Today I presented my conference paper to my supervisors and course leader. Surprisingly I was looking forward to to this morning, and from my perspective it went very well. It is always worth presenting it live, rather than reading through at home on your own. As expected I went quite a way over 20 minuted so some editing will have to take place, but I have a couple of weeks to that.

Comments today included:

• Presentation too long.
• My speaking pace and loudness was fine. Calculated that I spoke at 128 words a minute. That’s good to know.
• Very knowledgable and good content.
• Use more original content
• Use more images in the powerpoint, perhaps with a bit of colour.
• Presentation was fine. Improvements could be made by more engagement with the audience. There are various ways of presenting paper: reading from script at one extreme and the other end no script but reply upon keyword or cards. There is a middle ground, using script for accurate quotes etc.
• More focus. Comments included that I was covering far too much ground and messages/content became lost. Sharpen it up, Sean! Additional signposting would also help. When changing subject direction, tell the audience.
• Include a piece about ethics and authenticity in collecting and publishing.
• Define terminology. There will always be somebody that doesn’t know.
• Clearer introduction. Introduce myself before anything else and speak briefly about the relationship between the presentation and my course.
• Powerpoint. Reduce the number of slides. The number will go down as text must be reduced, but also consider.
• Practical stepping went down a hoot!

How do I feel it went? It went as largely planned. Excellent feedback. I was surprised I only spoke at 128 a minute, I had expected that to me nearer 150, but there were are.

I would like to thank Pete Lyons who came along today to play the fiddle for the stepping practical. thanks, Pete.