Most of the academic conferences I have attended or presented at have been in Asia, so I was excited to attend my first big event in Guatemala to see what is different in Latin America. Almost everything followed the script I was used to, and the speakers were the same as well. All over the world, conference presenters make the same mistakes.
1. People don't test the tech. If you need to use sound, don't assume that it will work. Test it before you get on stage in front of everyone.
2. If you know you aren't going to use all your slides, delete them or put them behind your "Contact me" slide for backup if you need to fill time at the end. Don't leave them in and skip them. It's lazy and makes you look like you weren't prepared for the time you were allotted.
3. Moderate your speaking speed and use of colloquial language if your audience is NNSs, even if they are English teachers. You're anxious, I get it. But presenters are (or have been) teachers. Act like it.
4. Manage your time and don't announce your errors. People love to share their inner monologues about time. "I'm running a little behind so I'll just summarize the next part." "Oops, only a few minutes left." "I'll try to get through all this in the time remaining." The audience doesn't need to know any of this. Keep your professional mask on and finish with confidence. They don't need to hear that you are rushing, skipping, or summarizing what you had planned to say more about.
5. If you're speaking before a coffee or lunch break, do NOT go over your time. This is especially important if you are speaking directly after another speaker and the audience has been sitting for a long time. If you want to be a hero, let people leave for lunch a little early. They are rarely back in time for the first speaker after lunch anyway.
6. The best panel sessions are scripted but don't appear scripted. Don't ramble and take the other panelists ' time. Try to work out in advance how much time each person has for each question. If the moderator asks you a question, try not to go off script to add in audience participation activities that the moderator didn't expect. Going rogue in a panel session makes you look unprofessional.
It might sound like I thought the conference didn't go well. On the contrary, it went like conferences go all over the world. A few technical snafus, a lot of "talk to the people around you" requests, and publishers mentioning a hundred times that their resources are free. The biggest difference I noticed was that all of the teachers were Guatemalan, but aside from the registration desk and the welcome speech from the token government official, everything was run in English. An English conference for Korean teachers of English in Korea would probably have used a lot more L1.
1. People don't test the tech. If you need to use sound, don't assume that it will work. Test it before you get on stage in front of everyone.
2. If you know you aren't going to use all your slides, delete them or put them behind your "Contact me" slide for backup if you need to fill time at the end. Don't leave them in and skip them. It's lazy and makes you look like you weren't prepared for the time you were allotted.
3. Moderate your speaking speed and use of colloquial language if your audience is NNSs, even if they are English teachers. You're anxious, I get it. But presenters are (or have been) teachers. Act like it.
4. Manage your time and don't announce your errors. People love to share their inner monologues about time. "I'm running a little behind so I'll just summarize the next part." "Oops, only a few minutes left." "I'll try to get through all this in the time remaining." The audience doesn't need to know any of this. Keep your professional mask on and finish with confidence. They don't need to hear that you are rushing, skipping, or summarizing what you had planned to say more about.
5. If you're speaking before a coffee or lunch break, do NOT go over your time. This is especially important if you are speaking directly after another speaker and the audience has been sitting for a long time. If you want to be a hero, let people leave for lunch a little early. They are rarely back in time for the first speaker after lunch anyway.
6. The best panel sessions are scripted but don't appear scripted. Don't ramble and take the other panelists ' time. Try to work out in advance how much time each person has for each question. If the moderator asks you a question, try not to go off script to add in audience participation activities that the moderator didn't expect. Going rogue in a panel session makes you look unprofessional.
It might sound like I thought the conference didn't go well. On the contrary, it went like conferences go all over the world. A few technical snafus, a lot of "talk to the people around you" requests, and publishers mentioning a hundred times that their resources are free. The biggest difference I noticed was that all of the teachers were Guatemalan, but aside from the registration desk and the welcome speech from the token government official, everything was run in English. An English conference for Korean teachers of English in Korea would probably have used a lot more L1.
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