Cathy
This is the sort of thing I have to do reasonably often - here are 10
thoughts to perhaps start a debate!
I would say:
1. know your audience in advance - know who is there, their
interests/jobs
2. tailor your presentation to that audience - surprisingly, many don't
do this and just present 'their research' and expect people to want to
think through why it is relevant
3. if there is a policy or practice context, highlight this - more so
than theoretical/methodological context (though you should briefly
allude to these to highlight you know your onions)
4. if there are policy or practice recommendations, you must draw these
out - at the end of the day, people in these organisations are using
research-based evidence as a means to making decisions - so help them
make those decisions
5. don't just have recommendations that say 1) we need to do more
research and b) my research has highlighted that this issue needs more
funds. Both are acceptable as part of wider recommendations; the latter
needs to explain how funds would be spent and on what
6. Time what you do - if you have a 10m slot, pace out the sections
(context/meat/conclusions) so that you don't spend 8m on context and
then overrun
7. Avoid powerpointlessness. Focus should be you, not your over-detailed
slides. When I see someone with a 10m slot and 20 slides I groan. Just
because a paragraph has a bullet point in front of it, it doesn't mean
it is a bullet point. Try www.prezi.com as a ppt alternative. Its cool.
8. This is difficult, but keep it simple, avoid jargon. People will
probably only remember 3 points at most.
9. From my experience, people don't want to be told that different
methods produce different results, that the evidence is inconclusive -
ie all the richness that researchers care about. Hopefully you can bring
this out in the Q&A.
10. The actual presentation is only part of it. Put your slides on
slideshare so afterwards people can get them and comment on them. Ask
them for questions in advance. Connect with them on LinkedIn afterwards.
I am not an expert! Some of this stuff works for me; I hope it might for
you.
Cheers
Karl
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-----Original Message-----
From: Social-Policy is run by SPA for all social policy specialists
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Cathy Baldwin
Sent: 14 September 2010 23:52
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Experience of presentations to think tanks and policy orgs etc?
Dear list,
Apologies, this is a personal peer support request.
I wondered if anyone on the list has gone from academia into policy
researc= h of any kind and has given presentations based on academic
research to thi= nk tanks, government departments, NGOs or similar and
had any useful insigh= ts? I am finishing a PhD (Social Anthropology) on
UK ethnic relations and m= edia consumption at the University of Oxford
and am about to begin presenti= ng research findings in this territory.
I'd be really grateful if anyone was willing to share their experiences.
Thanks very much.
All the best,
Cathy Baldwin
Cathy Baldwin, [log in to unmask]
http://www.meccsa.org.uk/pgn/pages/excom/cathybaldwin.html
Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford
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