Society for Judgment and Decision Making Annual Meeting
Instructions for Speakers of Talk Sessions
You are the stars of the show! The program committee and attendees are excited for your talk. But that comes with a big responsibility. Please design your talk to be as engaging as possible and practice your talk while timing yourself. No excuse-making or self-handicapping is allowed (Urdan & Midgely, 2001). Below are some practical details, guidelines to increase accessibility, and advice on how to make your talk engaging from generations of conference program chairs.
Practical details
- Your talk should take 15 minutes or less. This will allow 5 minutes for discussion with the audience. Your talk has a hard stop at 16 minutes; your total time has a hard stop at 20 minutes. Starting time for each talk is listed in the conference program. Stay on track with time. Discussion can continue after the sessions.
- The last speaker in each session will serve as chair and timekeeper for the session. Time cards (5 minutes left, 1 minute left, etc.) will be provided for timekeeping.
- Each presentation room will have a PC laptop and clicker. We recommend that Mac users have a back-up version of their talk saved as a pdf in the event of any compatibility issues. Please bring a USB stick to transfer your presentation to the podium laptop in the break before your session begins.
- Don’t be reliant on presenter view. Due to the AV setup, presenter view may not be available in the room.
- Please arrive 10-15 minutes before your session is scheduled to begin, to allow sufficient time to move all presentations onto one computer.
- You must register for the conference in order to give a talk. If you haven’t yet, register now: https://sjdm.org/members/confreg.php
- Conference programs (including the program for the current year) are available here.
If you have any questions, please contact the SJDM conference organizers at
SJDM.Conf@gmail.com
Accessibility Guidelines
Use the microphone
- Always use the microphone when presenting
- Even if the presenter thinks they’re sufficiently loud without a microphone, room characteristics may make it difficult for the audience to hear
- This is particularly important for audience members with difficulty hearing
Formatting text
- For audience members who have dyslexia, low vision, or are sitting far away, make sure to reduce the reading load
- Consider using familiar sans serif fonts such as Arial or Calibri
- Avoid using all capital letters and excessive italics or underlines
- Include ample blank space between sentences and paragraphs
- Use large font size - 20 point or larger
Using accessible text color
- Use dark text on a white or off-white background or reverse it and use white text on a dark background.
- This enables people with low vision to see and use the content. This is also helpful for audience members with dyslexia
- White and black schemas make it easier for people who are colorblind to distinguish text and shapes
Create alternative text to images
- Avoid using images as the sole method of conveying important information
- When using images, it is helpful to verbally describe the image
Advice for Making your Talk Engaging
(Started by Gordon H. Bower and then edited by generations of program chairs)
1. Focus on conveying what is most interesting about your research. Resist the urge to present everything that is in the paper.
2. Bring energy and enthusiasm. People will be excited about your research only if you are excited about it.
3. A narrative style is preferable in talks. Your talk should tell a story, going from problem, goal, plan through actions (observations) to outcomes, resolution, and a moral (conclusion). You should likely not organize your talk in exactly the same way you organize an academic paper for a journal.
4. When using niche jargon, be sure to convey what it means using an intuitive explanation in common language. Or avoid using niche jargon.
5. Prepare your first three sentences as if the audience might turn away from your talk if they don’t find them interesting. Your first priority is getting their interest and attention, with a rhetorical question, anecdote, or startling statement or paradox. Grab the audience in these first sentences.
6. In planning your talk, consider these steps:
(a) Write down the ideas and points to be made.
(b) Assemble them into an outline and fill it out.
(c) Revise the outline, concentrating on transitions between sections.
(d) Plan out your talk as you will speak it—work on oral, not written phrasing.
(e) Practice delivering the talk orally from the revised outline.
(f) Practice aloud before a mirror and with a clock in front of you. Keep it to 13-14 minutes.
(g) Learn to give the talk without a dependence on notes. It should not feel like you are reading during the talk.
7. Pause on the slides that (i) show a study design, or (ii) show a graph of results.
8. If a study design (or the series of events in the study) is complicated, show a concrete illustration of it in a visual. If the series of events in an experiment is complicated, show diagram of it. In both cases, provide a verbal description for audience members who are unable to see the slide well.
9. Describe exactly what responses your subject was making, perhaps give one or more concrete illustrations of materials for different trial types.
10. You are not duty-bound to describe every condition of your experiment, not every result, not every analysis, in a 15-minute talk.
11. Summarize your main idea and then clearly conclude. Make it completely obvious to your audience exactly when you have finished, by some words or gestures (e.g., by stepping back, smiling, and saying “Thank you”). Applaud one another at the end of the presentation. (Ask—Are there any questions?).
12. Think about the Q&A after your talk as discussion. You are not under fire, you are interacting with an audience that wants to learn from you and your work.
13. If a question comes that you don’t know about, it’s okay to say “I don’t know.” Or to say “That’s a tough one I haven’t thought about—or I’ll need more time to think about that”—or “Fine idea—would be worth trying in an experiment.” You don’t have to have instant answers for everything. If you don’t understand a questioner, ask them to rephrase it so you can understand. If they ask multiple questions at once, feel free to answer one of them and move on.
14. Smile and show you are glad to be there. Dress sharp. Speak loud enough. Articulate clearly. Be yourself.
Thank you for considering these guidelines.