Notes for Guidance of Speakers

1. Presentation media

1.1 Electronic Projection

The preferred medium for presentations is to use electronic projectionfrom PowerPoint.

A PowerPoint template has been produced and can be found on the I99 website. The file name is ‘BrightonPres.ppt’. This provides a simple format with amaster slide containing a place for your organisation’s logo (bottom left side), aplace for the session title (left hand vertical stripe) and a place for the author’sname(s). You are encouraged to use this template in order to introduce a coherence to allthe presentations at Brighton.

To avoid problems caused by poor conversion from one version ofPowerPoint to other versions, it is planned to provide support for all the followingversions of PowerPoint:

Presentations can be received on diskette (either in normal format orin zipped format) or on zip disk.

Alternatively authors may bring their own laptop with the relevantapplication. The electronic projectors provided will have XVGA capability.

1.2 Overhead projection

Normal transparencies can be used where authors prefer.

Authors may wish to bring along normal transparencies, as backup, foruse on the standard overhead projector should it be necessary.

1.3 35mm Projection

35mm slide projection can be made available, but authors wishing to usethis medium must give advance warning to PCMI by May 6th.

2. Presentation Guidelines

Visual aids can give greater impact to information and emphasise keypoints. The spoken word has limitations and a slide can often make clear in seconds whatit would take minutes of hand-waving and talking to explain. Numbers are often betterunderstood if they are visualised. However, it is not enough simply to display a slide andread out the contents. The lecture should incorporate an explanation or interpretation sothat the purpose of the illustration can be fully understood.

2.1 Slides are most useful and effective when making points such as:
  • Changing mathematical relationships. Continuous line graphs, 'river' and 'area' plots show trends clearly.
  • Comparison and Proportions: Bar charts show relative magnitudes and/or timing, pie charts show proportions of a total.
  • Flow of events, physical relationships. Simple diagrams convey more than photographs of equipment.
  • Key topics, caption slides: Short lists of key thoughts and sequences of events can help the audience to keep track of complex happenings.
  • Colour and monochrome photographs can also be displayed.

    • 2.2 Slides are less satisfactory for:

  • Circuit schematics: These are best avoided, as are logic diagrams, software flow charts, charts of organisations, etc., unless they are very simple indeed.
  • Tables and row/column charts of figures. Bar or pie charts are more effective. Avoid computer printout at all costs.

    • 2.3 Good Practice
  • Focus on one point at a time.
  • Make slides appropriate, and relevant.
  • Slides should be on view long enough to be assimilated but not long enough to become boring.
  • Talk around the slide.
  • Limit text to five or six lines maximum for the purpose of legibility.

    • 2.4 Bad Practices to be avoided
  • Too much material on slides
    •  - so that the audience has to choose whether to puzzle out the contents or to listen to the speaker and ignore the slide. In either case, the speaker communicates less effectively with the listener.
  • Reading the slide verbatim
  • Slide not relevant.
    •  If a speaker is saying one thing and a slide appears to be saying something else, the audience will become confused, bored and inattentive.

    3. Additional guideline for Overhead Projection slides

    Originals should preferably be on white paper with good contrast from abold character set.

    4. Preparation at INCOSE 99

    It is most important that presenters make contact with the audio visualtechnician, before the start of their session for the following purposes:

    a) when using INCOSE provided computers:

    b) when using their own computer equipment: