Gone in a flash – How to give an effective ultra-short talk

Being a scientist is not only about coming up with new hypotheses and testing them, but also about sharing and communicating what you think and what you’ve learned. As a lot of this communication is in a form giving presentations in front of different audiences (at group meeting, departmental seminars, conference of different sizes), scientists have to develop solid public speaking skills. They also need to get training in giving effective presentations, where public speaking skills need to fuse and merge with training in putting together effective slides. I previously shared tips on giving successful scientific presentations, and more recently I added few more tips on how to do this well in a virtual environment.

With that many tips already shared, one would think that there is nothing new to learn any more. (Un)fortunately, being scientists we know that there is always more to discover and learn, and this is also true when it comes to giving talks. Over the last several months, I have been heavily involved in co-organizing a two-day virtual Nature conference on Translational Chemical Biology. Because of the virtual nature (no pun intended!) of this event, we have decided to forgo the traditional poster session with individual presenters “standing” in front of static posters and usually waiting for people interested in their work to come by. Instead, we have decided to give everyone selected to present a 3-minute speaking slot, with a single session featuring as many as 10-12 ultra-short talks, followed by moderated group discussion about the presented science. With this formula, we hope to make the sessions more dynamic and engaging and provide a broader range of attendees and opportunity to speak about their science as well as hear about the science of others.

But, I also realize that a task of giving a 3-minute “flash” talk can seem very daunting! Our short talk presenters will have to condense months (if not years) of research into 180 seconds, and, yet, deliver something impactful that will resonate with an international audience. In order to accomplish this, the presenters will have to do things differently from what they are used to. Here are some practical things of how to make this happen:

o  Start at the end.

These are very short talks, and what’s even worse they are usually part of a larger session that includes multiple very short talks. That means that each presenter has about 30 seconds at the very beginning to make a strong lasting impression. To ensure that you message stands out among all the others you have to deliver your take-home message, usually conclusions and implications of your work, or anything else you want them to remember about your project, at the very beginning.

This could be as simple as saying “Hi, today I will tell you about how we developed inhibitor X, the most potent and selective inhibitor of kinase Y available to date.” Alternatively, you could use a captivating image to get everyone to pay attention – but only if that image is an easily digestible metaphor or a clear actual piece of data. For example, if you are a structural biologist you can show a 5? resolution image of cryo-EM from yesteryears, next to a 2? resolution obtained recently and say: “Would you believe that only 2 years ago we could only see these “blurry” images of using cryo-EM while today we can see atoms?”

It may help if you think of this first sentence as a headline, meant to grab attention. So, if you are more adventurous you could start with: “We always thought that cells use only one way to make proteins, but how would you feel (or what would you think) if I told you that there is another way?” (I, of course, made this up, but you get the point!). Or employ statistics: “One in five people infected with tuberculosis in the Americas remains unaware of the disease.” Wouldn’t that make you sit up and pay attentions?

o  Move beyond the headline – quickly.

In the same way the headline is meant to grab your attention, the content itself will quickly lose you unless it makes you care about the topic. Although you don’t have time to go into much background, you should plan to provide some context for why your research matters. For example, you may want to follow the stated statistics with more details of what types of problems this leads to.

It’s important that you state the knowledge gap and/or problem your research addressed clearly and succinctly. You have about 60 seconds to do so, but don’t rush because you need to make sure that everyone understands the size and the significance of the problem. This will help them relate and care. At the same time, in order for your audience to continue to follow, you also have to establish your credibility. Sounding professional and prepared goes a long way towards that goal, and polished slides also help (more below)!

o  End where you started your talk.

After you told everyone what your message was, and convinced everyone that what you are working on matters, your next task is to spend about a minute telling people what you did. This is a high-level summary of your work that provides a window into the research strategy you took. You don’t need to provide all the details – it’s ok to leave your audience hungry for more, and entice them to follow up with questions and comments. You should end where you started, by taking 30 seconds to restate your conclusions and comment on broader implications. Perhaps you end that tuberculosis story with how what you did resulted in 40% increase in treatment adherence and saved lives? Or perhaps you end by pointing out all new questions that your research led to? No matter what, your final message should be simple and easy to remember.

What you don’t need to do at the end is spend time on thanking people who did the work, collaborators or funding agencies. This information should be included on the slide you show, for everyone to see.

o  Declutter the slides and make them complementary to what you say.

This should always be the case, but it is especially important in short talks. Many events will not only limit the time (to 3 minutes or sometimes even less) but also limit the content to a single slide. Even if you are allowed only one slide, make it free of clutter – minimal amount of words, no bullet points, no jargon, no complicated images or schemes, no animations… The images and words you use should be clear, polished and complementary, not redundant, to what you plan to say.

o  Go slower, not faster.

We all have tendency to speed up when we know we are running of time. But the way to get the most out of a very short talk is to slow down, use simple words and expressions and focus on making every word count, rather than counting on verbosity to carry you through. This needs a lot of practice. I recommend that you write your talk out and start by reading what you wrote and listening to yourself. This will allow you to revise and re-write until just right. An additional bonus of writing everything out is that this will give you a script you can read as you are presenting – in virtual events this is less likely to be noticed and may help with public speaking jitters.

The ultra-short talks can be intimidating, but they also offer more opportunities to be creative than longer presentations. Plus, once you start they are over before you have time to notice. So, deep breath in and dive in!