Hello!
Conferences are excellent for discovering the latest progress in research on a scientific topic. In our lab, we are fortunate to be encouraged and supported to attend one or two conferences per year to showcase our work and interact with peers. They provide a friendly and safe environment to practice communication and presentation skills and collect feedback on our work, and they also create valuable opportunities to establish new connections and potential collaborations for future projects. Recently, I had the chance to participate in this year’s Congress of the European Society of Biomechanics, which is arguably one of the most relevant conferences for me to attend. Critically, this year I was selected to present my work in an award session, which challenged my ability to design and deliver an effective, understandable presentation to a broader audience. Therefore, in this post, I would like to share some realisations that were incredibly impactful for me during this experience.
3. Challenging the comfort zone
The tip of the iceberg
First, I would like to reflect on the idea of collaborative work. The conference schedule included plenary talks, typically given by established professors, alternating with specialised sessions where more junior researchers gave talks or presented posters about their work. Regardless of the career stage, it was overwhelmingly clear that more complex and impressive projects required an interdisciplinary team tackling different aspects that culminated in a successful and impactful outcome. This impression was particularly striking for plenary talks, where professors shared the most significant findings from their research groups over several years or generations of doctoral students. In other words, it was astonishing that one person was giving a talk on stage, becoming the face of the work produced by large teams of hardworking people.
As a junior researcher, I had the chance to experience this feeling since the work I presented resulted from multiple collaborative efforts in our lab. For this reason, during the presentation preparation, it was vital to ensure that all contributors towards this effort were appropriately depicted. Additionally, given that the award session has a privileged slot in the conference schedule that maximises the attendance of all participants, it was a unique opportunity to showcase the interdisciplinarity of our group on stage.
Attention is the currency
In a presentation, our goal is to convey a message to the audience. In a scientific presentation, we focus on our work to present results or introduce a new method. Regardless, a fundamental element for a successful talk is to keep the attention of the attendees. By maintaining attention, we can create memorable experiences and allow the audience to remember the key ideas we aim to share. Importantly, in the award session, the winner was selected by public voting, which further reinforces the need to have a compelling talk.
Furthermore, with a limited timeframe of just 10 minutes, the initial moments of the presentation become paramount. As a result, during the preparation of my talk, I received feedback suggesting a reduction in the complexity of my slides, which initially included several technicalities, towards a more visual journey about bone research. After several iterations, I created powerful animations flying through a mouse femur, from organ to cells, and simplified intricate image analysis operations to a movie sequence showing how these processes took place. As the audience included members from diverse scientific backgrounds, a successful talk demanded an approach that could balance accessibility and depth. Eventually, despite shielding the attendees from numerous details, the Q&A allowed interested participants to delve into technical questions and realise the challenges associated with the work.
Challenging the comfort zone
At last, I would like to reflect on the personal challenges of giving a talk to such a broad audience. For me, it had been years since I had to present in a vast auditorium, and likely the first time for longer than a few minutes. The days before my session, I could already feel the anxiety building up, and any internal reminder of the time left would trigger this micro shortness of breath. At this point, it became an excellent opportunity to practice breathing and relaxation exercises to keep me calm during these agitated periods while enabling me to enjoy and participate in the conference sessions. Nonetheless, any attempt to remain calm had to be balanced with an effort to prepare my talk so that I could recite it from any slide without effort. In other words, my goal was to become so comfortable with my talk that I could quickly gloss over any unexpected incident and still be able to deliver it in any circumstance, even in the unlikely scenario of not having supporting slides. To this end, it was beneficial to practice in the evenings as the last active task of the day. Having completed my slide deck days before the session, I could devote any time available to rehearse without worrying about any last-minute changes.
Additionally, I would challenge myself to pick up an arbitrary slide and start explaining it, only looking at the presentation notes as a last resort. This approach enabled me to progressively build the key concepts that I should focus on each slide. Eventually, during the talk, I realised there was a screen available for presentation notes, but I was fortunate to barely have a look at it, except for the timer countdown, allowing me more visual contact with the audience while knowing that I would communicate the most essential information on each slide.
Conclusion
I am thrilled about the opportunity to attend scientific conferences during my doctoral studies. Every year I keep learning and improving my ability to communicate the significance of my work while enjoying the interactions with fellow colleagues and researchers in this field. At this ESB, I was fortunate to win the Student Award, shared with another nominee from KU Leuven, which definitely made this year’s conference even more memorable!
Please feel free to share your thoughts on your recent scientific conferences!
Have a great day!