Some General Tips for Presenting, Chairing, and Discussing at AAA/CAE

Presenting in the typical 15-20 minute slot

• Unless you are scheduled in an alternative format, or have absentees on your panel, you will most likely have 15 minutes for your presentation. This time goes by quickly, so be sure you aren’t trying to cover too much information.
• Be sure to focus the majority of your time on YOUR data/analysis/findings/key arguments. A common pitfall is to spend most of your 15 minutes talking about your literature review or the context of your research. These things are important, but don’t get carried away so that you run out of time to substantially engage your data.
• We are anthropologists and ethnographers, so we love rich data! Share a particularly meaningful vignette or other data piece to exemplify or highlight your point(s). These are often the most memorable takeaways.
• Yes, we love data, but you also need to help us figure out what sense we should make of your data. In other words, don’t just provide a “data dump,” either.

For a helpful further elaboration of most of these points, see this excellent blog about giving conference presentations.

Serving as chair

The role of chair is often overlooked, but it is important for tone-setting, introductions, and timekeeping.  A good chair is visible and vocal when necessary, and virtually invisible when yielding the floor to the participants.

As Chair, you should arrive early, and aid in clearing the room of previous participants.  After checking in with the presenters, and seeing to any audio-visual arrangements (attaching a laptop and downloading any remaining files), the Chair calls the session to order at the precise starting time, ann