I’m writing this article while listening to student presentations at a departmental Christmas Conference in Cluj Napoca, Romania. I don’t speak Romanian very well and so I don’t understand a lot of what’s being said, but I can see the slides and get an overall impression from each talk. Perhaps you’ve had a similar experience when listening to talks in English? In this context, at international conferences when audience members speak a range of languages, your slides and general presentation style are even more important.
What are some of the most common mistakes that people make when giving conference presentations? Here are two from the first talk of the morning here in Cluj.