Guidelines for Oral Paper Presentations
The aim of presenting a paper at the ACEDE Conference is to encourage debate and scientific construction through the interaction with other researchers interested in the topic. Therefore, it is important that the audience is motivated by the end of the session in order to contribute to the process, completely reading the work which has been presented by the author(s).
In order for this task to be as homogeneous and efficient as possible, we have set out some guidelines.
Basic Information
The authors will have a maximum of 12 minutes to present their work. We kindly ask to strictly abide by the rules to ensure the smooth course of the sessions.
The presidents of each session have been asked to be strict with the time. We recommend a 10 minute presentation.
Authors may use Microsoft PowerPoint for their presentations. Finally, we kindly ask the authors to be there 10 minutes before the session commences. This is important to coordinate with the president, the discussants and the rest of the authors who will be presenting their works, as well as to upload your presentation and check for technical details.
Recommendations for the contribution to the debate and scientific construction
The following recommendations are divided in two parts. Aspects that should be avoided as far as possible (AVOID); and advice on aspects that contribute towards generating expectation and awake the audience´s interest (RECOMMENDATION).
Much of the advice and suggestions from the AVOID part might look “radical”. However, its aim is to ensure that the presentation fosters an interest towards the work presented, even though this covers less of the contents referred to above.
This guide is not intended to be rigid because each paper can find different ways to contribute to the literature; nonetheless, the idea is to make people interested, more than summarizing a piece of work. The authors should be able to identify the strengths of the work presented, including their weaknesses, in order to create interest in the audience and thus contribute towards the improvements needed to strengthen these points.
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AVOID |
RECOMMENDATION |
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General objective of the presentation |
Presenting summaries of all the sections of the work |
Present sufficient work to convey to the audience that the work is interesting and it should be considered for reading |
|
Format and presentation rate |
Leaving the best till last. Planning the presentation for more than 15 minutes, thinking you may have extra time. Using small font and many slides. Focusing too much on the theory or on the methods (unless it´s the contribution itself). |
First raise what is most important and then explain the results (e.g. methods/results). Provide the attendees with a summary of one page detailing the contribution and the main topics. Plan for a 10 minute presentation. It´s easier to add on things rather than cut things out as you go. Use 28 pt fonts and no more than 8 slides. Focus on the main results and contributions. |
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Introduction |
Being overly conceptual. |
Focus on what you´ve learnt and what is interesting and innovative. Try to start with a real life story or an analogy. |
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Interaction |
Providing a monologue describing its research. |
Look at and speak to the audience. Ask rhetorical questions on key points and also wait for response. |
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Theory |
Presenting a full rewiew of the literature about the topic. Explaining each arrow of a complex model. |
Fix the problem. Why is it interesting? What does the work add? Explain what is new in respect to previous contributions. |
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Methods |
Describing in detail the measures and validation of the instruments. |
Explain in general terms why those measures are adequate for the analyzed theoretical construction. Highlight the validity of the above-mentioned and briefly comment the methods applied to make sure of that. |
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Results |
Presenting all the tables and numbers. |
Present the significant results (signals + and –). Explain what the data states not the results. |
|
Conclusion |
Revising each result and summarizing what is important. |
Highlight what you have learnt and what should be done now. Encourage the audience to read the work. |
These recommendations are based on those developed for the Academy of Management and the Iberoamerican Academy of Management. Originally, they were presented in the session of Russell Coff and Jing Zhou, “How to do your presentation for the Academy”, on August 8th, 1999.
