In-person Oral Presenter Guidelines

There are two main types of oral presentations:

• Award Presentations will have a 2 minute introduction followed by a 20 minute presentation with remaining time for question and answer. This timing applies only to the invited speakers below:
  • Winge-Lindegren Address (Trisha Davis)
  • Lee Hartwell Lecture (Michael Desai)
  • Ira Herskowitz Award (Maya Schuldiner)
  • YGM Lifetime Achievement Award ( Tom Petes)
• Platform talks are selected by the organizers after a careful review of submitted abstracts in a given topic. Platform talks are a total of 14 minutes (11-minute presentation followed by 3 minutes of Q&A) for each presenter.

Device and slide format

You will use the conference computer at the podium for your presentation. You will not be able to use your own computer.

Presentations should be created with Keynote or PowerPoint in a 16:9 format. Do not create a PDF. If you already created it in a PDF you can convert your presentation to PPT using this site: https://www.zamzar.com/convert/pdf-to-ppt/.

All in-person speakers must check in at the Speaker Ready Room the day before their presentation to upload and test their talk. You will be able to test the equipment, view your slides, and run through your presentation if necessary. Technical support will be there to help you. On the day of your presentation, speakers should arrive in DeNeve Lecture Auditorium 30 minutes prior to the beginning of their session to check in with the session chair and for up-to-date instructions.

The speaker ready room will be open at the following times:

• Wednesday, August 17: 4:00 p.m.–9:30 p.m.
• Thursday, August 18: 7:30 a.m.– 6:00 p.m.
• Friday, August 19: 7:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
• Saturday, August 20: 7:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
• Sunday, August 21: 7:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Timing

To keep the session on time, the session chair may alert platform presenters as follows:

• After 11 minutes, “3 minutes remain, start Q&A”
• After 13 minutes and 30 seconds, “30 seconds remain, wrap up”
• After 14 minutes, “STOP”

Question and Answer

Q&A will be handled two ways. There will be an audience microphone for the in-person attendees to ask questions. Those who are participating online will be able to post a question in the Zoom Q&A. The session chair will select questions from the Q&A and in-person audience as time allows. All participants will also be able to leave a question for you in the Conference App, so be sure to check your listing on the app to see if there are questions for you after your session.

Contacting live technical support

Technical support will be monitoring your presentation from the speaker ready room. There will also be a large help button on the podium that you can hit if you run into a problem.

Presentation Day and Time

You will be sent an email by July 14 with your presentation date and time. All presentation times are shown in Pacific Daylight Time. You should be prepared to present your talk at any time during your session. If a presenter that precedes you is unable to present, the session chair may decide to move your talk to an earlier time within the session.

Recordings

All oral presentations will be recorded and made available to registrants through September 14, 2022.

Health and Safety

Masks should be worn at all times when inside any of the meeting facilities, including during your talk. Hand sanitizer will be available on the podium for you to access after your talk. For more information on health and safety policies at the meeting, please check our Conference Policies.

Preparing Effective Oral Presentations

We encourage presenters to use color blind-friendly palettes and accessible fonts. An online tool such as Coblis will help you prepare posters that are more accessible to all.

1. Prepare slides in a 16:9 ratio for widescreen display.
2. Keep visuals clear and easy to read. Abbreviate your message. SIMPLE graphs, charts and diagrams are much more meaningful to an audience than complex cluttered ones.
3. Avoid using too many patterns and graphics in one frame.
4. Use a minimum of words for text and title frames. Five to eight lines per frame and five to seven words per line are the maximum-fewer is better.
5. Use upper and lower case lettering, which is more legible than all capital letters.
6. Vary the size of lettering to emphasize headings and subheadings, but avoid using more than three sizes per frame. Select sans serif type (example: Arial) which projects better and is easier to read than serif type.
7. Maintain the same or similar type sized from frame to frame, even if some frames have less copy than others.
8. Keep all type horizontal, even in charts.
9. Consider color with care. A dark background with highly contrasting text and graphics is most readable. Cool colors (example: deep blue, turquoise, purple) appear to recede and make white or light colored text more readable. In one study, blue was found to be the most effective background color for projection. Do not use red for text; it is extremely difficult to read.
10. Highlight your main point or heading with a dominant color (example: yellow for the heading, white for body text). Avoid the use of intensely bright or saturated colors that compete with the text.
11. Maintain a consistent color scheme. Use no more than six colors throughout your presentation.
12. Select backgrounds to enhance your text or graphics. A background that transitions smoothly from lighter to darker shades of the same hue can be effective. Some software packages permit the gradation from one color to another. A textured background can be effective, but it should not detract from or compete with text or images.
13. Remember the basics of good design: Plan a template. Use colors consistently with light fonts on a dark background. Keep text clear and easy to read.

Privacy and Recordings

All oral presentations will be available for registered attendees to view online until September 14, 2022. Sharing of results without permission is a violation of the Code of Conduct, but you should be aware that we cannot monitor whether online attendees take photographs, screenshots, audio recordings, or video recordings during your presentation.

Code of Conduct

All registrants agree to abide by the GSA Conferences Code of Conduct. Our Code of Conduct was established to communicate a transparent set of standards and guidelines for acceptable behavior at GSA Conferences and to provide a positive, safe, and welcoming environment for all attendees. Note that all sessions will be moderated and actively monitored for disruptive behavior. Any attendees disrupting the session in person or online will be removed.