{"id":5562,"date":"2024-01-19T12:00:40","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/?p=5562"},"modified":"2024-01-09T15:32:18","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T14:32:18","slug":"giving-a-longer-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/2024\/01\/19\/giving-a-longer-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving a longer talk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0In this blog, Meg Skelton (EDIT Lab Postdoctoral Research Associate) shares her experience of presenting a plenary lecture at a recent conference.<\/em><\/h4>\n

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Meg, Postdoctoral Research Associate<\/p><\/div>\n

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In my Personal Development Review earlier this year, I said that I felt it would be beneficial for me to talk at more events. Why would I do this to myself, you ask? Do I love public speaking? The pull of an opportunity to crash and burn in front of an audience? Not quite. But I do think that presenting your research outside of your \u2018bubble\u2019 is important for a number of reasons:<\/p>\n

1) Whether a lay or scientific audience, people with different experiences and expertise probably have perspectives you haven\u2019t considered. Therefore, they might identify weaknesses that you can (hopefully) address, or suggest new ideas for your work.<\/p>\n

2) Exposure. (i) Professional: more people will hear of you and your work. This could lead to your research being more widely cited and impactful, and to invitations to collaborate or to present at other events. (ii) Extinction: experiencing an anxiety-inducing situation without an adverse outcome can help to decrease your anxiety about the situation. Communicating findings is a crucial part of doing science and oral presentations can be especially engaging. So, if you want to be a scientific researcher, it helps if you can build confidence in your public speaking.<\/p>\n

3) It\u2019s more likely that other event attendees will come and talk with you (p = ?). This opens up opportunities for collaboration, interesting conversations, and\/or a conference friend!<\/p>\n

The conference I was invited to speak at was the \u201cCongresso Nacional de Psiquiatria\u201d (National Congress of Psychiatry). As a bonus, it was in the sunny Algarve, Portugal in November, when the UK weather is particularly grim! The talk was a plenary lecture, with a 45 minute slot for the presenter. A plenary lecture is a session that all conference attendees are available to attend, as nothing else is scheduled at the same time. The theme of the conference was \u2018precision psychiatry\u2019 and I was asked to speak on precision (or \u2018personalised\u2019) psychotherapy, the idea of allocating patients to the treatment most likely to help them. Specifically, the conference organisers were keen to hear about our research on the role of genetics in response to psychological therapy, which we call \u2018therapygenetics\u2019.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d never given a longer talk at a conference, so I started preparing my slides about a month beforehand. Key to my preparation was having a practice run-through in front of the rest of the EDIT Lab. The group gave me really helpful feedback including areas to cut or elaborate. Here are some of my final slides:<\/p>\n\n\t\t