1. Enhancing Your ACMG Annual Meeting Presentation: Tips for Invited Speaker and Oral Platform Presenters
Star Gaddis
Education & Meeting Manager
American College of Medical Genetics & Genomics
This presentation focuses tips to enhance your ACMG Annual Meeting presentations. The PowerPoint will start with an introduction of some basic information on preparing your presentation, effective techniques to enhancing your PowerPoint slideshow and will provide you with some tips on content delivery.

2. Affiliation / Financial Interest Organization Employee ACMG
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT Speaker: Star Gaddis, Education & Meetings Manager
Ms. Star Gaddis has disclosed the following financial relationship. Any real or apparent conflicts of interest related to the content of this presentation have been resolved.
ACMG will insert a slide on all presentations that indicate either a) the presenter has disclosure and what the relationship(s) are or b) there are no relevant financial relationships. Speakers with financial relationships are REQUIRED to state these to the audience at the start of the presentation. For all reviewed presentations, a second slide will be required indicating that peer review of the presentation occurred.
Affiliation / Financial Interest
Organization
Employee
ACMG

3. Star Gaddis Has documented that she has no financial relationships to disclose or Conflicts of Interest (COIs) to resolve.
As a reminder, speakers with no relevant financial relationships to disclose or conflict of interest to resolve are still required to state they have nothing to disclose to the audience at the start of their presentation.
Slides 2-3 are examples of proper use of ACMG’s disclosure policy. For detailed information on ACMG’s CME Policy, please visit

4. What will this PowerPoint Cover?
Presentation Preparation
Creating Effective Visual Aids
Presentation Delivery
Speakers are responsible for developing their own presentations. Attendee feedback consistently indicates that speaker slides are difficult to read so, we’ve created the following PowerPoint Presentation as an additional resource to help speakers create and deliver effective presentations for the Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting.

5. A Gentle Reminder
Tell me… I’ll forget Show me…I’ll remember Involve me…I’ll understand - Chinese Proverb
Before we get started with our presentation, please enjoy the Chinese Proverb as it reflect learning at it’s best.

6. Designed to ENHANCE your presentation-- Not BE the presentation!
PowerPoint Slides
Designed to ENHANCE your presentation-- Not BE the presentation!

7. Preparation Who is your audience? What is their background?
What do they expect?
This information is critical to a good presentation. Be sure to consider this as you develop your outline and talking points?
Are they familiar with your topic?
Are they familiar with your field of expertise ? What is the level of expertise of the audience?
What do you want them to walk away with? What are your main points?

8. Creating Effective Talking Points
Highlight key points
Be short and to the point
Avoid theories with no examples
Avoid personal stories with no relevance
Slides should highlight key points or reinforce what you are saying. Be short and to the point, slides should include only key words and phases for visual reinforcement. The last two points in the current slide can be summed up in two words—avoid rambling.
I think we’ve all been to presentations where we’ve thought to ourselves—what’s the point of this?

9. Creating Effective Visual Aids
Headings, subheadings & logos
Margins, font size & colors
Lines, boxes, borders & white space
Be consistent!
Each Slide should be designed to be concise, uncluttered and readable from a distance. Participants should be able to comprehend the visual in twenty (20) seconds or less. It is a good practice to convey only one message or idea per slide. Observe the rule of 6x6 – no more than six (6) lines, with each line containing no more than six (6) words.
Layout continuity from frame to frame conveys a sense of completeness. Headings, subheadings, and logos should show up in the same spot on each frame. Margins, fonts, font size, and colors should be consistent with graphics located in the same general position on each frame. Lines, boxes, borders, and open space also should be consistent throughout.
White space is good; a crowded slide is hard to read. In order for your presentation to fit on most screens, text and images should be placed within 95% of the PowerPoint slide. This “action safe” area is seen in the next slide.

10. Proper Use of Fonts Title: Veranda 40 point Subtitle: Veranda 32 point
Content text: Veranda 24 point
This font size is not recommended for content: Arial 12 point.
Let’s take a minute to talk about fonts.
The bigger the better; you want your audience to be able to read your slides, even at the back of the room. Sessions will be held in a large room, and slides must be clearly readable from the last row of seating, which might be as far as feet from the speaker podium.
Use a font and font size that is appropriate and clear – Keep the following guidelines in mind in terms of font
Verdana 40 point is a good Title size
Verdana 32 point is a good subtitle or bullet point size
Content text should be no smaller than Verdana 24 point (any smaller point size is unreadable from beyond 8 – 10 feet – which will be only the front row in most meeting rooms.)
Do not mix fonts unless it is for a good reason, e.g. presenting quotes. And do not use capitals except for occasional emphasis- they are harder to read than lower-case letters.

11. Background & Font Colors
Use color to add interest
Don’t overwhelm
Dark letters on light background
Light letters on dark background
Use the Same Background on Each Slide. Avoid White Backgrounds – the white screen can be blinding in a dark room. Dark Slides with Light Colored Text (not white) work best. Don’t use multiple backgrounds in your presentation – changing the style is distracting . Dark colors on a white background should not be used if audience is more than 20 ft away.
Keep the following guidelines in mind in terms of font colors:
Use color and fonts for interest and variety, but do not use too many of each as the slides become more confusing. Ideally, lettering should be light colored on a dark color background.
NOTE: Avoid using red and green combinations for emphasis – the most common form of color blindness prevents separation of reds and greens.
This slide is a good example. You can read the slide up close. The further away you get, the harder it is to read. This is a good color combination if viewed on a computer.

12. Pop Quiz Don’t Sacrifice Readability for Style
Too many colors
Too many fonts
Too small
All caps
Fancy fonts
Too close
Not consistent

13. This slide is a great illustration. Note the font types and size
This slide is a great illustration. Note the font types and size. You can see the space layout –Between 85 – 90% for titles
Use no more than 95% of the space on a slide

14. Make sure the audience can read them!
Graphs and Charts
Make sure the audience can read them!
Remember—you want the audience to be able to read them. Graphs and charts should be kept simple with large lettering and clearly marked axes, etc. Let’s move on to graphs and charts in more detail.

15. Bad Chart? Hmmm… YES
Avoid using graphics that are difficult to read. In medical genetics and genomics, this will not be an easy task. In this example, the dark colors on a white background and the small font make the graph hard to read. It would be very difficult to see, especially in the back of a room. Therefore, if you have a complicated chart, it's a good idea to add statistics directly onto the chart, and, provide the details of the graph orally.

16. Good Chart Example
For figures created in charting programs and then exported to PowerPoint, be sure that the output fonts and line widths are legible once the image is scaled within PowerPoint.
This chart used the appropriate color and font sizes direct audience’s attention to particular parts of charts, especially for complicated figures.

17. Presentation Delivery
Know your subject
Be prepared
Practice
Smile
Breathe
It’s now time for you to get your slides ready! I’d like to offer a few tips for a good delivery:
Know your subject
Be prepared – I don’t recommend developing your presentation on the plane or the night before the presentation!
Practice – know your presentation length – a good rule of thumb is one minute per slide
Remember to smile—if you look like you’re having fun, your audience will have fun
Lastly, don’t forget to breathe!
Follow all these tips and you’ll get a gold star!

18. Questions?
For more visit the speaker resources at or your questions to
For a copy of ACMG’s guidelines developed specifically for invited speakers and oral platform presenters regarding presentation preparation and on-site procedures visit or your question to
Thank You!