1st Time Presenting at a Conference

[Starship]

Hi Everyone! This is my first post here on grad cafe and I'm hoping you can help! This is my first semester in a doctoral program and my adviser asked me to submit a proposal to SERA (Southwest Educational Research Association) and provided me with a topic as well. My concern is that I'm already incredibly nervous about public speaking (especially in front of other doctoral candidates in my department) and the conference is 3.5 months away! Has anyone experienced this and/or does anyone have any advise for me? Other than stumbling my way through it, I'm not sure if there any an other tips and tricks to help me be better prepared for the presentation/public speaking. Help!

Also, has anyone had experience with this specific conference? I have no idea what to expect with regards to how the forum will be set up, how many people I'll be presenting to, if I am expected to memorize my whole paper or just from the paper.... 

Edited October 26, 2015 by JP

[med latte]

I can't speak to that specific conference, but I would think that if / when your proposal is accepted, the chair will provide you with more guidelines. I'm also preparing for my first paper presentation, and I was told to have some key data graphics on a powerpoint and build my narrative around that -- 12 minutes total. The amount of time you have to present may depend on how many other papers will be presented in your session. I've heard everything from 12 - 45 minutes. 

One step at a time. When is the proposal due?

[rising_star]

The best thing to do, imo, to get more comfortable with public speaking is to practice, practice, practice. Practice so much that you can do it with your eyes closed while still making it seem like you're not over-rehearsed (yea, it's a tough balance to strike). Try speaking more in class to get more comfortable with public speaking in general. Good luck!

[TakeruK]

I want to second the advice to practice! I notice a huge difference in my presentation when I have enough time to practice the entire talk over and over again. One helpful piece of advice/insight my advisor provided me when I was just starting was that almost every good presentation you've seen at a conference or seminar has been well rehearsed. With lots of practice, it just looks like the speaker is able to just naturally speak on their topic, impromptu. But, the well polished talk you see really has a lot of practice behind it. Of course, with more experience, I think less practice is needed to get comfortable and also some experienced speakers give the same talk 10-15 times per year (so maybe they don't practice it as much later on and still sound very polished).

I don't know about your field, but the first talks that students get in my field are usually 5-7 minutes long. It's very short, which is actually more difficult (in my opinion) than a 10-12 minute slot, however, the advantage of a 5-7 minute talk is that you can practice it 8-10 times in an hour! For my first big conference talk, I think I spent a total of 2 hours just going over the same 5-7 minutes over and over again until as rising_star said, I could do it without looking at any notes or slides or anything!

[Starship]

Thank you all for your responses! @med latte the proposal was due at the end of September and I just found out a few days ago that it was accepted  I'm very excited but still nervous! I'll heed your advice and just practice, practice, practice! 

[fuzzylogician]

Congrats! 

Also check out this thread about public speaking: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/21568-public-speaking/

[ngogirl]

Thanks for the advice on this thread, and thank you OP for posting this thread! I was very nervous because I presented my first paper at a regional Political Science conference this past weekend. I followed the advice of this thread and put together a powerpoint presentation, and practice-practice-practiced! When I presented my entire body was literally shaking but no one noticed, everyone said I did a good job and the discussant provided me with very helpful advice for submitting it for publication and suggested I turn this into a book project!

So thank you everyone.

[ngogirl]

Oh and I had practiced for a 15-17 minute presentation because someone dropped out of the panel and the discussant said I would have that much time. However, the chair announced we would only have 10-12 minutes, luckily I had practiced so much I was able to improvise.

[med latte]

Congrats, #ngogirl! Sounds like you did great and got some invaluable feedback!

My first conference presentation is coming up this Thursday. 12 minutes plus Q & A. Fingers crossed!

[ngogirl]

@med latte thanks!! so my presentation was on the last day and I watched the way the other presenters presented as a blueprint. I also practiced every day of the conference and reread some important readings to ensure I would be able to handle feedback. Good luck!!!