“You have degraded what should have been a course of lectures into a series of tales.”

Sherlock Holmes

I attended 3 seminars this semester, focusing on various topics that interested me or that I had never studied previously. Throughout the 3 seminars, I noted just how different the styles of presenting were, from using a prepared presentation, to walking around the room without one. While it was a small sample size, I know from experience that my methodology for presenting can change and be impacted by how confident or knowledgeable I am in the topic I am discussing. While not singling out any of the 3 presenters whose seminars I have previously written about, I did want to focus on how each method impacted me and my enjoyment of the topics.

Walking around the room, or even the presentation being projected, cannot be done by everyone but I noticed I did prefer it when presenters did. I know I have previously just stood still, or maybe moved my hands a bit, pointing to the slides to show the room the important bits on them, so I will have to try and move a bit more in future. Secondly, I did note that two of the presenters utilized notes when presenting, which I use even if just to keep track of my points separate from the slideshow. But again, looking back at all three, I still remember enjoying the one seminar that didn’t use many, if any, notes and just talked mostly off the cuff and from memory. While memorising a talk or seminar would seem far too difficult for me to do completely, I think I should try and just have bullet points or headers in my notes rather than the full points I am discussing.

The presentations also differed in style to the degree that it was clear which seminar was based on a chapter of a book, given the way it was presented, and which were prepared specifically to be read and performed aloud. Overall, I enjoyed my time listening to the seminars and taking notes of things I found interesting or that I wanted to look further into. As I was unable to attend all of them this semester, I hope to experience more in the future to further inform my own style of presenting my work.