – just to have some reminder of areas I wanted to mention. I certainly feel this needs experimenting with and more trails. And that is good – I am giving a seminar [3] next week! 
Notes
[1] I used no title slide either – everyone in the meeting had a schedule with my name on it and I had just been introduced.
[2] The images on slide three are not those drawn in the meeting. Instead, they are images I drew especially to put in the longer version of the slides.
[3] For the research group weekly meeting.
Glad the talk went well!
*nods* I like slides for things that people need to stare at for a few seconds (since I tend to speak quickly) or for things that I can’t describe, but otherwise, I’d rather have their attention on what I’m saying. Slide sets that I could’ve consumed without benefit of the speaker (aside from Q&A afterwards) leave me wondering whether I could’ve stepped out for fresh air and scrolled through the slides after the symposium….