Advice for scientists: how to give memorable virtual talks

Giving a talk at a scientific conference is a part of what scientists do. We do it to share our most recent findings and ideas, to get immediate feedback from our peer community, or to get perspective from an unfamiliar community we would like to collaborate with... We also give talks to enhance visibility for ourselves or initiatives we are affiliated with, and to build individual or collective reputation. We also give talks to advocate, engage, and inspire.

No matter what the motivation, each scientist is supposed to become a masterful speaker and presenter. Unfortunately, scientists are, by and large, supposed to learn as we go, without ever receiving any formal instruction on public speaking. Additionally, for a large percent of scientists English is a second (or third, or fourth...) language, and this introduces a lot of public speaking anxiety that conspires against. Plus: many of us also assume that our data will speak for themselves, and that the best ideas will shine through, no matter how poorly they are communicated.

All this results in a disconnect between the skills we acquire throughout our scientific training and the skills we need to be effective as scientists, educators, experts, and leaders. It also results in time, energy and enthusiasm waste. We've all been there - at a seminar or a conference talk when the slides start to roll and within 10-15 minutes the entire presentation has ran away from us. Although we came to the talk ready to learn, be inspired and amazed, we leave feeling deflated, tired, perhaps even upset that precious time out of day has just been wasted. To me, this is heartbreaking because it suggests that we are squandering away one of the best ways to share ideas and engage with the peer community: talking about the science we work on. Plus: if we are not able to keep each other's attention, peer to peer, what hope do we have of ever making our discoveries or ideas leave the Ivory Tower and resonate with the broader public?

Several years ago, I shared some straightforward tips for giving successful scientific presentations. My advice centered on the importance of: (1) knowing one's audience and customizing the presentation to fit their interests and needs; (2) practicing; and (3) showing passion and emotion. What helped me formulate those pieces of advice was based on years of experience giving talks to actual live audience and listening to in-person talks given by others. The in-person delivery of a presentation also provides an opportunity to adjust content and delivery in real time, to match the general atmosphere emanating from the audience.

However, COVID-19 pandemic changed everything, putting a stop to in-person events. Although some of of the events will likely resume once the pandemic if over, the imposed travel restrictions have definitely made us pause and think of other ways we can still engage and share with peers. One key solution that emerged over the last few months are virtual meetings. While many feel that the virtual events will never fully replace the in-person meetings, others are discovering that these events offer some benefits, as they are more environmentally and family friendly, cheaper (both in terms of time and money), more flexible as they are often recorded and available on-demand, and able to bring together a more diverse range of speakers.

But, presenting at virtual events presents its own challenges. Here, I will share couple of things I learned over the last four months in hope it will help you in the future:

• Get to know your audience and event organizers well

Knowing the audience is still the key to a successful and impactful presentation. As with in-person events, your talk will more likely resonate if you deliver your key messages in a way that your audience prefers to hear them. This requires pre-event phone call or email with the organizers to better understand the motivation behind the event and the target audience. Having said that: I appreciate that many virtual events don't require people to register, which means that you will not know who your audience is. If that is the case, it is still important to get as much information from the organizers (or event hosts) about what they want to accomplish and what goals they set for themselves. That can provide important pointers to help you tailor your delivery for the type of the event.

• Use technology to your advantage to make virtual talks more engaging and real

Even if there is no way of knowing who is in the virtual audience ahead of time, many virtual event platforms come with handy technology that you can use to learn about the audience at the time of the event. I recommend using audience polling at the very beginning of a talk. The type of question (or two) you should consider asking is one that will help you figure out who is in your audience and how they think or feel about the topic of your talk. Perhaps you may want to ask them about the extent of familiarity with the topic of your talk. Or put forward the basic hypothesis of your presentation and ask them to weigh in on whether they agree or disagree. Or use a word cloud to take a temperature of the room about the topic you will focus on. No matter what you ask, ensure that: (a) the event platform can handle these sort of things; (b) the organizers are able to provide technical support for what you like to do; (c) you build approximately 1 minute per question into your speaking time; and (d) you are ready to actually take what you learn from the audience into your presentation.

Adding interactive features to your presentation will make the audience more engaged - something that I view as essential. Virtual participations makes it very easy for your audience to disconnect and tune out. So, anything you can do to make the presentation feel like it's more about or for them than about you will keep them engaged.

• Leave much more time for questions and discussion

What makes in-person events so enjoyable and productive are the opportunities they create for discussion and catching up during coffee breaks, over meals, poster sessions, receptions... Under those circumstances having couple of minutes at the end of a talk reserved for questions may be sufficient as attendees could catch up with you later. However, in the virtual environment those opportunities may not exist. This means that it is critical that you leave more time for questions - if you are invited to give a 20 minute talk followed by 5 minutes for questions, aim to give a 15 minute talk and leave 10 minutes for questions and comments. Some organizers are realizing that more Q&A time makes for a better event and are making the talks shorter and discussion times longer - if that's the case you are off the hook, but do check and be mindful of this issue.

Also: note that most virtual event platforms allow the organizers to collect and transfer all the questions a speaker received to that speaker for them to respond off-line. I feel that it is your responsibility as a speaker to carve out the time to respond to the questions you received.

• Make sure you indicate your social media sharing comfort level

These days both virtual and in-person events usually come with a social media sharing guidelines. However, you should take care to indicate whether it's OK if people share the information you present. This should be indicated on each slide individually, especially if the information is NOT TO BE SHARED.

• Don't overcrowd your presentations

Overcrowding a presentation, in general, and each individual slide, in particular, is never a good idea. It is even worse to do so in a virtual environment where people attention is more volatile and fragile - and, frankly, the use of virtual laser pointers more challenging to master. Roughly speaking, including more than a single panel of data per slide in a virtual talk is probably too much, so feel free to spread things out over multiple slides. Also: be careful of animations. Some may be essential, and those are worth retaining, but others may interfere with the delivery or pose unanticipated technical issues. And speaking of technical issues, keep in mind that internet quality may fluctuate and that it is far from uniform across the globe. Again, making things simple rather than complicated will go a long way.

• Practice delivering the content and the timing

You may discover that you prefer delivering virtual talks, and that you can take them as they come. But, for me, giving a virtual talk turned out to be more difficult perhaps because these events do not offer a view of the audience and the elapsed time is almost impossible to keep track of. I discovered that having a talk timer app turned on helps - I can monitor how much time I have left and adjust my pacing as needed. Otherwise, I noticed that I spend more time talking than I ought to!

Another strategy to reign myself in and stick to the time I use is to write out what I plan to say. Reading of a piece of paper in virtual environment can be done with ease and without appearing any less polished or professional. The last talk I gave was almost entirely scripted. This lessened some of the stress connected with the delivery, and ensured I stayed on time as well.

In my view, virtual events are fantastic and I have been taking full advantage of virtual events over the last few months. But: giving a talk in-person or in a virtual environment is not the same, and I hope these couple of tips I shared here will help!