I’ve got to give a talk tomorrow.<\/p>\n
\nIn the best traditions of scientific conferencing the abstract submitted a month ago bears little relationship to what I’m actually going to say. (And in that tradition: What am<\/em> I going to say? It’s only because I had to upload some slides to their server this afternoon that I even have my slides ready.) <\/p>\n \nBut in recognition that I’m now \nWhere was I? Oh yes. <\/p>\n \nTalks given from the corporate side of the fence are subtly difference from those you might give as an academic, when you describe your research. For starters, unless you’re giving a terribly boring presentation on sales or ROIs or whatever, you \nI don’t have materials, methods, data or conclusions. I’ve got an interesting problem, sure, but it’s more ‘oh, here’s a fly-infested ointment; what’s being done about it and how might we tackle it?’. It’s not ‘gizza job’, nor even ‘buy our product’, actually. <\/p>\n \nI’m looking forward to it. Even if I have to dress a little smarter than usual.<\/p>\n \nNow, there are principles that apply equally to academic and corporate talks, such as the ’10-20-30′ rule, the ‘don’t talk to the screen’ rule and the ‘my God but Powerpoint is complete crap<\/em>, isn’t it?’ rule. But I was reminded of one rule in particular a couple of days ago, when I received a really lovely Facebook message from a student back in Sydney.<\/p>\n \nNurse Donovan<\/a> said,<\/p>\n \nRPG you have left a lasting mark on me:<\/span>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \nOnce at mmb you came and looked over my shoulder at the slides i was making for my lab talk, and you said “the title of your slide should always be the conclusion of the slide”.<\/span>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \nAnd I have never been able to forget it!<\/span>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \nThat’s not to say that all my slides now have great punchy all-conclusive titles, but it means that now when i make a slide that has some sort of an airy-fairy title or (slide-god forbid) an ellipsis, i feel this nagging sense of guilt…<\/span>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \nJust thought i’d share that with you because i’m making some slides right now and there you were haunting me again!<\/span>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \nHope you’re great!<\/span>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \nIsn’t that totally brilliant? I may be gone, but my \nAnd tomorrow, I’m going to totally break my own rule. Rather than show each slide with a conclusion, episodic-like, I’m going to continue something I started experimenting with in Sydney, and managed to pull off in Nantwich. That is, I’m going to stand there and tell a story, and going to use the slides behind me to illustrate what I’m saying, rather than being the focus.<\/p>\n \nI’m going to tell a story. With pictures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve got to give a talk tomorrow. In the best traditions of scientific conferencing the abstract submitted a month ago bears little relationship to what I’m actually going to say. (And in that tradition: What am I going to say? … Continue reading Mr<\/del> Dr Corporate, and that I’ll be addressing internet librarians internationale<\/em>, I’ve decided against wearing my Levi’s with the RM Williams. I’ll still wear the boots, but smart trousers instead of jeans. By the way, don’t buy RM Williams boots if you can avoid it. They look good, but the build quality is surprisingly disappointing. I think they’re designed for riding dingoes around all day and shooting kangaroos, rather than walking to walk. <\/p>\ncan just make shit up<\/del> have quite a bit of freedom in how you present, and indeed what you’re presenting. Your standard scientific talk takes a problem, gives you some background, describes what you did to answer the problem, shows some data and presents your conclusion (which is usually ‘it didn’t work’ or ‘we need to do more experiments’, or most frequently ‘give me a job. Please’). <\/p>\nsmell<\/del> influence lingers on.<\/p>\n