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Oral Presentation Guidelines

Please be sure to work closely with your faculty mentor as you prepare for the conference.

Practice & Set Up Before the Conference

  • Although oral presentations can be stressful, your confidence and level of comfort will be greatly improved by practicing your presentation. You should work closely with your faculty mentor as you prepare and practice your presentation. Your talk should be 12 minutes in length with 3 minutes for questions and answers.
  • Please work closely with your faculty mentor to be sure that we are aware of your technology needs well ahead of the meeting.
  • Please test your presentation on a PC ahead of time. All presentation rooms are equipped only with PCs.
  • If you plan to use a PC for part of your talk, bring a copy of your final presentation (PowerPoint, etc.) with you on a USB/flash drive. Please also send your presentation to yourself via email so that you can access it in the event that your flash drive malfunctions.

On the Day of the Conference

  • A schedule of presentations and rooms will be sent to all presenters and their mentors in advance and will also be available at registration.
  • Room moderators will be present to assist you. You may want to visit your presentation room before the conference to get a sense of the setting and where you will be positioned.
  • Please plan to attend other CREATE events also - other talks, poster session, art exhibit, live performances, etc.

During Your Session

  • Please check in with the faculty moderator of your session a few minutes before the session begins. The moderator will introduce presenters as well as assist students with staying within time limits.
  • It is considerate for presenters to stay for the entire session they are scheduled in, if possible.
  • Be aware that some people in the audience may move between sessions in order to see other presentations. Moderators will explain that moving between sessions should be done during the question period or immediately thereafter, to minimize disruption to the presenter.
  • Oral presenters are allotted 12 minutes for the presentation and 3 minutes for questions. If you go over your 12 minutes, then you will have less time to take questions. You will not be permitted to go beyond 15 minutes.
  • Moderators are directed to keep to these time limits, and to have students start their presentations at the assigned time so that conference participants can move between sessions and not disrupt speakers.