Guidelines for Presenters at Oral Sessions
Last updated 24 June 2008

Before the Session  |  Projection  |  Presenting Your Paper | Slide Design Basics


In Oral Sessions, twelve minutes have been allotted for each presentation, to include a ten-minute talk plus two minutes for discussion afterwards.

Before the Session:

  • Audiovisual presentations may be reviewed in Room 801A of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.  The Speaker Ready Room will be open from 07.00 to 19.00 from Thursday, 10 July through Tuesday, 15 July and from 07.00 to 13.00 on Wednesday, 16 July.
  • Single screen computer projection will be available in all meeting rooms.  35mm slide projection will not be available.
  • All presentations must be brought to the Speaker Ready Room the day before the presentation.  All presentations will be networked and coordinated from the preview room.  Please do not bring any presentations to the session rooms.
  • To avoid confusion, always mark discs with your name and address, program number, and day and time of your presentation.
  • Please arrive at your session room at least 15 minutes before the session begins, introduce yourself to the chairs of the session and familiarize yourself with the audiovisual controls.
  • For questions regarding your presentation, please contact Bob Goldstein of the ISMRM staff at +1 510-841-1899 or bob@ismrm.org.
Projection:


In order to ensure a working presentation, it is critical that all speakers check-in at the Speaker Ready Room the day before their presentation.  This allows the computer technicians time to work on any compatibility issues that may arise.  Failure to check-in in advance may result in a non-functioning digital presentation.

Plan on spending a few minutes in the speaker Ready Room to run through all files and  make sure they are operating properly.  Editing is permitted in the Speaker Ready Room.  Presentations will be distributed over a network to the meeting rooms at least one hour prior to the start of the session.   All editing must be completed before they are distributed to the rooms.  There will be a PC mouse at the podium.  When creating your presentation, please be sure that all features function with the mouse.  Presenters will not have access to a keyboard.

PowerPoint is recommended for all users, but other programs will also be available including Adobe Acrobat, Internet Explorer, and Netscape.  If you plan to use something besides Apple’s QuickTime, Real Network’s Real Player, Macromedia’s Flash/Shockwave or Microsoft’s Windows Media Player,
please contact Roberta Kravitz of the ISMRM staff (roberta@ismrm.org)  to insure that your presentation will work.

The computers in the session rooms will be Windows-based PCs with Microsoft Power Point for Office XP installed.  Presentations created on both PC and Macintosh platforms, should work, but verification of proper performance, particularly if video or animations are included in the presentation is essential.  Reviewing presentations in the Speaker Ready Room will ensure that the fonts are displayed correctly.  (Fonts can be a problem with both platforms if nonstandard fonts are used.)

For detailed instructions and technical requirements for computer projection, please click here.

Presenters must be in the session room and contact the A/V projection technician at least 15 minutes before the start of the session.

Presenting Your Paper:

  • Twelve minutes have been allotted for your oral presentation, to include a ten-minute talk plus two minutes for discussion afterwards.  The time limit will be strictly enforced, so plan accordingly.
  • To present your paper effectively in this limited time, do not attempt to cover too much material. Discuss only the major points of your work, especially the conclusions drawn from your data.
  • Practice your presentation with an audience of at least one until you can present it clearly in ten minutes.  If you use more than your allotted time, the Chair of the session has the right to terminate the presentation.
  • A useful rule is to use no more than one (1) image for each minute of your presentation.