1. Don’t rehearse
2. Have at least 100 slides
3. Don’t use Powerpoint’s ‘hide’ function: just rapidly flick through the slides that you don’t have time for - this creates a sensation that you could give them far far more exciting stuff if only you had more than an hour
4. Spend the first 30 minutes on your introduction - people are always more interested in introductions than in novel content
5. Even if you’ve been told your audience has little background in the area, there is likely to be one or two renowned experts in the room. Focus on the experts. Be sure to impress them with your intricate understanding of the minutiae of the field. Don’t bore them by explaining the basics.
6. Be sure to check politely with the chair ‘How much longer do I have?’ as the 60 minute moment passes
7. Explain to the chair that you need, ‘Just five more minutes’ as the 65 minute moment passes. Your audience will be disappointed it’s only five minutes, but will be pleasantly surprised when you take longer.
8. Introduce the final set of killer experiments as the 66 minute moment passes: the audience will be delighted that you’ve saved the best material to the last
9. Have a slide saying Conclusions which isn’t the last slide. It creates exciting tension if they think you’ve finished only to find there is much, much more.
10. Spend at least 5 minutes on the Acknowledgements slide. Your audience is deeply interested in the many people whom your work depends on, and you should give their name, photograph, country of origin, role in the research, together with a quirky story illustrating their personality.
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