Powerpoint??

[intertext]

As you may guess, having been going along blithely thinking "yay - I'm going to San Francisco - this is going to be FUN," I'm now starting to suffer from pre-conference jitters.

Remembering what tree_and_leaf was doing before her recent conference paper, I was suddenly struck (and this, of course, literally at 3:00 am) by the question - is everyone going to be using Powerpoint? It's not a huge problem, if so, because I'll have my trusty LT with me and can throw something together quite easily. Only question is should I arrange some kind of adapter for my trusty Mac laptop, given that hookups to data-projectors tend, in my experience to be the old printer connections (can't remember the technical term) and not USB... or should I worry, given that this IS, after all, a huge conference in a huge hotel and no doubt they can accommodate me, or should I tip off the moderator of my panel, who did ask if I needed any special equipment... ?????

Yikes.

The last academic conference I went to was in 2001, the Virginia Woolf, in Bangor, and there wasn't a ppt in sight. But things have changed a lot since then.

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

Don't do what I did, and take it on a data stick, assuming that a Powerpoint file will port unproblematically from Mac to Windows. All my formatting went wrong, and I lost my special characters (luckily, I checked in the lunch break before hand, so had time to fix it, but it wasn't ideal!)

I'd ask about laptop connectors. They did ask...

ETA: I don't think you absolutely need one, but I find it helpful for quotes, as people can still look at you rather than the handout. I also think it's a good idea to put up the plan of the paper/ section headings - you can put them up as you come to them. It helps people keep up! But anything is better than the sort of ppt pres where people just read the slides (not that you'd do that, but it's disturbingly common).

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Actually, it had not occurred to me to use ppt, but given the option I think it might be a good idea for the reasons you mention. Also, I tend to treat these things more like a short lecture than a "paper" per se - I can't bear listening to someone just read a paper and try not to do that myself - so since I use ppt in my own lectures it makes sense to use it this time, too. Good for organizing, as you say, and to highlight technical terms or quotes.

Handouts. Hadn't thought about that, either.

I guess there's likely to be somewhere I can print things on site??

I'm glad I'm not on the first day. I've got time to suss things out and see what other people are doing.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

There should be a copy shop nearby? Every conference my husband goes to, he ends up needing to find a place to print stuff, and somehow he always manages.

How about going retro and using an easel and sheets of paper, rather than PowerPoint? I'm only semi kidding... I really detest PowerPoint presentations, but that's because my experience of them comes from the business world, where you'll get someone putting up a slide with, say, three bulleted points which he then proceeds to read to you...