Creating Engaging Presentations for All Audiences

1. Your title goes here Your name(s) Your institution(s) Your advisor(s) Your advisor’s institution(s) NSF grant DMS-1005140

2. Outline • To provide an outline, or not? • Most people do. • Why be the same as most people?

3. Some tips • Think about the story you want your presentation to tell. • Prepare a “crisp” beginning – get the audience’s attention with a question, an anecdote… • Less is more on slides (particularly text) • Pictures and graphs can convey your story well.

4. Some (more) tips • First draft: basic is best. • Use animation wisely! • Focus audience’s attention • Indicate process (rather than outcome of process) • Limit the amount of text on each slide. • Your audience will understand complicated definitions and ideas more easily if you illustrate them through well-chosen examples.

5. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 5 G H 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4

6. Formatting Tips • Dark background; light-colored text and pictures • Be consistent • same color for titles of slides throughout presentation • Similar colors for similar objects (e.g. graphs) • Same text type (e.g. Arial, Times New Roman) • Mathematical expressions: text should be italizicized, all items presented “nicely”

7. Graham’s Conjecture (Proof) NOT this way

8. Elements to include… • Title slide • Words or slide providing overview (outline) of presentation • Relevant definitions (may be scattered throughout) • Body of presentation • (Open Questions – when applicable) • (References – debatable) • Acknowledgements (if any)

9. Powerpoint-Specific Tips • Formatting background and color scheme • Using the “notes” feature • Printing options (conserve!) • Drawing tools • Animation • Inserting mathematical equations We’ll work through these by example.