Amgen Scholars, Karolinska, June–August 2023

Hi guys & thanks for a great day at Björkö and Birka!

Time has come to plan and prepare your (1) poster, and (2) presentation. Below, you will find some advice, as well as my Google slides from the seminar in June. Feel free to email me for questions, reflections, or feedback.

O.

PS Some of you will have lots of data, and some will have less. This is nothing out of the ordinary, as one has to be really lucky to be completely successful with the experimental part during a short summer research school. So do the best with what you have and focus to turn the communication part into a meaningful learning experience–be ambitious, be proud, be awesome!

olle@bergman.com
se.linkedin.com/in/ollebergman/en
instagram.com/generalblom

 

A. The presentation 20 June

B. Preparing your poster

Mindset
Remember: if the event is a pond full of fish (i.e. valuable professional contacts), then the poster is your fishing rod! Make it interesting, make it a platform for encounters, interaction, and discussion.

Workflow
I suggest an iterative process, starting with a crude sketch which is improved during a series of feedback cycles. Take help from your group, friends, colleagues, supervisors, and teachers!

Starting point
The simplest way is to use the KI template and work in PowerPoint. You could also find another template on the internet, start from scratch, and/or use InDesign or some other layout program. Either way, make sure you stick to a grid!

The CARP principle
Remember the CARP principle—contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity? Here’s a video and a pdf chapter.

The title
You could either write a title that describes what your project is about or a title that describes the outcome. You can even ask a bold question!

  • Exploring XY-888, a quiggoline-type inhibitor targeting quinone reductases and quinol oxidases
    Describes the scientist’s ambition.
  • XY-888 inhibits both quinone reductases and quinol oxidases
    A statement, built on the active verb “inhibit”, which describes the results of the study.
  • XY-888 – a regulator of the activity of the entire respiratory chain?
    A bold research question! (Proceed with caution, as the seniors stopping in front of your poster may feel challenged; are you ready to face some opposition?)

The figures
Make sure that the text in your figures is easy to read from a distance. Remember to Remove to Improve.

Inspiration
This page looks a bit messy but actually points to some really good guides and websites: The Poster Design Hub

 

C. Preparing your presentation

Mindset
Focus on your main messages, and don’t let them drown in a sea of details!

Workflow
I recommend manual planning before you start designing your slides. As you may remember, Post-It notes can be very useful during this planning stage.

Starting point
Three main messages, your best visuals, your abstract (if you have one).

Links

 

Summer Research School for high school students, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, 22 June 2023

Thanks for a great afternoon at Karolinska! Good luck with your projects, and feel free to get in touch with your questions, ideas, and reflections!

O.

PS Please remember what I said about the Amgen Scholars Program:

  • It puts you at the center of a great network of like-minded people from all over Europe.
  • We need more representation from Scandinavia.
  • It’s only open to undergraduate students who have not completed their bachelor’s or first degree; don’t let the window of opportunity close when you enter university!

If it sounds interesting, I would be happy to put you in touch with an alumnus!

olle@bergman.com

Social media

se.linkedin.com/in/ollebergman/en
instagram.com/generalblom

Our seminar

A PPt for scientific presentations

This template is based on a chapter in the first edition of Matt Carter’s Designing Science Presentations. Matt is an assistant professor of biology at Williams College, Massachusetts, and an amiable person!

Presentation techniques

Information design

Rhetoric

 

 

Karolinska 14 June 2023

Hi guys & thanks for a great afternoon at Karolinska! Below, you will find some additional material, my Google slides as well as some links which may be useful.

I wish you a nice summer and good luck with your summer projects: may your experimental systems be reliable and may your biomolecules be obedient!

Feel free to email me for questions, reflections, or feedback on your PPt slides or poster design.

O.

olle@bergman.com

 

 

Additional slides

As the heat in the lecture hall was a real challenge I have done a mini-presentation with some things I wanted to add.

Addition

The lecture slides

2023-06-14 Karolinska Studenter

The mentimeter replies

Mentimeter results

 

Social media

se.linkedin.com/in/ollebergman/en
instagram.com/generalblom

A PPt for scientific presentations

This template is based on a chapter in the first edition of Matt Carter’s Designing Science Presentations. Matt is an assistant professor of biology at Williams College, Massachusetts, and a very friendly person!

Presentation techniques

Poster design

A resource page with some selected guides and websites.

Information design

 

DTU Biosustain 5 December 2022, Poster Improvement Workshop

Hi everyone,

Thanks for a great afternoon and evening at Gråbrødretorv where we had some really interesting discussions on how to balance the perspectives of the scientist and the communicator. I am looking forward to seeing what improvements you will come up with!

Part III of the workshop

6–12 December: the virtual feedback room at GoVisually will be open. Submit posters by adding them to Dropbox; you can add as many versions as you want.

  • Start by adding the poster in its original format. Give it the name “YOUR_NAME_ORIGINAL”
    (Not for those who design their first poster this week, of course.)
  • Any version you add should be named “YOUR_NAME_VERSION_##”

12 December, 10:00: deadline for improved versions.
12 December, afternoon: the winners will be announced.

If you have any questions or reflections, please email me: olle@bergman.com.

Working with your poster

Check list

  • Will it be useful as a networking tool?
  • Does it have a clear main story?
  • Are the conclusions or the project aims clear?
  • Is every component there to support these main messages?
  • Does it look interesting to the poster exhibition participant?

Below are some links that can be useful when you design and improve your poster.

Information design

Some tools and models

Five principles for any communication activity

1. Define your task. Always know WHY you are initiating a communication activity, and what the GOAL is. How will you change the world?
2. Analyze your target group. Be like the elephant: listen more than you talk.
3. Know yourself. Follow your passions, improve your strengths, work on your limitations. Let your experience and your personality guide you as a communicator, and believe in your own values, voice, and style.
4. Understand the limitations at hand. Start any communication activity by drawing up the limits of time, budget, man-hours etc – then start creating.
5. Seek inspiration in all types of communication. Remember The Grand Unified Theory of Communication and Influence!

The Aristotelian triad

Keep in mind that communication not only conveys information (logos) but also trust/attitudes/values (ethos), and emotions (pathos).

  • Ethos = trust, credibility, personal trademark
  • Pathos = emotions – positive or negative
  • Logos = facts and logic

Here’s a great blog article!

The inverted pyramid

In short: frontload your texts and announcements, starting with what really matters for your audience.

The Wikipedia article is very enlightening. Have a look at the Five Ws when you’re at it!

 

Homepage

 

SciLifeLab Facility Forum, Djurönäset, 17 October 2022

Djurönäset’s bus stop for southgoing traffic. 

Thanks for a great late afternoon session! Here are some advice, built on the feedback:

  1. Always set up a goal for your communication activities.
    Then use that goal as an aiming point when you’re planning, preparing and performing the activity. (Setting up goals is also a great way to start a work meeting!)
  2.  Keep in mind that communication not only conveys information, but attitudes, values, emotions etc.
    The Aristotelian triad helps you navigate this complex universe – both as you analyze what’s coming at you, and as you try to plan and execute your own communication.
  3. If you prepare an elevator pitch, remember that it can be used in a number of ways.
    This 100-word summary works excellent as a LinkedIn Summary and can also be used as a bio. Remember to edit the content and the tone of voice to every different context.

Below, you will find my Google slides as well as some links which my participants usually find useful. Feel free to email me for questions, reflections, or feedback on your PPt slides or poster design.

Olle B.

olle@bergman.com

Such a lovely autumn we’ve had in Mälarregionen! View from Hällbybrunn, northwest of Eskilstuna.

Social media

se.linkedin.com/in/ollebergman/en
instagram.com/generalblom

Our workshop

A PPt for scientific presentations

This template is based on a chapter in the first edition of Matt Carter’s Designing Science Presentations. Matt is an assistant professor of biology at Williams College, Massachusetts, and a very friendly person!

Presentation techniques

Poster design

  • Better Posters
    By McMaster University professor Zen Faulkes; by far the best resource on poster design on the web.
  • The Poster Design Hub
    A (somewhat messy) resource page with some selected guides and websites.

Information design

 

Homepage

 

Summer Research School, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, 22 June 2022

Tack för en trevlig eftermiddag på Karolinska! Lycka till med era projekt, och hör gärna av er med frågor och undringar.

O.

olle@bergman.com

Social media

se.linkedin.com/in/ollebergman/en
instagram.com/generalblom

Our seminar

A PPt for scientific presentations

This template is based on a chapter in the first edition of Matt Carter’s Designing Science Presentations. Matt is an assistant professor of biology at Williams College, Massachusetts, and a very friendly person!

Presentation techniques

Information design

 

Amgen Scholars, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, 21 June 2022

Hi guys! I hope you’re all well, that you had a great midsommar, and that you look forward to starting your lab work. There is a chance that I’ll show up for the Wasa Museum visit or the Birka trip—otherwise, we will meet for the poster workshop in August.

Below, you will find my Google slides as well as some links which may be useful. I wish you a nice summer and good luck with your summer projects: may your experimental systems be reliable and may your biomolecules be obedient!

Feel free to email me for questions, reflections, or feedback on your PPt slides or poster design.

O.

olle@bergman.com

Social media

se.linkedin.com/in/ollebergman/en
instagram.com/generalblom

Our seminar

A PPt for scientific presentations

This template is based on a chapter in the first edition of Matt Carter’s Designing Science Presentations. Matt is an assistant professor of biology at Williams College, Massachusetts, and a very friendly person!

Presentation techniques

Poster design

A resource page with some selected guides and websites.

Information design

 

Summer Research School, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, 15 June 2022

Hi guys & thanks for a great afternoon at Karolinska!

Below, you will find my Google slides as well as some links which may be useful. I wish you a nice summer and good luck with your summer projects: may your experimental systems be reliable and may your biomolecules be obedient!

Feel free to email me for questions, reflections, or feedback on your PPt slides or poster design.

O.

olle@bergman.com

Social media

se.linkedin.com/in/ollebergman/en
instagram.com/generalblom

Our seminar

A PPt for scientific presentations

This template is based on a chapter in the first edition of Matt Carter’s Designing Science Presentations. Matt is an assistant professor of biology at Williams College, Massachusetts, and a very friendly person!

Presentation techniques

Poster design

A resource page with some selected guides and websites.

Information design

 

QDETAILSS Poster Workshop Lund 11 + 14 November 2019

Hi everybody!

It was great meeting you yesterday, discussing communication and poster design. Here are some guidelines and links to help you with your work. Most important are these two:

  1. The Poster Design Hub
    A resource page for scientific posters
  2. The QDETAILSS 19 discussion group
    A LinkedIn group for feedback and discussion. Make sure you ask for an invitation. (I strongly recommend you to get a LinkedIn profile – it is becoming more and more useful for science people, especially in their contact with industry, healthcare, and national agencies. 

Looking forward to seeing your posters – be bold, and be interesting!

Feel free to email me or call me!

O.

PS I will add more stuff to this page.

+46 70 888 55 41
olle@bergman.com
se.linkedin.com/in/ollebergman/en
@OlleBergmanSE

••••

My slides

2019-11-11_lund

Designing a poster – a work process

Intellectual preparation phase

  1. Decide on 2–4 main conclusions for your project.
  2. Pick out the visuals you need to support your conclusions.
  3. Write a working title (just a starting point for your planning – you will polish it later).

Basic Design Phase

  1. Use printouts, pen & paper, whiteboard and/or Post-it notes for sketching a layout.
  2. Decide on a logical order.
  3. Write single sentences for the different components (you will fill in more text later in the process).
  4. Start the layout work in PowerPoint or InDesign. Think about CRAP, stick to the grid and don’t make the text columns too wide. Think BIG! Here’s a tool (there’s plenty of them!) for creating a color palette: https://www.canva.com/color-palette/
  5. When you have a basic layout, add more text.

Refinement Phase

  1. Work on the title – I suggest writing three to five different alternatives and let your fellow students give feedback.
  2. Look at every single element (graph, diagram, header, paragraph, sentence, line, frame, logo …) and ask yourself ”Does it add value for the reader or is it just noise?”.
  3. Shorten the texts. Cherish the white space!
  4. Polish the visuals, thinking about the data/ink ratio.

Optional

  • Prepare your verbal explanation.
  • Make three different posters: one conservative, one balanced and one radical.

••••

Links

The Poster Design Hub
A resource page for scientific posters

Basic graphic design: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity
A chapter from a book by Garr Reynolds.

Remove to improve
Some notes from the makers of the video we saw.

PhD4GlycoDrug, Lund University, 22–25 October 2019

Hi guys! What an amazing week we had. It was wonderful to see your boldness and creativity when you approached your communication tasks, while still being very structured and clear.

Below, you will find my PPt slides as well as some links which may be useful. I wish you a great autumn and good luck with your research projects: may your experimental systems be reliable and may your biomolecules be obedient!

Feel free to email me for questions, reflections or feedback on your PPt slides or poster design.

O.

olle@bergman.com

Social media

se.linkedin.com/in/ollebergman/en
instagram.com/generalblom

My slides

2019-10-21_lund

2019-10-24_lund

A PPt for scientific presentations

This template is based on chapter 16 in Matt Carter’s Designing Science Presentations. Matt is an assistant professor of biology at Williams College, Massachusetts, and a very friendly person!

Presentation techniques

A resource page with some selected guides and websites (work in progress).

Poster design

A resource page with some selected guides and websites.

Information design

Rhetoric

Regarding rhetoric, my recommendation is a English language professor giving a hybrid between audiobook, recorded lecture and podcast. If you register at audible.com, you can download it for free (The Modern Scholar series contains a lot of fun!).

There’s a very negative review on Amazon where the writer has totally missed the point (”Mr. Drout dedicates two whole chapters of this slick audiobook to logic and logical fallacies, and somehow he never mentions that premises must be supported by verifiable evidence; ” etc) . Rhetoric is only partly about what’s actually true (based on data and observation) – it’s about what you can make your opponent/fellow human believe. Trump is a lying narcissist, producing false statements about the world – still he can use his communication to change the world. It’s like a knife: a tool of creation or destruction, depending on how you use it.

 

In the deep forests of Södermanland. (Instagram: generalblom)