Event

The art of conference: workshop on presentation techniques

The conference is now not only an academic instrument; it is a form of cultural production, and a leisure product consumed by all types of public.

As a complement to the session of I+C+i of 28th April dedicated to the new formats of conference, this workshop will explore the techniques and strategies of the art of the presentation today.

Over the three hours, the workshop will cover aspects such as:

- Basic rules of a presentation such as format: general recommendations, approaches and methods.
- Commented analysis of strategies of "performative" presentation from recordings of conferences
- Techniques of effective use of software for presentations

To finish with, the participants who wish may participate in a cycle of presentations in "Pecha Kucha" format (presentations of twenty slides in six and a half minutes).

The conference, one of the most traditional vehicles for thought, has become over recent years one of the most relevant and contemporary vehicles. We are in a "golden age" of the conference as a format: never before have so many people spoken in front of an audience, nor have so many sat down to listen to others expressing their ideas. Symposiums, festivals, workshops and professional meetings of all kinds have multiplied all over the world in unprecedented numbers.

At the same time, the appearance of the video on Internet has transformed the conference into the object of popular culture; they are downloaded, linked up, commented on...the reach of a talk is now not only limited to the public that is present in the room. Some presentations, such as the "Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch, or those that inspired the film An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore, managed to reach levels of impact similar to those of essays and books.

The language of conferences is also developing and becoming more sophisticated - conferences are becoming a scenic art. Speakers who read a text sitting behind a table are being displaced by innovative uses of audiovisual material and software for presentations, by captivating scripts, and an almost theatrical approach. Ideas are now not the only important thing; it is how they are expressed.

The conference is now not only an academic instrument; it is a form of cultural production, and a leisure product consumed by all types of public.