SHA24/017003

How to Present Your Data at Scientific Meetings

MARKO TURINA University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland

Your performance will be a success when you: •Adhere to well-accepted general rules of giving presentation •Pay careful attention how you present yourself and your material Regardless how good are your data, your presentation can be a flop when disregarding some simple rules.

Giving the Presentation Speak freely and look directly at audience Put outline and key points of your presentation on your slides:  You don’t have to remember what to say  Eyes are on the slide, not on you  Key points are there for people who weren’t listening or who are visual learners

Ummmm… The… Uh… Yeah.

• Practice makes perfect • Do not read your slides like a script • Most people lose 20 IQ points in front of an audience

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Remember the nature of congress presentation: it is a narrative.

• English today is the language of medicine.

• Most of us are not native English speakers.

• Exercise your presentation with colleagues or with native English speakers. Internet helps for difficult pronunciations (e.g. Latin terms).

• Listen to yourself speak (dictating machine).

• Prepare yourself for questions after the talk!

What Font to Use Type size should be 18 points or larger: 18 point

20 point

24 point

28 point

36 point AVOID USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS BECAUSE IT’S MUCH HARDER TO READ * References can be in 12-14 point font

http://www.fw.msu.edu/orgs/gso/documents/GSOWorkshop DocsSp2006/PresentationTipsinPowerPoint.ppt#307,6,Pow erpoint basics: 1. What font to use

Color

Dark letters against a light background work

Dark letters against a light background are best for smaller rooms, especially when the lights are on for teaching http://www.fw.msu.edu/orgs/gso/documents/GSOWorkshopD ocsSp2006/PresentationTipsinPowerPoint.ppt#302,5,Powerp oint basics: 1. What font to use

Color

Light letters against a dark background also work Many experts feel that a dark blue or black background works best for talks in a large room http://www.fw.msu.edu/orgs/gso/documents/GSOWorkshop DocsSp2006/PresentationTipsinPowerPoint.ppt#302,5,Pow erpoint basics: 1. What font to use

When speaking at a meeting, you are being carefully observed by your audience! 

Dress up: wear a jacket 

More formal attire makes you appear more authoritative and you show that you care enough to try to look nice

This is a typical US advice

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Some advice from experienced speakers audiences: 

Dark clothes are more powerful than light clothes

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Shirts or blouses with collars are better than collarless ones

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Clothes with pressed creases (!) are signs of power

Giving the Presentation Starting out is the hardest part of the talk To get going, memorize the first few lines “Hello, I’m ….. The title of my presentation is, ‘.How to Present Your Data at Scientific Meetings And Spot Weaknesses in Other Reports”

Fonts - Bad 

If you use a small font, your audience won’t be able to read what you have written

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CAPITALIZE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY. IT IS DIFFICULT TO READ

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Don’t use a complicated font

Slide Structure – Good 

Show one point at a time: – – –

Will help audience concentrate on what you are saying Will prevent audience from reading ahead Will help you keep your presentation focused

Slide Structure - Bad 

Do not use distracting animation

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Do not go overboard with the animation

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Be consistent with the animation that you use

Graphs - Bad

January February Blue Balls 20.4 27.4 Red Balls 30.6 38.6

March 90 34.6

April 20.4 31.6

Graphs - Bad

Graphs - Bad     

Minor gridlines are unnecessary Font is too small Colours are illogical Title is missing Shading is distracting

Graphs - Good

Colour - Good 

Use a colour of font that contrasts sharply with the background –

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Use colour to reinforce the logic of your structure –

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Ex: blue font on white background

Ex: light blue title and dark blue text

Use colour to emphasize a point –

But only use this occasionally

Colour - Bad   

Using a font colour that does not contrast with the background colour is hard to read Using colour for decoration is distracting and annoying.

Using a different colour for each point is unnecessary –

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Using a different colour for secondary points is also unnecessary

Trying to be creative can also be bad

•By all means, avoid red lettering on dark background • Can you look at this for 45 minutes?

• Colors look different on every LCD projector • Colors look different between transparencies and projector • Side note: if printing slides, may want to choose white background to save ink!

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Use contrasting colors • More contrast on monitor than projector • Different projectors == different results • Colors to avoid with white are: – Light Green – Light Blue – Pale Yellow

Usually can’t read this…

• Your slides should have good contrast •23

Background – Bad  

Avoid backgrounds that are distracting or difficult to read from Always be consistent with the background that you use

Basic Rules for Congress Presentations • Congress presentation is not identical with your scientific paper.

• At the meeting, you cannot read the paper which you prepared for publication. Congress presentation is totally different!

• Your audience are specialists, but not necessarily experts in your special field: therefore start talk by introducing your topic in simple words.

• Presentations should be also interesting.

• Utilize all modern media (video, colors, even sound)

This table might be good for a scientific journal, but cannot be shown in a lecture!

Avoid statistical overload!

By all means, avoid to many abbreviations!

Make your title understandable!

One of the most common errors in presentation: False labeling of groups • Give your groups self-explanatory, materialrelated labels: “control” and “intervention”; “treatment” and “placebo”; OPCAB and OnPump; etc.

• Avoid labels like A, B and C; or “Group I” and “Group II”. Three slide later, everybody has forgotten the meaning of these labels, and your message is lost.

Why not “Control Group” and “Hyperbaric Oxygen”?

If you have a complex slide, take time to explain the content!

This slide takes at least 2 minutes to explain

Krasopoulos G. et al.; J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2008;135:3-7 Copyright Š2008 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery

Very Common Error in Oral Presentations: Overstepping the allocated time

• This is an arrogant behavior, and a discourtesy to other presenters.

• You are only as important as other speakers: When you were given 8 minutes for presenting your paper, this was not a polite proposal, it was an order!

• Talk lasts longer than you think: check your timing when speaking out loud!

• When short of time, never hurry through the talk.

Drop some slides instead!

Why You Have To Adhere Strictly To Your Presentation Time At Major Meetings?

• There is a standard meeting schedule: – Experimental reports (“Forum”): 5 minutes + 2 minutes discussion; – Oral presentations: 8 or 10 minutes + 5 minutes discussion.

• Lectures are 60, 90 and 120 minutes slots.

• Breaks are necessary not only for participants, but are also requested by sponsors for contacts with audience.

• Meetings are crowded because various subgroups fight for program slots.

Presentation should not be only interesting, but also entertaining! Use video clips, but sparingly. (“infotainment�)

“One picture is worth ten thousand words” Frederick R. Barnard, 1927

“And one video clip even more …”

Most Common Errors in Oral Presentations • Introduction is always too long: a single slide labeled “Objective” is enough. This is by far the most common mistake.

• “Methods” section should be brief: mention only important facts, but do not forget essentials, like completeness of follow-up.

Most Common Errors in Oral Presentations (cont.)

• “Results” are the most important part, and they should take at least 50% of your time.

• Present your results graphically, and avoid abbreviations.

• In “Discussion”, briefly compare your results with other work in the field.

• Avoid primacy claims (“It was the first time that this was done”).

• Your “Conclusions” are the part which everybody will remember.

Most Common Errors in Oral Presentations: Errors in slide design • Overloading the slide: Maximum 7 words in one line, 10 – 12 lines maximum (font size 28-30!)

• Not more than 3 lines in a graph • Avoid 3-D graphs!

• Use blue or black background.

• Never use red on such a background!

• Avoid fancy backgrounds: difficult to read!

• Do not get carried away by the animation (fancy appearance and disappearance, too many colors)

Most Common Errors in Oral Presentations: Do not get carried away by colors!

• Overloading the slide: Maximum 7 words in one line, 10 lines maximum (font size 28-30!)

• Not more than 3 lines in a graph • Avoid 3-D graphs: not very comprehensible!

• Use blue or black background.

• Never use red on such a background!

• Avoid fancy backgrounds: difficult to read!

• Overloading the animation (fancy appearance and disappearance, too many colors)

Most Common Errors in Oral Presentations: Red on black or blue background is unreadable!

• Overloading the slide: Maximum 7 words in one line, 10 lines maximum (font size 2830!)

• Not more than 3 lines in a graph • Avoid 3-D graphs: not very comprehensible!

• Use blue or black background.

• Never use red on such a background!

• Avoid fancy backgrounds: difficult to read!

Most Common Errors in Oral Presentations: Avoid fancy backgrounds • Overloading the slide: Maximum 7 words in one line, 10 lines maximum (font size 28-30!)

• Not more than 3 lines in a graph • Avoid 3-D graphs: not very comprehensible!

• Use blue or black background.

• Never use red on such a background!

• Avoid fancy backgrounds: difficult to read!

• Overloading the animation (fancy appearance and disappearance, too many colors)

Most Common Errors in Oral Presentations: Avoid too much animation!

• Overloading the slide: Maximum 7 words in one line, 10 lines maximum (font size 28-30!)

• Not more than 3 lines in a graph • Avoid 3-D graphs: not very comprehensible!

• Use blue or black background.

• Never use red on such a background!

• Avoid fancy backgrounds: difficult to read!

• Overloading the animation (fancy appearance and disappearance, too many colors)

Minimal animation might be acceptable: Changing Strategy in CABG City Hospital Triemli, Zurich 2001 (269 pts.)

Simplify your graphs!

UNADJUSTED EARLY MORTALITY IN CABG University Hospital Z端rich, 1990 - 2000

This 3-D graph is too fancy, and actual values are difficult to read!

UNADJUSTED EARLY MORTALITY IN CABG University Hospital Z端rich, 1990 - 2000

Avoid fancy backgrounds!

UNADJUSTED EARLY MORTALITY IN CABG University Hospital Z端rich, 1990 - 2000

When designing your slides, remember that your lecture might end on internet, where worst slides are shown for everybody to see!

Slide too crowded

Do not mix picture with text!

Author succeeded in putting 100 lab charts in one slide!

Page from report on a slide, totally unreadable

By all means, avoid PowerPoint Clip Art! This is for preschool children, not for scientists

When lecturing, captivate the audience and keep them interested!

My assessment of lecture quality: “IPhone Index” This index is proportion of participants in a lecture hall who open their IPhone/Ipad/Notebook and start playing with the device, instead of listening to the lecture. When index is > 10 – 15 %, this lecture is a failure!

When listening to a scientific presentation, watch for following quality features • Check if it is a consecutive series.

• Look for exclusion criteria (missing groups, elimination of high risk subsets).

• Data must be complete, including operative mortality.

• Observe author’s follow-up: methods, completeness (95% minimum!) and length • Look for conflict of interest.

But only 63% entered the study!

“Mortality Data in the Journals May Create Unrealistic Expectations”, Anyanwu&Treasure, AATS 2001

“Mortality Data in the Journals May Create Unrealistic Expectations”, Anyanwu&Treasure, AATS 2001

“Mortality Data in the Journals May Create Unrealistic Expectations”, Anyanwu&Treasure, AATS 2001

Hiding essentials in the abstract: Abstract of the stentless valve trial (STS meeting 2000)

The abstract does not state that the operative mortality was atrociously high, with 8.4% for stentless and 12.5% for stented valves !!!

LATE SURVIVAL IN PROSTHETIC VALVE ENDOCARDITIS Add operative mortality of 13 %!

Watch for conflict of interest!

E.g. Disclosure index, STS 2000 meeting

Guidelines for impantation of defibrillators

Only 5/11 authors in this very important and extremely costly recommendation have no conflict of interest!

DiMarco, NEJM 2003

Questions and Answers 

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Questions after your talk can be difficult but they definitely help you in writing up your research You can repeat the question   

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This gives you time to think The rest of the audience may not have heard the question Also if you heard the question incorrectly, it presents an opportunity for clarification

Keep your answers short and to the point – don’t respond with another lecture Don’t say that a question is bad, or that you addressed it already http://www.erp.wisc.edu/profdev/Talkhandout05.doc http://www.firekills.gov.uk/seniors/cool/howstart/images/howstart.gif

Difficult Questions, continued

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If you really don't know the answer 

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Say "Interesting, I will look into that" or “That’s a good point, let’s discuss it afterwards” Don't feel that you have to invent an answer on the fly -- you are only human and you can't have thought of everything

If the questioner disagrees with you and it looks like there will be an argument, then defuse the situation 

"We clearly don't agree on this point, let's go on to other questions and you and I can talk about this later"

http://www.erp.wisc.edu/profdev/Talkhandout05.doc

Finishing Your Presentation

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Think carefully about your final words and how to finish your presentation strongly  

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Don’t just drift off … “I guess that’s all I have to say …”

You may want to actually memorize your ending lines, just as you do your starting points

Ending your talk  

Say “Thank You” … pause for applause … then Say: “Any questions?” http://international.internet2.edu/images/CLARA -I2-MoU/i2-clara-applause.JPG