Presenters Guidelines
Helpful Presenter's Guidelines
This guide has been designed to help you prepare for your presentation. Below are some guidelines, tips and advice to follow in preparation for a successful presentation at the MINEXCHANGE 2024 SME Annual Conference & Expo. You can also download the PowerPoint Template.
Tailor Your Presentation to the Audience
For example, you would not use the same style when presenting to a group of elementary students and to a board of trustees. Don’t talk down to your listeners. Try to empathize with the audience’s areas of interest and their specific concerns whenever possible.
If your paper is prepared only for the Preprint USB—and you are not requesting peer review, follow the preprint format.
Slide Designs
- Prepare your slides/PowerPoint® – Uncomplicated slides, simply drawn with heavy lines and large letters are a welcome sight. Swatches of color for contrast are easy on the eye.
- A dark background (blue, green or purple) with a light type face (white or yellow) may offer the greatest contrast and visibility under a variety of lighting conditions. The key is to test your slide format before going too far to make sure it projects well under a variety of conditions.
- Make sure your slides are readable from the back of the room. Don’t make your font size too small or fine, and limit the amount of information on a single slide.
- Overuse of glitzy transitions, multiple typefaces, and large or inappropriate graphics is distracting and dilutes your message. Less is more! Use special effects sparingly.
- Consistency makes your presentation more professional. Keep like items in the same place on each slide (i.e. title, subtitle, bullet points, graphics, etc.). Use the same transitions and animations throughout. Copying a slide and then editing it makes it easy to be consistent.
Slide Content
- Follow the 6 x 6 rule: no more than 6 bullets per page and no more than 6 words per bullet. Do not use paragraphs of text and do not read your presentation.
- Crop photos to eliminate unnecessary backgrounds. Make sure your photos and graphics are big enough to be seen and well placed on the slide.
- Do not add pictures just for the sake of adding something. Be sure the image enhances the point you are trying to make.
- If you use sound clips, do not over do it! Sounds can be very distracting! If you use sound, make sure it is appropriate for the topic.