Suggestions for Presenters
GIA’s 4^th International Gemological Symposium
and the
GIA Gemological Research Conference

GIA has prepared these suggestions to help conference presenters maximize their communication with a diverse audience. There will be researchers, jewelers, gemologists, appraisers, miners, and students in attendance at both conferences. If you are presenting information on a specialized topic, be sure to explain its practical application or relevance to a wider audience. Also, ensure that your presentation includes the following information:

Sufficient preparation is critical. Plan to take several weeks for gathering materials, preparing graphics and photos, and designing your slides or poster.

Design
In technical presentations, the design elements should not overwhelm the information. Elements such as fonts, colors, backgrounds, and templates should not compete with your data; rather, they should help communicate it. The use of overwhelming “corporate” templates is discouraged for this reason.

Photos and Graphics

1. Make sure that all graphic elements are large enough for details to be legible and clearly evident. The impact of an important graph may be lost if the labels and legends are too small.
2. Remember that all important elements need to be labeled, even if they seem obvious to you (e.g., scale, direction, etc). Show graphics to your colleagues beforehand and ask them if your point is clear without any explanation.
3. Avoid using harsh, bold gridlines to separate columns or rows of data in tables. Subtle shading and careful spacing are much easier on the eyes. Alternatively, consider converting data tables to graphic formats.

Text

1. In general, serif fonts such as Garamond and Times tend to be more readable than sans-serif fonts such as Arial. However, sans-serif fonts are usually better for information in tables and in titles. Experiment with different fonts to see which is best. Once you have selected a font style, be consistent throughout your presentation.
2. “ALL CAPS” text should not be used for anything other than titles and headings, and is not necessary even there. Likewise, too much bold or italic text can be difficult to read.

Color

1. The use of cool or cool-neutral colors (muted blues, greens, and grays) usually cause things to recede into the background; bright, warm colors will usually cause things to “pop” out. Be sure this is what you intend.
2. Color contrasts – between text and background, or between graphical elements – are just as important as the specific colors chosen. Some combinations are attractive, while others are difficult on the eyes. White text on blue/green backgrounds and black text on light blue/green backgrounds are good for readability, as are tan and gray backgrounds.
3. Resist the temptation to use color for everything. Sometimes adding color to a single element of a black-and-white illustration is sufficient.

Handouts

1. It is strongly recommended that all presentations, whether oral or poster, be accompanied by a one-page printed handout. This double-sided sheet should summarize the work and may include additional, in-depth information and graphics that will not fit into the Proceedings Volume that will include abstracts of conference presentations.
2. Oral presenters should make handouts available to the audience beforehand (e.g., on a table at the entrance to the lecture hall). Poster presenters should consider providing a reduced-size version of their poster for their handout.
3. Handouts should contain the author's contact information and, for posters, the location of the poster presentation.
4. NOTE: A handout should not be a mere printout of PowerPoint slides.

Samples and Demonstrations
If you have samples for display or examination with a microscope, consider making them available for viewing by interested participants during your poster presentation or after your talk. Microscopes will be set up in the poster arena for use by all participants. If your work includes new techniques or methods, consider conducting a demonstration for attendees. 

Oral Presentation Tips

Speakers will have 20 minutes, including question time, to deliver their talk (30 minutes for keynote speakers). Effective oral presentations require both adequate preparation and practice. 

Drafting Your Talk
Once you have settled on a specific subject, it can be helpful to step back and decide what you would like to teach the audience. Your presentation should begin with a brief discussion of who you are, what you are going to talk about, and why it is important. An excellent way of engaging your audience is framing your research topic as a question, for example: “How can we identify this treatment?” “What is a dealer or retailer to do in this situation?” “What is likely to be the future of this locality given these challenges?” Then, as you proceed through your talk, return to the question and show how your research and information will answer it.

Once you feel that you have a solid introduction, build an outline around it so that everything flows in a well-organized fashion. Reinforce your message by repeatedly tying specific data and information into your overall theme. Then end your presentation by summarizing key points.

How to Use Presentation Software
The key to effective use of presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint is recognizing its limitations. Despite its widespread use, PowerPoint is not well-suited for presenting purely textual material, especially on complex subjects. Since your audience can read much faster than you can speak, avoid using slides for presenting large amounts of text.

The best approach is to use your slides as visual reinforcement for ideas, not note cards for your talk. Photographs, charts, and graphs should form most of your slides; leave large blocks of text for your handout.

The text on your slides should typically consist of either brief legends for your graphical material, or very brief summaries of a particular section of your talk that the audience can comprehend in a matter of seconds. In the latter case, don’t make the mistake of simply reading the slide—you need to “fill in the blanks” with the complex details that won’t fit onto the slide. Again, these extra details should also appear in your handout.

Complex graphics can distract and confuse the audience, especially if many small parts and detailed legends are involved. If a particular graphic that will not project well is essential to your talk, it should be provided in your handout. At the appropriate time during your presentation, refer the audience to the handout.

General Slide Tips

1. The audience needs time to comprehend and think about the things you are presenting. In general, each slide should appear for no less than 30 seconds, and preferably at least 60. In a 20-minute talk, this means you should have no more than 20–25 slides at most.
2. Anything – text especially – that you put on a slide will receive some audience attention. Thus, if it is not strictly necessary, it acts as a distraction from what is important.
3. If you have the opportunity to test your slides on a projector beforehand, do so. You may find that things that appear clear and legible on your computer screen are not as clear when projected.

Practicing Your Presentation
The most important reason for practicing a presentation is very basic: Until you have practiced it at least once, you cannot be certain how long it will take. Practicing your presentation gives you the necessary familiarity with the material and helps you condense it to the most important elements.

Practicing your talk in front of one or two colleagues is useful, though not necessary. Whether or not you practice in front of others, a good rule of thumb is that you need at least 10 “practice runs” to polish your talk into an effective presentation that will fit within the allotted time. Aim to leave sufficient time for audience questions.

Delivering Your Presentation
There is no single correct style of public speaking, so find a style that is most natural for you. Following are some general rules that will contribute to a successful talk:

1. Plan to show up at least 15 minutes early, so you have time to catch your breath, get situated, and address any problems with the presentation environment.
2. Remember to properly introduce yourself and your work.
3. Speak slowly, simply, and clearly. Minimize colloquialisms, idiom, and unfamiliar acronyms – remember that you will be speaking to a broad international audience, not all of whom have English as a first language.
4. Maintain eye contact with your audience as much as possible. This is easiest to do when you have practiced your talk sufficiently.
5. Vary the tone and emphasis of your speech, and don’t feel compelled to speak nonstop from beginning to end. Artful pauses to emphasize a point, or to give listeners a moment or two to view a new slide, can keep your audience engaged.
6. Try not to stand or sit rigidly behind the microphone for your entire presentation. Moving around to indicate important elements of a slide, to face different parts of the room, or to indicate a change in subject, will make your presentation livelier and more interesting.
7. Be aware of repetitive elements in your speech, mannerisms, and presentation. Deliberate repetition is an excellent means of emphasis, and can serve to draw out subtle differences between repeated elements. Unintentional repetition, however, can quickly become tedious.

Poster Tips

A well-designed poster stands on its own without the presenter’s assistance. There is a balance of text and illustrations, with a precise and easy-to-­read layout; brief, legible text; and thorough, careful organization.

Poster Design

1. The use of design software such as Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, or PowerPoint to create your poster is strongly recommended.
2. Each presenter will have one 1.2 x 2.5 m (4 x 8 feet) panel to work with, but don’t feel the need to use every square centimeter. Instead, make artful use of open space to frame the content and guide the viewer’s eyes.

   

3. At first glance, from 3-4 m (10-15 ft) away, the viewer should see an easy-to­-read title and a neat, uncluttered arrangement of illustrations and text. The title should be oriented toward a strolling audience. Once the viewer has come to take a closer look at an interesting-looking display, all aspects of the design and concept should work together to keep the viewer's attention.

1. Title lettering should be the largest, about 5–7 cm high (2-3 inches; about 250–300 pt type) with subheadings 1–3 cm high (0.5-1.0 inches; 48–72 pt). All lettering should be legible from about 1 m (3 feet) away. For text, font size should be no less than 18 pt, with less important details in 16 pt. Your titles and subtitles should give viewers a good general idea of your work.
2. It should be obvious where to start reading the poster and where to look from there. The natural impulse is to read left to right, top to bottom, so your poster should follow this. The component parts should either be numbered to facilitate eye movement or have arrows that graphically lead the viewer through the display. Remember that more than one person may be viewing your poster at a time, so don’t create a layout that forces readers to move back and forth.
3. Begin by presenting the subject or problem you are addressing. Supporting text should consist of brief segments along with appropriate illustrations. Emphasize your results, not your methodology.
4. Aim for about 40 percent open space and twice as much space for illustrations as for text. Your message should be clear from the evidence you present without needing long stretches of explanatory text.
5. Be sure to clearly identify yourself and your affiliation somewhere on the poster (preferably under the title). Your contact information (including e-mail address) should be included. However, avoid cluttering your poster with large, bold logos.

Printing, Packaging, and Mounting

1. To ensure a professional, polished appearance, the use of commercial printing services, or high-quality color printing, is strongly recommended. If you do not have a color printer in-house, commercial printing and copying stores can usually print your poster elements for a fee. A list of printing services in the San Diego area is provided below.
2. The best results are obtained by having your poster professionally printed as a single element, banner-style, from a PDF or similar file. The poster can then be rolled in a tube for safe transport. Make sure the tube is labeled with all of your contact information, especially where you will be staying during Symposium.
3. If your poster consists of separate elements, all of them should be mounted on poster board or 1 cm foam-core board so that they lie flat. A cleaner look will usually be achieved if captions are mounted on the same board as their associated illustrations. Be sure to prepare a sketch of your layout, with key components numbered so you know where to place them.
4. If you will be traveling by air, make sure the poster tube or separate elements are small enough to pack as carry-on luggage (within the U.S., these are currently 55 x 36 x 23 cm [22" x 14" x 9"], or about 115 cm [45"] for map tubes).
5. When mounting your poster, the best results are obtained by using adhesive-backed male Velcro tape, which holds it to the cloth surface of the booth without visible attachments. Pushpins or thumbtacks can be used, but these typically produce an amateurish appearance. Various forms of tape (single- or double-sided) are generally not secure enough to hold poster elements in place and should not be used. Presenters should bring their own materials for attaching posters to the mounting boards. You may have only a short time to set up your display, so prepare in advance.
6. To assist with mounting and be prepared for possible damage, have these items in a poster “emergency kit”:

• A disk or portable drive with your poster and handout files (in case reprinting is necessary)
• Extra Velcro tape and/or pushpins
• Tape measure and string (for aligning separate elements)
• Scissors and glue
• Blank paper, marking pens (black and colored), and a clean eraser

Presentation Hints

1. Be prepared to answer common questions. However, be courteous and wait until questions are asked – don’t interrupt your viewers while they’re reading.
2. Have a 3–5 minute presentation prepared for people who want you to walk them through your poster. Give them the “big picture,” rather than just reading the text and figure captions.
3. If possible, step to the side of your poster when conversing with your colleagues, so that others can view your research.
4. Since posters will be available for viewing during periods when you are not present, plan accordingly with regard to leaving valuable samples or delicate instruments unattended. Have a way to collect business cards for communication with visitors wanting more information.

Briscoe M.H. (1996) Preparing Scientific Illustrations: A Guide to Better Posters, Presentations, and Publications. Springer, New York.

Davis M. (1997) Scientific Papers and Presentations. Academic Press, New York.

Eisner W. (1985) Comics and Sequential Art. Poorhouse Press, Tamarac, FL.

Gosling P.J. (1999) Scientist's Guide to Poster Presentations. Kluwer Academic Press, New York.

Hess G.R., Brooks E.N. (1998) The class poster conference as a teaching tool. Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education, Vol. 27, pp. 155-158.

Nicol A.A.M., Pexman P.M. (2003) Displaying Your Findings: A Practical Guide for Creating Figures, Posters, and Presentations. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.

Teixeira A. (1997) Preparing posters for technical presentations. Resource, Vol. 4. No. 4, pp. 15-16.

Tufte E. (1995). Envisioning Information. Graphics Press, Cheshire, CT.

Tufte E. (1997) Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Graphics Press, Cheshire, CT.

Tufte E. (2001) The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Graphics Press, Cheshire, CT.

Internet References
Katzoff S. (1964) Clarity in Technical Reporting. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington D.C. [primarily the second half]
http://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/ltrs/PDF/NASA-64-sp7010.pdf

“Creating effective poster presentations”
http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/IndexStart.html

“Effective presentations”
http://www.kumc.edu/SAH/OTEd/jradel/effective.html

“How attention works for audiences: A guide for public speakers & presenters” http://performance-appraisals.org/Bacalsappraisalarticles/articles/attention.htm

“How to prepare a poster”
http://www.siam.org/siamnews/general/poster.htm

“How to make presentations: Techniques, handouts, display technologies.” http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00001B&topic_id=1

“Making effective oral presentations”
http://web.cba.neu.edu/~ewertheim/skills/oral.htm

“The scholarly lecture: How to stand and deliver”
http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i14/14b01501.htm

“Using Acrobat to prepare posters”
http://miu.med.unsw.edu.au/sci_posters.htm

“Using poster techniques during a talk”
http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00017C&topic_id=1

Commercial Printing Services
in the San Diego Area

This list is provided as a courtesy only and does not imply any endorsement by GIA. It is limited to services near the Symposium venue that are capable of printing large posters.