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Message: <blockquote data-quote="airwalkrr" data-source="post: 7650318" data-attributes="member: 12460">Talk about what you know and don't deviate into what you don't know. This is a cardinal rule of my profession (scientific research). When you are presenting research you are often facing an audience of experts who are all, in their own field, far more knowledgeable about some aspect of the subject matter than you are. Acknowledge that and acknowledge when you legitimately do not know the answer to a question. But do talk about what you do know and what you have experienced. The most common mistake for a presenter to make is to start talking about something they have limited knowledge about. Sometimes you don't have enough to talk for very long, so don't. You might be presenting 12 slides and someone else might have 45. You might not need to go into as much detail as the other person. All you need to do is say what needs to be said. Short and sweet presentations are often the best because they drive the point home quickly and simply and don't deviate into other fields which, while they may be relevant to the research, you don't have experience with. The beginning of knowledge is admitting that you do not know the answer to a question.Edit: You know on a gaming-related note, I learned this lesson about talking about what you don't understand first from gaming. I was young and running a tournament adventure in a convention for a group of people I did not know that was set in a gaming world I did not know much about. It was Living City, which I had never played. I knew a bit about the Forgotten Realms at the time and I had had a few hours to read the adventure beforehand, but it was a high-level adventure with lots of complex political stuff woven in which had been developed over years. I kept making the mistake of referring to the Seldarine as a group of elders when a player pointed out to me it was actually the elven gods. What I should have done is tell the truth and say, "You're probably right. I was handed this just a few hours ago, don't know much about the setting and I am doing the best I can. Thanks for the correction." But instead, I stammered on about how the adventure wasn't written clearly or something to that effect. I tried to pretend like I knew what was going on in the adventure but in truth I was a judging a table as a favor to the head GM which had been thrown together at the last minute and I was out of my element. I should have stuck to what I did know, skimming over the political stuff and running some kick-ass battles (I did have a solid mastery of the rules of the game). If I had done that, I would have performed better. But whenever I am tempted to stray into territories unknown while speaking in public, I always think back to that because quite frankly it was incredibly embarrassing for me at the time.</blockquote>

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