Presentation guidelines

Contents
Posters
Talks
Session chairs
Keynote chairs

The following guidelines are intended primarily for younger or less experienced conference participants. They attempt to summarize some of the more widely agreed-upon principles for the presentation of research findings at academic conferences. This is especially important for CIM, which is both international and interdisciplinary, each of which is associated with specific difficulties of communication.

Presentation guidelines can seem bureaucratic and encourage uniformity, which can limit the intellectual range of a conference. At CIM, the last thing we want to do is to discourage scholarly experimentation and risk-taking, or to generate a series of posters and papers whose sameness of format makes them predictable or boring. On the contrary, intellectual plurality is one of CIM's primarily aims. We nevertheless want to optimize communicative efficiency. That is not an easy task, given the wide range of approaches to and opinions about forms of presentation at conferences, which can only be partly covered in a document such as this.

The following text is divided into requirements and suggestions. You must adhere to the requirements. The suggestions are intended to stimulate thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to the presentation of research findings. Apart from the requirements, all CIM participants are free to present their work in whichever way they see fit. If you have any questions about these guidelines, or suggestions for improving them, please contact the organisers.

Posters

If your abstract has been accepted as a poster, please read the following guidelines carefully.

Posters have some advantages over talks:

• Conference participants will find themselves constantly walking past posters, which will stand throughout the conference in the main lobby.

• All conference participants will have the opportunity to view all posters. That is not the case for talks: conference participants will be able to attend only half of the talks in the parallel sessions.

• Each poster will be additionally allotted 10 minutes for a brief oral presentation, so authors will have an opportunity to communicate directly with a broader audience (see more details below).

Moreover, the guidelines for accompanying abstracts and conference proceedings are the same for posters as they are for talks, including invited talks. All abstracts are 2 pages long and all proceedings contributions 2-10 pages.

Requirements

Your poster must be in English.

We recommend that the maximum metric paper size is DIN A0 ( 84 cm wide x 119 cm high). We expect posters displayed in portrait orientation (height greater than width). You may print your poster in other (small) page sizes and assemble your poster as you wish on the poster boards that we will provide. Please take into account the size of your fonts and the level of magnification (see suggestions).

Authors will be responsible for setting up and removal of posters. At least one author of a poster must be available to present it during the coffee breaks and lunch break on the two days (i.e. the day of the ten-minute presentation and the next day) that the poster will be hanged. We will provide the means for you to hang your poster.

Apart from the poster, a ten-minute slot is allocated for the oral presentation of each poster. The goal of this brief presentation is not to present the full paper, but rather to give a glimse into the participants' research that will attract delegates for a more detailed presentation and discussion around the actual poster. Authors should not try to fit as much as possible into the ten minutes, but preferably to give a few interesting/exciting points that will urge delegates to discuss the issues raised further during the lunch and coffee breaks. These ten-minute presentations of posters are also an opportunity for authors to play audio examples that cannot be presented in front of the posters. The same requirements for talks apply for the poster presentations, with the following exception: each poster presentation is allotted exactly 10 minutes (without extra time for discussion). All powerpoint presentations (if this means of presentation is selected by speakers) must be loaded on the same computer available in hall so as to avoid wasting time for connecting computers - contact the technician 10-15 minutes before the session.

Suggestions

The first thing to do when preparing your poster is to contact your local printer. Approach both private, independent printers and your university's printing office. They may only be able to accept certain software formats. Ask also for the price of a black-and-white or color poster and of a poster with and without plastic lamination. Finally, ask how much time they will need to print your poster.

The text of your poster should be as concise as possible, but still self-explanatory. Write in point form or in short sentences; you can then expand on each point as you explain your poster to passers-by. The text size should be no less than 20 points, so that everything can be read at a distance of about 3 meters . Use a font that is easy to read from a distance, such as Arial or Times New Roman.

Write the title, author(s) and affiliations of your poster across the top. Letters in the main title should be about 3 cm high (or font size about 100). Arrange materials in columns (not rows). Headings and subheadings may either follow the structure of your abstract, devoting a paragraph to each abstract subheading, or the specific content of your project, or a mixture of both. Place an Introduction and a statement of Aims near the upper left corner and Conclusion(s) near the lower right. For empirical papers, include the conventional headings Method (with sub-headings such as Participants, Stimuli, Materials, Equipment, Procedure) and Results. If there was a specific instruction to experimental participants, it should be prominent. An Implications section is always interesting.

Illustrations can communicate a lot of information quickly ("a picture paints a thousand words"), so prefer illustrations to text whenever possible. Quantitative results are better presented as graphs than as tables. Each illustration should have a heading at the top (smaller than other headings and larger than the text) and detailed information in a caption below. The caption should briefly describe not only the content of the illustration (as in a regular figure caption in a paper) but also any conclusions drawn from it. Make the illustration as uncluttered as possible by ruthlessly deleting non-essential content. Clearly label the axes of any graphs.

Handouts: You are free to bring and distribute a handout on your poster, or copies of your proceedings paper. Be sure to bring enough copies, as you may have trouble making photocopies at the conference venue.  Remember that all conference participants will have a copy of the abstract booklet that includes your revised 2-page abstract and a copy of the CD-ROM with the full paper and poster proceedings .

Talks

If your abstract has been accepted for presentation as a talk (including keynotes), please read the following guideline carefully.

Requirements

• You must present in the English language.

• Regular talks will be allotted 20 minutes plus 7 minutes for questions and 3 minutes break for changing rooms. You must stop talking when your time is up. Presenters in parallel sessions will not be allowed more than 20 minutes under any circumstances. The timetable will be strictly adhered to so that people can easily change rooms and plan meetings during breaks.

• You are not required to use powerpoint or similar software, but please be aware that most or all presenters will, and the suggestions below assume that you will. (In the following text, the individual pages of a powerpoint presentation are referred to as "slides" - but the standard equipment in the conference rooms does not include an old-fashioned analog slide projector.)

• Bring a backup of your powerpoint file or similar. Expect something to go wrong, even if you never had a problem with your computer before! Bring your powerpoint file or similar on two separate storage devices such as your computer laptop, a USB-datastick, a CD, an iPod with USD cable, or another standard storage device with a standard cable connector. Please also consider sending an email to yourself with your talk as an attachment; you should be able to download it from the internet at the conference.

• The electrical power supply is the same as in central Europe: 220 V with 2-pin, side-earth (type F) plugs and sockets. If you are using a Mac, bring the appropriate adaptor cables.

• On the morning of your talk, attend the technical check before the session (see program). Load your powerpoint presentation on the computer available and check that everything works fine. For powerpoint presentations, the ppt file and all audio/visual files must be in the same folder (without sub-folders). If it is absolutely necessary (e.g. if you want to use a program that runs only on your computer), bring your own laptop and check that your and our equipment work together in harmony. Listen to the sound examples and adjust the volume and sound quality. Make sure that your talk looks the same on the screen as it does on your computer monitor. The writing on your slides should be legible from the back row; if not, use a larger font or more contrast between text/diagram and background.

• Meet your chair and technical assistant 10-15 minutes before the start of your session. If you have a handout, give it to an assistant along with any instructions on what to do.

• If something goes wrong with the equipment during your talk, ask the technician to fix it. Don't try to fix it yourself. Meanwhile, keep talking - even if you have to improvise without slides. Your 20-minute period will not be extended on account of a technical problem.

Suggestions

Apart from these requirements, you are free to present in any way you wish. The following suggestions are primarily intended to help you to maximize the communicative efficiency of your talk. They aim to help you get the greatest amount of important information across to your audience in the short time available. This is of course an important issue for every speaker. With this in mind, we suggest, but do not prescribe, certain forms of and approaches to presentation.

Language:

• If English is your native language, please avoid idiomatic expressions that an international audience might not understand, and don't speak too fast.

• If English is not your native language, please consider having a draft of your talk and your pronunciation of key words checked by a native speaker.

Structure and timing:

• Begin by explaining the background in each of the two main subdisciplines of musicology (say, 5 minutes). Use the start of your abstract as a guide. After that, clearly state the main aim of your research. You can do that in less than one minute. Then spend 5-10 minutes explaining the detail of your arguments and findings. By the 15-minute mark at the latest, you should be stating your main conclusion(s) and evaluating them in the light of the presented evidence and arguments. During the last 5 minutes, you should do little more than repeat and summarize the main points and consider their implications. Avoid launching into new issues, arguments or results near the end of your talk.

• When you practice your talk, it should take about 18 minutes. In the real performance, you can then speak a little slower (to compensate for the unfamiliar situation and audience) and finish within 20 minutes.

Content:

• Be careful to define terminology that may be new, unfamiliar, or used differently in different disciplines.

• Use concrete examples (especially sounding music examples) to explain and motivate generalities, theories, or concepts. Present examples near the start, not near the end of your talk. Take advantage of the available equipment.

• A handout will usually not be necessary, as all participants will have your revised abstract (in the abstract booklet) and your proceedings paper (on CD and in the internet). A handout may nevertheless help you to present certain kinds of content. If you choose to distribute a handout, we suggest a single piece of DIN A4 that has been prepared from 4 original pages by reducing to about 70% and double-sided copying. We regret that we cannot make copies for you and strongly recommend that you make about 30 copies of your handout before arriving at the conference.

Further tips and ideas for beginning speakers or those new to conference presentations:

• Structure your talk clearly. Speak in grammatically complete sentences and divide your talk into sections (at the very least: introduction, main part, conclusion). Pause briefly between sentences or sections. Make sure your audience knows when you are coming to the end of a section or subsection, and beginning a new one. At the start of each section, indicate the aim of the section (i.e., answer the question "Why are we talking about this now?").

• Your audience will include not only of a range of disciplines but also a range of levels, from novice to expert. Offer neither a tutorial nor a highly specialized, technical address that only experts can follow, but instead pitch your presentation at an intermediate level. Include both a universally comprehensible (but short!) introduction and some technical content that demonstrates that you are at the cutting edge of your field.

• Present arguments and evidence both for and against your main question and subquestions. Avoid making unsubstantiated claims. A brief statement of your personal opinions regarding the main question or hypothesis can usefully explain the motivation behind your work and alert your audience to possible sources of methodological bias. Beyond that, your audience will be primarily interested in the available, reasonably objective material that is directly relevant to your topic.

• Your evidence may include findings from existing literature, quantitative or qualitative data, results of statistical analyses, or sound demonstrations (allowing the audience to judge for themselves). If your evidence includes the results of an experiment, make it clear to the audience what happened in the experiment. If you collected data from human participants, report the instructions to the participants. If your evidence includes statistical evidence, make a concise statement of what statistical procedures you used and why, but don't let statistical issues detract from the main questions. At this interdisciplinary conference, the results of statistical procedures (e.g., values of F, t, p) should be avoided unless they are absolutely central; if included, they should be clearly and concisely presented on slides (visuals).

• Inform - don't infatuate. Discerning listeners will be more impressed by a speaker who honestly and modestly conveys helpful, interesting information than by a speaker who tries to disguise questionable material by means of long and grammatically complex sentences, overstatement, unnecessary jargon, unfounded claims, or destructive, ad hominem criticism of related research.

• Avoid discriminatory language. For example, don't refer to unspecified people as "he" unless they really are male; consider switching everything into the plural and using "they".

• We do not recommend that you read from a script, because it reduces eye contact with the audience and hence the spontaneity and efficiency of communication. But a script can be useful if you consider the following tips. Write short, clear sentences that your audience can immediately understand without repetition. At regular intervals, throw in improvised comments that respond to the needs of the moment and maintain personal contact with the audience. Be prepared to leave out prepared material if you suddenly realize that it is not central or that you don't have time to explain it properly. (Don't say that you are doing that - just do it.) Even if you do not use a script, you may find it easier to improvise your presentation if you have written a text in advance. When planning the timing of a scripted talk, allow time for improvisations, interruptions and other delays. Expect to say no more than 100 words per minute and talk for no more than 18 minutes, remember that your chair will introduce you and there will be inevitable small delays. If you use a script, it should be about 1500 words in length.

• Maintain the loudness and clarity of your voice throughout the talk. If possible, stand. If you must sit, remember to look up. Establish and maintain eye contact with members of audience in different parts of the room. Their expressions will tell you if you are interesting, comprehensible, too loud or quiet, or too fast or slow. Respond to these signals. Don't stare constantly at your script, the computer monitor, or the screen. Avoid the temptation to point toward the computer monitor.

• Allow about 1 minute per slide, i.e. about 20 slides for a 20-minute presentation. Make sure that the audience has time to take in everything on each slide. Don't expect your audience to read text at the same time as you are telling them something else. Don't block the view of the audience by standing in front of the screen. To point at the screen, use a pointer.

• Slides should be as concise as possible, but still self-explanatory. Limit text to 20-30 words per slide. Use font sizes between 18 and 24 (remember the people in the back row). Colours should contrast sharply, e.g. black letters on a white background, or white letters on a dark blue background; avoid pale or pastel colours. Write in point form (not in sentences, unless you are quoting) and expand on each point in your spoken presentation. Prefer graphics to text where possible. Figures should be uncluttered. A blackboard or whiteboard will be available for additional graphics or ad-hoc explanations.

• When presenting graphs, ensure that the two axes are clearly labeled and say clearly what the axes represent. Given the interdisciplinary audience, it is usually best to avoid mathematical equations altogether.

• Rehearse your talk before the conference with a friend or colleague or better, in front of a group. If you find that it is too long, don't try to cram the same material into less time by speaking more quickly and allowing less time per slide. Instead, relentlessly weed out material that is in any way tangential or unessential. In principle, any topic can be presented in any amount of time.

• During the question period, remember that as speaker you are in a more powerful or authoritative position than the audience members. So don't interrupt questioners (leave that to the chair), but let them finish before you reply. Make sure the audience understands both the question and your answer - if necessary, repeat the main point of a question before answering it. Keep your answers brief, to allow time for further questions. If you don't know the answer to a question, confess your ignorance (maybe someone else in the audience does). Don't argue with a questioner; you can always continue discussion in private.

We wish to emphasize that these are no more than suggestions. You are free to present your work in any way you consider appropriate. We nevertheless hope that these guidelines will help you to maximize the amount of relevant information that you successfully communicate to your interdisciplinary audience during the short time available for your presentation.

Guidelines for session chairs

There will be no meetings for session chairpersons ("chairs"), so if you have been asked to chair a session, please read the following suggestions carefully and contact Emilios Cambouropoulos if you have any questions. The guideline is intended to help you achieve the following two aims: (1) to make sure that everything runs to schedule, and (2) to support and stimulate a fruitful academic exchange during the question period after each talk. Thus, you have two main tasks: (1) to make sure each speaker stops on time, and (2) to take control of the question period.

Timing

• Bring a reliable watch to the conference and synchronize it with a reliable source (e.g. the radio), the reception desk, and the members of the support teach assigned to your room.

• Go to the room in which your session will be held about 15 minutes before the start of the session to meet the speakers and the technical assistant. Make sure that the speakers have everything they need, and discuss with them how best to signal to them when they have 5 minutes, and then 1 minute, to go, and when their time is up.

• During the three minutes that precede each talk, help the technical assistant to make sure that the first slide of the coming presentation is projected to the screen and that the sound demonstrations will work. Start each talk exactly on the half hour - not 1 or 2 minutes late.

• At the start of each talk, announce the names of the authors, the title of the paper, and which author(s) is/are presenting the paper. That should take about 10-20 seconds. Do not offer biographical background information on the authors of regular papers, as this will steal time from their presentation. If people need this information, it is provided in the abstract booklet.

• If there is a technical problem at the start of the talk, let the assistants solve it. Introduce the speaker on time and encourage the speaker to start talking without slides, while the assistants are working in the background. When the slides appear, the speaker can quickly repeat anything that s/he has already said and get back on schedule. In the unlikely event that the problem is never solved, continue with the advertised program and ask at reception afterwards if the talk can be repeated later. Do not change the program yourself.

• During the talk, sit near the middle of the room and in the direct line of sight of the speaker, so s/he can see your signals.

• Make sure the speaker stops on time, i.e. at 20 minutes after the half hour. Not 21 or 22, but 20. Use whatever combination of appeasement, politeness and public impatience that you consider necessary. The timetable is a clear agreement between the speakers and the other conference participants. The question period is for the benefit of the audience, not the speaker (although the speaker will also benefit from it). The audience will thank you for being strict.

The question and discussion period

• During the question and discussion period, stand at the front of the room. Use clear hand or arm gestures to indicate who should ask the next question.

• If necessary, remind both questioners and speaker(s) to be brief. Audience members should primarily ask questions; any background information that they give should be kept as brief as possible. Speakers should briefly answer the question posed, and then stop and take the next question. As a rule, questions and answers should not last more than about 30 seconds each, i.e. up to one minute for each question-answer pair. The speaker and questioner should not continue back and forth; if they do, ask them to postpone their public conversation until a private moment, to allow others to contribute to the public discussion. If people don't comply with these guidelines, don't be afraid to interrupt them. Be polite and tactful, but also firm.

• Questions from the chair: If no-one raises their hand with a question at the start of the question period, do not hesitate to ask a question yourself, to break the ice and get the discussion moving. Please consider preparing these questions before your session. You probably will not need them, but it is good to have them.

• Establish and (if necessary) announce the order of questioners. Encourage shy audience members to ask questions before allowing the confident ones to ask a second question. If there are a lot of questions, announce in advance who will pose the last three questions, apologize to the others, and stop when the last person's question has been answered. That should, of course, be as near as possible to the allotted time.

• Do not extent the time allotted to talks that are scheduled before breaks or before the end of the day. The discussion following the last talk before a break should stop 3 minutes before the start of the break. People who still have questions can continue privately.

General points

• One members of the support team will be allocated to your session. If you have a problem of any kind, do not hesitate to ask them to solve it.

• If one of your speakers fails to appear, ask your audience to take a break or attend another talk and come back in half an hour. Don't change the timetable!

• Session chairs who do not feel fluent in English may find the following expressions useful. Of course everyone uses different expressions, which change depending on the situation.
  • Introduction: "Welcome to this session, which is entitled .... The first talk is entitled .... Its authors are ...., ......, .... and .... The talk will be given by ....."
  • At the end of the talk: "Thank you." (clap) "Are there any questions?" OR 20 minutes after the half-hour: "I'm sorry, we have run out of time and must end now." (clap) "Are there any questions?"
  • 27 minutes after the half-hour: "I'm sorry, we must end the question session now so that people can change to another room if they wish to (or make their way to the coffee pot). Thank you again." (clap).

Like all other guidelines on this page, these should be regarded only as suggestions. Please chair your session in the way you consider most appropriate, taking advantage of your professional experience and personal style.

Guidelines for chairs of keynote lectures

There will be no meeting for keynote chairs, so if you have been asked to chair a keynote, please read the following suggestions carefully and contact Emilios Cambouropoulos if you have any questions. The guideline is intended to help you achieve the following three aims: (1) to create a congenial atmostphere that motivates the audience to pay attention to and understand the contents of the lecture, (2) to make sure that everything runs to schedule, and (3) to support and stimulate a fruitful academic exchange during the question period. Thus, you have three main tasks: (1) to introduce the lecture, (2) to stop the speaker/s on time, and (3) to take control of the question period.

• Introduction: Please prepare a 3 minute biographical overview of your keynote speaker's professional achievements, including a brief account of her or his academic career, research interests, publications and current projects. The main aim of this introduction is not to make the speaker feel important - which may best be regarded as a positive side effect - but to give the audience useful and interesting information about the speaker. At an interdisciplinary conference like CIM, most of the conference participants may be unfamiliar with the work of the keynote speakers. Your introduction should also arouse the audience's curiosity about the coming lecture. You will find biographical information about the speaker in the abstract booklet. Please also visit the speaker's personal website, email her or him directly for information, or talk to her or him at the conference before the presentation.

• Timing: Bring a reliable watch to the conference and synchronze it with the reception desk and the support team members assigned to your session. Come to the room 10-15 minutes before the start of the talk and meet the keynote speaker and support staff. Adhere closely to the following schedule: 2-3 minutes for your introduction, 40 minutes for the lecture itself, and 10-13 minutes for questions, total up to 55 minutes. Remind the speaker when there are 10 minutes, 5 minutes and 1 minute left of their 40-minute timeslot, and when their time is up. Show the speaker in advance how you plan to communicate this information during the talk, and ask him or her not to comment on your signals when you make them. Explain the point of the 10 minute signal, which is that the speaker should then be moving toward the concluding section and no longer introducing new material. It is ok if the speaker stops on or before the 1 minute signal. The speaker must stop 45 minutes after the scheduled start of their keynote. After all, if the talk was interesting (which we expect it will be!), 10 minutes is not very much time for discussion.

• Question session: Please read through your speaker's proceedings contribution to get an idea of the content of their presentation in advance. This background information will help you to manage the question session. Apart from that, please refer to the above guideline for session chairs. It's ok if the question session stops a couple of minutes before the timetabled end of the session, to give people time to move.

Like all other guidelines on this page, these should be regarded only as suggestions. Please chair your keynote lecture in the way you consider most appropriate, taking advantage of your professional experience and personal style.