About to give a paper talk at a conference? Here are some solid tips to ensure success:

1. Practice, practice, practice
   It doesn’t matter how often you’ve given public speeches or how experienced you are in your research, you need to practice your presentation, and practice it numerous times. Practice it aloud by yourself or in front of your dog/cat/boyfriend/mother, just practice!Why?
   – You will become fluent in speech and avoid “ums,” awkward pauses, and other public speaking mishaps.
   – You will gain an effective handle of timing the talk.
   – You will learn which parts of your presentation need more clarification and which parts you can take out.
   – Being well-practiced reduces anxiety (and we all get a little nervous)!
2. Keep the main finding central
   Sometimes research projects snowball into various different directions. Avoid going on rabbit trails and discussing parts of your research that are not directly central to your most interesting result. If someone has questions (e.g., about alternative explanations), they can ask you about it during the Q&A part at the end.
3. Use PowerPoint appropriately and don’t read your slides
   A PowerPoint is a glorified outline–nothing more. So avoid text walls and reading slides. At the same time, use your slides to point out complicated graphs/tables/figures. Make use of animations that allow you to control which bullet points appear and disappear. It can get rather confusing when information is presented on a slide and the speaker has not addressed that information yet.
4. Learn from the best
   Use your professors and other people who present talks as examples to follow. If other people are not presenting information in a certain way, you probably shouldn’t be doing it that way either. Your professors and seasoned conference presenters can also give you insight on the best way to organize your talk according to your field (e.g., how to present a 2-study paper).
5. Smile and relax
   When it comes to stepping up to the podium, just relax, smile, and do your best. Everyone has given less than stellar conference talks, and if that happens to you, don’t worry about it. At the end of the day, your research will speak for itself. If you are enthusiastic about it, odds are someone else will catch your enthusiasm, too!