Annual Conference General Persentation Hints

Effective academic advising is provided by both full-time advisors and faculty with advising responsibilities and duties. No doubt, members of either group can cite both good and bad examples of the other providing guidance to students. We request that presenters review their presentations for examples of stereotyping, labeling, or generalizing negative comments about the other and delete such references. We also request that during your presentation you assist the participants in your sessions to avoid using the session as a stage for making negative comments about one group of advisors or the other. TOGETHER WE CAN ENHANCE ACADEMIC ADVISING DELIVERED BY EVERYONE ON OUR CAMPUSES-FULL-TIME ADVISORS, FACULTY, OR ADMINISTRATORS! REMEMBER THAT OUR PARTICIPANTS ALL HAVE A DEEP BELIEF IN EFFECTIVE ADVISING FOR STUDENTS OR THEY WOULD NOT BE ATTENDING OUR CONFERENCE.

Speaker Ready Room - It is important that participants feel you are confident and rehearsed in your session. There will be a presenters' room available (equipped with an overhead projector, slide projector, LCD projector, VCR, and internet access) for presenters to use to practice, double check equipment, or store material for their sessions - use this room whenever you would like. Ask when you check-in at the conference for the room's exact location or look on the map in your program for the "Speaker Ready Room". An AV chart showing all equipment previously requested by each presenter will be posted inside the room and on the bulletin board near the registration table.

Locate and preview your presentation room PRIOR to your session. All concurrent sessions will be set "theatre style" - rows of chairs, no tables for participants or "classroom style" - rows of tables and chairs. There will be a head table, chairs, and either a tabletop or floor podium in the front of the room. Rooms seating more than 90 people will have a microphone on the podium.

Begin and end your presentation on time . You may want to have someone assist you in handling the distribution and collection of the evaluation forms at your session so you will not have to worry about that. Volunteers are assigned to help in each of the rooms with the evaluations, but as we all know, things do not always work as planned! In addition, the person you ask to assist you could help in distributing material if you need such assistance. All individual sessions are 60 minutes. It is important to end your session on time to provide the next presenters with the opportunity to set up.

Your material and comments should match the program abstract you have provided. It is important that your presentation covers the information and topics you have outlined in your abstract; it can be frustrating when participants have chosen your session based on your abstract and you do not clearly cover the topics they are expecting. This is the number one complaint on the evaluation forms.

Do not read your presentation or even portions of it. Word-for-word reading should only be used in rare instances for the purpose of emphasizing a point or fact. Limit your notes for the session to key ideas or phrases that automatically bring to mind your ideas for delivery.

Contact information : Distribute business cards or have the information on how to contact you on the handouts you provide. Participants appreciate being able to contact you after the conference for more information concerning your presentation, to ask questions they may think of later, or to ask for your assistance when they return to their campuses.

Questions and answers time should be incorporated into the presentation . Not having enough time has been a frequent complaint from past participants at our conferences. Presenters are encouraged to leave at least 10-15 minutes at the end of the session for questions and/or discussion of your topic or to plan accordingly so that participants may ask questions as you present your information.

Handouts: we suggest bringing a minimum of 100 copies of your handouts. If you are presenting a "hot topic" you will want to bring more. If you have leftover handouts, there is a table located in the exhibit hall for handouts, this way anyone who was unable to attend your session can pick up your handouts. Also, upload your presentation handouts to the NACADA web site; this way if you do run out of handouts you can tell the attendees that they can find all of your handouts out on the web and it will keep them from having to carry so much paper back home.

Evaluations: Please allow time to take up evaluation forms from all participants attending your session. Hopefully a volunteer will be available to run the evaluations back to the Hospitality Desk for you, if not we ask that you return the packet to the desk. The evaluations are very important for our conference. In addition to providing you valuable feedback on your session, the evaluations are extremely valuable to the next year's conference planning committee. Prior evaluations are used in the program selection process. Your copy of the evaluation forms can be picked up in around 1 hour after your session at the hospitality counter. All evaluations not picked up by presenters will be available for a short time by contacting the Executive Office. We will hold the evaluations that are not picked up for 2 months before discarding.