Sigh.
I have so many pet peeves when it comes to seminars. While some might call me a tad neurotic (true) or a little demanding (um...also true), I like to think of my presentation standards as...um....well, standards that I would hope everyone would stick to.
At any rate, here are a few of the things that seminar speakers do that really irk me:
Gross misuse of laser pointers. Please do not play the musical bouncy ball game with the laser pointer and your bullet points. You know, when you bounce the laser spot over each word or draw a laser line underneath each as you talk.
Really tiny figures. The point is to show your freakin data. What is the point if it is so teeny-tiny that I cannot make out the axes labels, or worse, make out the actual data points?
Really going over time limits. Yes, I can always take the next bus. And yes, you won The Most Important Prize Ever for the Most Insignificant, Specialized Science Area ever. But seriously. You are now at minute 75 of your alloted 50 minute seminar slot. There is a reason that no one is asking questions; we've all been worn down by the previous 85 slides.
One-size-fits-all presentations. I hate hate hate it when some famous or pseudo-famous or not-even-close to famous guy (yes, sorry, but I've never gone to a LargeU seminar by a female that fell into this catagory....although I'm sure there are women out there that do this) gives a 50 minute seminar from a 100-slide powerpoint...you know, where they go through 20 slides, skip over 8, stare at one and then move on to the next 10...UGH! It's not that much effort to delete 40 slides and resave, people!
What are some of YOUR pet peeves when it comes to seminars? (maybe I'll come to realize that my "perfect" (HA) seminar techniques are actually bothering some people....
