This document provides tips for effective academic presentations. It discusses the importance of preparing by knowing your topic, aims, and audience. Presenters should use visual aids like slides sparingly and in an illustrative manner. When delivering a presentation, presenters should rehearse, arrive early to set up, and maintain composure through good posture, eye contact, and voice control. They should introduce their topic clearly, encourage questions, and remain calm when answering questions. Overall presenters should focus on engaging the audience and communicating their message effectively.

1. Effective Presentations
Dr Konstantinos Bozos
kb@lubs.leeds.ac.uk

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Contents
• Effective presentations
• Preparation
• Visual media
• Delivery

3. Why present effectively?

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Attending Conferences
• Academic Conferences are essential...
– Access to latest advances in the field
– Feedback from experts
– Networking with peers, editors, employers
• Academic Conferences are costly...
– Time
– Fees
– Travel
– Inconvenience
– Opportunity costs

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Academic Presentations
• Weak presenters
• Poor communication skills
• Weak presentations
Outcome is often...
• Boring and disengaging
• Little or no value to audience and presenter

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Opportunity...
• Become a strong presenter
• Deliver engaging presentations
• Attract people’s interest in your work
• Receive valuable feedback
• Publish!

7. Preparing your presentation

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Know your topic
• Literature & theory
• Dataset & institutional framework
• Methodology & econometrics
• Results
• Limitations

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Know your aims...
• You need the audience to:
1. Show interest in your work
2. Understand it
3. Challenge it
4. Make suggestions

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Know your audience
• Fellow academics
• Professionals
• Editors
• Students
Each group seeks something different...

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Target the audience
Intro 1st Topic 2nd Topic Conclusion
Non
technical
General
technical
Specialist
time
depth Adapted form Alley (2003)

12. Preparing Visual Aids

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Preparing visual aids
• Use slides in moderation
• Number slides
• Make slides illustrative
• One key point per slide
• Follow the 5x5 rule...

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Preparing visual aids (cont)
• Careful use of colour
• Let the title do the job
• Use animation/build sparingly
• Graph data, when possible
• Legible Text & Figures (24p)

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A bad example...
TABLE 5
COEFFICIENTS ESTIMATED FROM LEAST SQUARES REGRESSIONS OF ABNORMAL RETURNS
FULL MODEL MKT EXPER. FULL MODEL 2 MKT EXPER.2 PARSIMONIOUS STEPWISE
INTERCEPT 0.293 ** 0.223 - - -0.029 ***
(2.267) (1.081) (-3.388)
RUNUP -0.046 *** -0.041 ** -0.037 * -0.037 * -0.057 *** -0.062 ***
(-2.869) (-2.046) (-1.886) (-1.839) (-4.175) (-4.812)
EXSRUNUP 0.076 * 0.073 * 0.070 * 0.070 * - 0.093 **
(1.914) (1.796) (1.743) (1.68) (2.38)
MVAR 110.395 ** 141.889 188.012 ** 179.263 ** - -
(2.193) (1.621) (2.489) (2.257)
VAR -24.029 ** -25.479 ** -27.368 *** -27.725 ** - -16.843 ***
(-2.388) (-2.399) (-2.771) (-2.599) (-3.791)
GRBOND -0.015 -0.011 0.002 - -
(-1.043) (-0.692) (0.118)
EUROUSD -0.244 ** -0.225 * -0.124 ** -0.123 - -
(-2.064) (-1.79) (-2.262) (-1.434)
TIME - 0.000 0.001 ** 0.001 * - -
(0.441) (2.041) (1.775)
LASTSEO - - - 0.027 - -
(0.298)
R2 0.245 0.246 0.362 0.359 0.130 0.33
R2 Adj. 0.205 0.199 0.329 0.313 0.122 0.312
F 6.106 5.224 10.793 7.786 17.432 19.18
Notes:
The table presents the estimated coefficients from an Ordinary Least Squares regression:
Car05= α + β1
.RUNUP + β2
.EXSRUNUP + β3
.MVAR + β4
.VAR + β5
.GRBOND + β6
.EUROUSD + β7
.TIME + β8
.LASTSEO + εi
*,**,*** : Significant at 90.0%, 95.0%, 99.0% respectively

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Instead use the following...
Selected regressions of abnormal returns
Full Model Parsimonious Stepwise
INTERCEPT 0.293** -0.029*** -
RUNUP -0.046*** -0.057*** -0.062***
EXSRUNUP 0.076* - 0.093**
MVAR 110.395** - -
VAR -24.029** - -16.843***
GRBOND -0.015 - -
EUROUSD -0.244** - -
CVS Yes No No
R2 Adj. 0.205 0.122 0.312
F 6.106 17.432 19.18

17. Delivering your presentation

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Glossophobia...
FACT 1:
95% of all public speakers experience anxiety…
FACT 2:
95% of the audience cannot tell when this happens…

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Glossophobia...
• Prepare
• Rehearse
• Breathe
• Move
• Eye Contact

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Murphy’s Law...
“If anything can go wrong, it will…”
• Rehearse
• Arrive early
• Keep backups of presentation
• Be prepared...
• When something unexpected happens , keep going...
It goes wrong only when you call attention to the issue
or you let it ruin the rest of your presentation

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Your appearance
Ladies
Length – Fit
Colours
Jewellery
Makeup
Hair
Gentlemen
Suit
Smart casual
Bright shirt
Tie
Matching socks (if possible)

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Your position
Adapted from Mandel (2000)
• Or to the audience?
• Presenting to the visual?
“Do not speak until you have
eye contact with your
audience!”

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Energy
• Movement > Normal & Controlled
• Gestures > Natural Gestures
• Voice > Confidence & Variety
• Expressions > Important (but avoid theatrics)

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Composure
• Posture > Straight
• Eye contact > 3-5 seconds
• Pace > Controlled
• Pauses > Breathe, drink some water
Avoid umm, err, ahh, etc

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Your introduction
• Anecdotal Evidence
• Shocking statement
• Rhetorical question
• Quotation
If you feel confident enough:
• Question
• Humour

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Communicate your topic...
• Tell the audience what you are going to tell them...
• Tell them...
• Then tell them what you told them...
• Tell the audience how you are going to bore them ...
• Bore them ...
• Then tell them how you bored them ...

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Encouraging Questions
Stand away, hand in your pockets and ask:
“Any questions?”
Approach audience, raise hand and ask:
“What questions do you have?”

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Answering Questions
• Listen carefully
• Observe body language
• Remain calm and confident
• Clarify
• Amplify
• Don’t ignore the audience (25%-75%)

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Hostile Questions
• Position- Action- Benefit
• Acknowledge fact
• Respond with information
Answer structures :
- Past, present, future
- Argument 1, 2, 3
- Pros vs. Cons
• Maintain position (if appropriate)

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Keep paying attention to...
• The room
• The audience
• Yourself
• The TIME!