Oral Presentation Guidelines

• When preparing your presentation, use standard fonts (e.g., Arial, Times New Roman, Helvetica, etc.). If you are using a nonstandard font, it should be embedded into your PowerPoint presentation.
• Prepare presentations in 16:9 aspect ratio format for wide screen viewing. 16:9 should be the default for PowerPoint on PCs and in Keynote if using a Mac. Presentations created in 4:3 aspect ratio will not fill screen and will have black bars on both sides of the screen when the slide is projected.
• Review each slide for accuracy and errors, and make sure the font and colors can be seen by others. Test the presentation on another computer to make sure that the fonts, graphics and movies are still included in your file.
• Save your presentation to your computer and onto a Windows readable USB flash drive.
• Make a backup presentation to bring with you to the conference in the event of lost luggage, theft and computer incompatibility.
• Practice your presentation to ensure you stay within your allotted time frame.
• Prepare for any questions that may come from the audience

• Session rooms will be equipped with a data projector, screen, PC computer and a wireless lavaliere microphone, head table microphone and aisle microphone, depending on room size. Session rooms will not have internet access.
• Presenters do not have to bring their own computer. There will be a PC laptop in the session room with the most current operating system installed. The operating system in the session room PCs will be Windows 10, and software will include: Microsoft Office 2019, Adobe Acrobat Reader X, QuickTime, Windows Media Player, Flash Player, VLC Player.
• Bring your presentation on a readable USB flash drive to the AV tech in the room. Include any external files, e.g., movie and sound files (.wav, .avi, .mpg, etc.) in the same folder as your presentation. Copy the entire folder to the USB flash drive. Name the folder with your last name.
• Mac presentations created in Keynote will not be supported. Presenters using Mac computers must bring their own laptop that will be tied into the switcher to run their presentations.
• If you plan to use your own laptop, it must have either a mini-display port or HDMI output to connect to the provided cabling that will run to the data projector. Some laptops have a special interface cable that attaches to the output of their laptop to hook to external switchers, monitors and data projectors. If your laptop requires a different type of adaptor other than the mini-display port or HDMI provided to connect to the male DVI-D cabling that runs to the projector, you will be required to bring your own. Adaptors will not be provided. Please make sure your adaptor connects to DVI and not VGA—cabling in conference rooms isdigital, not analog.
• Know how to get the image to the external port of the laptop. Instructions are in each laptop operator's manual. If the external port is not always "on," it is usually a function key, or combination of shift plus a function key, that may turn on the external port, or possible cycle through laptop screen, external port, or both.
• Set the output resolution to WXGA (1920x1080).

• Business casual is appropriate attire for giving a presentation. Being comfortable during your talk is very important.
• Arrive at your session room at least 30 minutes prior to your session. This will give the AV technician time to load your presentation onto the computer. If you are using your own laptop, this is the time to test the connections.
• Familiarize yourself with the space so you will know where you to stand during the presentation, if there enough space to walk around, where the screens are located and where the AV technician is stationed.
• Introduce yourself to the session chairs and other speakers.
• Sit near the front of the room so you are close to the stage when it is your turn to speak

Please contact the APS Office of Scientific Meetings with any questions.