KEEPING IT REAL WITH …

Preparing For Your First Lecture

Learn how to avoid the pitfalls and deliver an effective presentation.

George A. Williams, M.D.

When I think back on my first lecture, what I remember most is that I was petrified! It was 1983, and I was a fellow at the Medical College of Wisconsin. I lectured at a meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology to a sophisticated audience of researchers and experts in the field. Back then, slide-presentation software didn't exist. Creating the charts and slides was totally up to me.

When it was all over, I was relieved. Nobody threw anything at me so I guess I did okay. I felt I had conveyed the main message to the best of my ability.

Helpful Hints

In the years since then, I've learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. Here are some tips on how to develop an effective presentation:

■ Choose a topic that interests you and thoroughly research it.

Passion is the key ingredient to ensure a winning presentation. Select a topic you're passionate about and make sure you know more about it than everyone else in the audience. Become acquainted with the buzz words. While preparing, try to anticipate questions that might arise, and formulate your answers to avoid being caught off guard. If you don't know the answer to a question, it's okay to admit that. People will respect you for being honest.

■ Enhance your lecture with visuals. Visual aids beef up your presentation — especially when you're presenting to vision specialists. But keep your visuals simple. Avoid cramming too much text onto one slide. Instead, limit each slide to one or two points, and develop your talk around the primary message you want to convey.

Bear in mind, though, that the slides are visual aids. Resist merely reciting what's on them. To keep your audience plugged in, you must speak to them. That's why it's so important to know far more than the abbreviated data on the slides.

■ Practice staying within the time limit. Usually, your lecture is assigned a specific time limit. Rehearsing what you're going to say gives you a good sense of whether you'll meet your target. If your presentation runs too far over your allotted time, that's all the audience will remember. If you get a signal that your time's up — and you're far from done — wrap it up by advancing to your concluding slides and summarizing the major points. If your talk runs long, let the audience know you're sorry.

Some speakers have a tendency to speed through their lectures. Rushing often results from trying to move quickly through overly detailed or complicated slides. The key is to strike a balance between conveying the important messages and avoiding too much detail.

■ Check out the podium and your equipment beforehand. One of my most embarrassing moments occurred when I was looking out on a packed room of ophthalmologists at an international meeting. I had recently purchased a new computer and found myself face-to-face with a technical nightmare when the computer wouldn't work. To prevent such a mishap, speak to an audiovisual person ahead of time. Remember to find out how the buttons on the podium work and where to find the laser pointer.

■ Provide an evaluation form for your audience. When it's all said and done, what really matters is the opinion of your audience, not how well you think you did. That's why I find evaluation forms helpful. Always review the results, and pay special attention to comments that appear repeatedly. I always aim to incorporate constructive feedback into my next lecture.

Getting the Hang of It

Years of lecturing have taught me the ins and outs of delivering an effective presentation. I hope what I've learned will give you a leg up going into your first lecture. nMD