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In this presentation guide, we have put together best practices, tips, and resources that we have found helpful when preparing for and thinking through presentations. These resources are also there to assist you in putting together a presentation experience that aligns with our conference mission and goals below. If you have any questions or concerns while creating your presentation, please reach out to us at info.oacs@wisc.edu!
Conference Mission & Goals
Conference Mission & Goals
The Academic & Career Success Conference aims to be an experience that is centered on community connection and knowledge sharing among members of the advising, career services, and learning support communities. To foster this type of environment, we ask that presenters keep these three focus areas in mind when creating conference sessions.
Accessibility and Inclusivity: Prioritizing an equitable experience for everyone to create a more welcoming and engaging environment, and enhance the conference experience for every single attendee
Engagement and Interaction: Intentionally utilizing technologies and conversation techniques that foster relationship building between all attendees and within our communities
Expertise and Collaborative Learning: Striking a balance between showcasing expertise and authority on a topic, while continuing to embrace an open-minded approach that fosters rich dialogue and encourages collaborative learning
Presentation Best Practices
Presentation Best Practices
Preparation
Preparation
Design Your Session: Start with an outline. Develop a script. Summarize and support with your slides and visuals.
Structure Your Presentation: Have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Start with an engaging introduction, follow with the main content, and conclude with a strong summary.
Practice: Rehearse your presentation multiple times. Practice in front of friends or colleagues to get feedback and improve your delivery.
Time Management: Keep track of time to ensure you cover all your points without rushing. Practice with a timer to get a sense of your pacing.
RESOURCE: 5 Key Steps to Rehearsing a Presentation Like the Best TED Speakers
Content
Content
Be Clear and Concise: Avoid jargon and overly complex language. Aim to communicate your key points clearly and succinctly.
Use Visual Aids: Incorporate slides, charts, and videos to illustrate your points. Ensure your visuals are high-quality and relevant. Remember that slides are for the audience, not the presenter!
Tell a Story: Engage your audience by framing your presentation as a story or using stories to demonstrate your key points. This makes your content more relatable and memorable.
RESOURCE: How can you design a clear and concise presentation without leaving out important details?
Engaging Your Audience
Engaging Your Audience
Think About Your Delivery: Make eye contact, ask questions, and encourage participation. This helps keep the audience interested and involved.
Increase Interaction: Have your audience discuss a topic with their table, answer questions digitally or by show of hands, or offer resources for download.
Use Technology: Two popular tools to facilitate engagement are Mentimeter and Slido, which allow you to integrate live polls, audience Q&As, and quizzes into your presentations. When using technology, always provide an alternative mode of participation to allow folks of all abilities to fully participate.
RESOURCE: 10 Ways to Interact with Audience Members While You Present
Handling Questions
Handling Questions
Prepare: Anticipate possible questions and prepare answers. If you don’t know an answer, it’s okay to say so and offer to follow up later.
Listen Carefully: Pay attention to the questions being asked and respond thoughtfully. Repeat the question if necessary to ensure everyone in attendance hears it.
Be Available: Not all attendees feel comfortable asking questions during a presentation. Make it clear that people can talk to you after the presentation or follow up with you in another way.
Accessibility Tips
Accessibility Tips
There are many things to consider when creating a fully accessible presentation. We have included the following tips and resources to assist you in meeting the needs of all of your audience members, but please know that this is not an exhuastive guide to presentation accessibility.
Top Tips for an Accessible Presentation
Top Tips for an Accessible Presentation
Select a presentation template that provides good color contrast.
Use white or light-colored text on a dark background or black or dark-colored text on a light background. Use this color contrast checker as needed.
Give each slide a unique title. Place the title within the slide (make sure the text box is not above or below the slide margins).
Make sure all of the text in your slides is visible in the “outline view”.
Avoid using tables, which can impact reading order for screen readers.
Include alternative text for all images and charts, and describe those graphics while presenting.
Fonts should be no smaller than 24-point and 40-point font (or larger) is recommended for titles.
Use sans serif fonts like Red Hat, Arial, or Montserrat.
Avoid content-heavy slides and use line spacing effectively.
If you plan to include video, all videos need to be captioned.
Use Microsoft’s Accessibility Checker to detect digital accessibility issues!
Top Tips for Accessible Handouts
Top Tips for Accessible Handouts
Create your handouts in Microsoft Word or Google Docs rather than creating handouts directly from your slides. Handouts created using the “save as handout” feature in PowerPoint are not accessible to screen reader users and often the text is too small for sighted participants as well.
Use a sans serif font and print at 12 point or larger.
Consider having large print and digital versions of your handouts available along with an easy way to give audience members access to digital versions, like a shortened link and a QR code.
If you're creating a handout in Google Docs for digital use, consider using Grackle for Google Docs. This add-on automatically checks your document against accessibility standards, providing step-by-step guidance to ensure compliance and clarity for all users.
If you save the document to PDF format before printing, make sure to do so properly so that accessibility is maintained.
Top Tips for Accessibility While Presenting
Top Tips for Accessibility While Presenting
Always use a microphone while presenting no matter the size of the room or audience.
If attendees will be asking questions, either hand them a microphone or repeat their question into a microphone before answering.
Be sure to read aloud everything on your slide and don’t assume everyone can read it.
Describe images, graphics, or charts on your slides. For example, “The image on this slide shows a woman riding a bike on the new two-lane bike path.”
Use descriptive language for figures and graphs. For example, “This map of Montana shows…” rather than saying “This shows...”
Speak loudly, clearly, and directly into the microphone at a moderate pace.
Use inclusive and culturally sensitive language.
Check out these resources to learn more about accessibility guidelines and requirements:
Presentation Feedback
Presentation Feedback
Gathering feedback on your presentation can be an important and educational part of presenting at a conference. You can ask for general feedback on your presentation or ask that attendees answer specific questions.
OACS will not be gathering individual breakout session feedback for presenters. We encourage you to gather feedback in a way that works for you!
Options for Collecting Feedback
Options for Collecting Feedback
OACS will provide blank note cards and pens at every table in the presentation rooms. You can request that attendees write feedback on these cards and leave them at the tables to be collected after your presentation.
You can use a Google Form or other survey tool to collect feedback. Make sure you include a link to this (ideally a QR code and a shortened link address) at the end of your presentation and allow time for attendees to submit their feedback. Find our feedback form template here.
You can encourage attendees to reach out to you with any feedback by including your contact information at the end of the presentation or on any physical materials you hand out.
Templates, Tools & Resources
Templates, Tools & Resources
Slide Templates
Slide Templates
Click here for our suggested slide templates!
If your presentation is already created using another slide template, feel free to continue using that template, we just ask that you ensure your slides follow accessibility guidelines.
Tools & Forms
Tools & Forms
Collecting Feedback
Engagement Tools
Accessibility Tools
QR Code Creators & URL Shortener
Design Resources
Design Resources
UW-Madison Graphic Elements
Design Platforms
Image Libraries
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