So many talks are just lists!

Here's all the things we did, all the papers published, all the grants won.

Much better to make a point! Have a key message, an agenda, something that the talk revolves around. Say something of note.

We all get nervous.

Presenting nerves appear because we fear the unknown/the unfamiliar.

Dry throat, hot face, queasy stomach all happen because of our fight or flight response to the unknown. This is why rehearsal matters - you are making the unknown known.

Being prepared is half the battle.

Know the key ideas you want to convey at each point in your talk.

The better you know the talk, the less nervous you're likely to be. When you rehearse, do it out loud, all the way through & and focus on the ideas rather than the precise wording.

The best presenters have found their own style. It's not about being the perfect. The goal is an engaged audience, & there's a load of ways to achieve this.

One person's talk may rely on skills that you don't use much, and vice versa. We all have our own skill set.
#Academia #PHDChat #Presentations

What's the biggest crime people commit when it comes to their presentation slides?

We ask lots of people this - and the answers all add up to "too much stuff"

People put too much stuff on their slides and it overwhelms the audience.

Stop it.

There are only really two kinds of slide in a research talk.

1. Slides that take complex stuff & make it easier to take in (Graphs, infographics etc)

2. Signposting slides that remind your audience where we are in the flow of the talk.

Neither kind is about putting up a wall of text!

Universities across Europe have begun actively recruiting U.S. researchers,"offering themselves as a haven for those keen to escape the Trump administration’s crackdown on research and academia." #PhDSky #SciSky #PhDChat

European universities offer ‘s...

Just finished a fun workshop on 'Social Media in Science', so here's my PhD research topic as emojis:
(-)---(-)

Thanks to Phoebe Griffiths @crocodiledunphd.bsky.social and Gregor Kalinkat @gkalinkat and to @aquacosm-ecr.bsky.social for hosting this!

We still have a few spots left and thus decided to extend the application deadline for this year's #YoMos workshop until the end of March!
Find out more about the workshop and apply here: yomos.org/next-workshop

Lifting weights is a part of my job.
#academia #phd #PhDlife #lablife #microbiology #phdchat

#Postdocs and #PhD students hit hard by Trump’s crackdown on #science, anxiety and fear grip early-career researchers.
Month of repeated threats to #US science funding, many early-career researchers are fearing for their careers. #Scientists especially vulnerable: graduate students, postdocs and scientists just starting their own labs are the researchers most likely to be living pay cheque to pay cheque, most reliant on federal grants for their income.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00550-0 #PhDLife #PhDChat

#EmergingResearchers former link convenor Saneeya Qureshi on "What is the Emerging Researchers' Group?" #ERG @SaneeyaQ #EERAblog #ECRchat #PHDChat #EduSci https://blog.eera-ecer.de/what-is-the-emerging-researcher-group/

You don't have to do Q&A at the end

You can do it earlier leaving you 5mins to wrap up. This lets you control the last thing they see and hear, rather than teh quesions.

What do you want to leave them with?

Check out former ERG Link Convenor Saneeya Qureshi's blog "What is the Emerging Researchers' Group?" #EmergingResearchers #ERG @SaneeyaQ #ECRchat #EERAblog #PHDChat #EduSci https://blog.eera-ecer.de/what-is-the-emerging-researcher-group/

How fit all your research into a short talk...

Don't.

Only one more month to register for this year's YoMos workshop in Ilmenau Now we need your help to share this poster with your peers, friends, working groups, departments and mailing lists connected to #Ecological #modelling! Let's spread the word about #YoMos and have a workshop as wonderful as last year!

You can register here: https://www.yomos.org/next-workshop

@gfoe

Generally speaking*, avoid standing behind things.

Desks, computers, lecterns, we want to connect with audiences and having a literal barrier between you and them hampers that connection.

*There are exeptions to every 'rule'

STOP PUTTING STUFF ON A SLIDE AND THEN NOT TALKING ABOUT IT!!!

If its not important then why is it there?

If it is important then why don’t you mention it!

How long does it take you to understand new graph of figure when you read it in a paper?

5 mins?
10?

Need to go away, have a cuppa, and come back to it?

#PHD #Research #Academic #Presenting #PHDChat
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Right, let me talk about slide templates.

Most universities have an official slide template everyone is told to use.

More often than not these are rubbish.

Focusing on splashing the university logo around so much there is no space for actual content.