Oral presentations are allocated a total of 15 minutes. The only exceptions are certain invited symposium presentations. Oral presentations should be 10-12 minutes in length, followed by a 3-5 minute question and answer period (15 minutes total).

Please keep your eye on the session moderator during your presentation. The moderator will indicate when you have 3 minutes remaining and will stand when you have 1 minute remaining. The moderator will end your presentation at 15 minutes, whether you have finished or not, in order to keep the session on schedule and in consideration of subsequent speakers. You are encouraged to practice your presentation beforehand, making sure it does not go beyond the time allotted.

All presentations have been grouped according to topic. Presenters should check-in with the session moderator 15-30 minutes prior to the start of your session. This is also a good time to confirm the correct pronunciation of your and your coauthors' names, and mention any special concerns you may have.

The complete schedule for concurrent sessions will be posted to the meeting Web site in April 2003. Please notify the organizing committee immediately if you will be unable to give your presentation so that the scientific program can be adjusted. Because late cancellation excludes others who might have presented, authors who fail to notify the local organizing committee of their withdrawal by 30 May 2003 will be excluded from giving an oral presentation at the next annual meeting. Presenting authors must submit their registration materials prior to 28 March 2003 or their presentation will be dropped from the scientific program.

Audiovisual Equipment

All session rooms will be equipped with a slide projector, an overhead projector, a LCD projector, and a PC laptop computer loaded with Microsoft PowerPoint software. If you need to make special arrangements for other types of audio or video presentations, please e-mail Kris Lund at 2003@conservationbiology.org for assistance.

Presenters are encouraged to have prepared all slides prior to their arrival at the meeting and to provide their own standard carousel tray. Slide carousels should fit "industry standard" KODAK Ektagraphic slide projectors and hold 80 slides. Please use the locking ring on your slide carousel to avert potential disaster. Label your slide tray ahead of time with your last name, date, and time of your presentation. Please present your slides to the projectionist in your session room 15-30 minutes prior to the start of your session.

There will be a slide preview room available at the meeting facility. Access to the slide preview room will be on a first-come, first-served basis. There will be a limited number of slide carousels which can be signed out no more than 12 hours in advance of your talk and returned immediately following your talk.

Presenters should bring all necessary overhead transparencies with them to the meeting. Label each transparency with your last name to avoid misplaced overheads. Blank overhead transparencies will not be available at the meeting facility.

In order to minimize technical problems associated with PowerPoint presentations, we are requesting that authors submit a copy of their PowerPoint presentation via e-mail or regular mail so that they can be checked for viruses and system compatibility. The PowerPoint files will be pre-loaded onto the PC laptop computers prior to the start of the meeting. It will NOT be possible to hook up your own laptop computer during the session. Please note carefully the following instructions for preparing and sending your PowerPoint file.

1. Presenters are encouraged to limit the size of their PowerPoint file to less than 4.0 MB. This should be large enough to accommodate a substantial PowerPoint presentation, provided that you use appropriate resolution and file types for graphic images. MacIntosh and ArcView GIS users are reminded to embed all fonts into their presentation file. Files that exceed 4.0 MB may experience slow response or other technical problems during your presentation. You may wish to send a zipped file of your presentation, but remember that the size limit applies to the unzipped PowerPoint file.

2. If possible, submit your PowerPoint file via e-mail to 2003@conservationbiology.org with the subject line "2003 SCB PowerPoint File." Your file should be called [your_lastname.ppt].

3. If you cannot send the file as an e-mail attachment, please send it on a CD or zip disk (100 MB and formatted for a PC) to the address listed below.

2003 SCB Annual Meeting
University of Minnesota Duluth
Continuing Education
251 Darland
1049 University Drive
Duluth, MN 55812-3011 USA

4. All files must be received by 16 June 2003 so that they may be pre-loaded to avoid incompatibilities or other technical problems. While this deadline may be difficult for some presenters to meet, it will allow the meeting organizers just two weeks to download, test, and pre-load the files onto the laptop computers.

5. If you are unable to send your presentation ahead of time, you must bring the PowerPoint file with you to the meeting on a CD (not a zip disk) and submit it to your session moderator or projectionist at least 30 minutes prior to the start of your scheduled session so that it can be loaded onto the laptop computer. No other file should be present on the CD, and we strongly suggest that you bring an extra copy of your presentation on a second CD. Authors bringing presentations on a CD are responsible for ensuring that their CD is readable by a computer other than the one used to create the CD.

Note: No technology can be guaranteed to be problem-free. Presenters are strongly encouraged to bring a backup of their PowerPoint presentation using slides or overhead transparencies in case of technical difficulties.

There will be a PowerPoint preview room available at the meeting facility. Access to the PC laptop computers will be on a first-come, first-served basis and will be monitored by the room attendant.

Tips for Preparing and Making an Oral Presentation

For research papers based on original research, your presentation should include an introduction to the general topic and the reason you did the work, followed by an explanation of the methods, presentation of results, and a clear conclusion of the contribution of the work to conservation biology. Policy and position papers should present adequate background information so that the audience can understand the basis of the issue and should present a coherent argument and evidence for the position.

• Tailor your presentation to the audience

Resource managers, scientists, educators, students, and policymakers attend the conference. This meeting will also be attended by many international participants, including non-native English speakers. Scientific terms specific to your discipline should be explained during your presentation. Please make sure you include the relevance of the research to overall conservation efforts.

• Formulate your key messages

Focus on your message and ensure that you are clear and concise about what you want the audience to remember after your presentation. The more complicated the message, the higher the risk that your message will be forgotten.

• Keep to the time allotted

Practice your presentation beforehand, making sure it does not go beyond the time allotted. Prepare sufficiently for a 10-12 minute presentation. A 12-minute presentation is roughly six typed pages (double-spaced, 12 pt font, 1" margins). The session moderator will end your presentation at 15 minutes, whether you have finished or not, in order to keep the session on schedule. Please avoid causing yourself the embarrassment of having to be stopped in mid-presentation, or missing the opportunity to present your concluding statements.

• Educate the audience by telling a story

A spoken presentation differs from a written scientific paper. Tell an interesting and educational story. Your delivery should be carefully planned, but avoid reading your talk. It will be impossible to include everything you know about the subject, so stick to the key points. Cover the important topics and conclude by repeating your key messages.

• Prepare your audiovisuals appropriately

For a 10-12 minute presentation, use no more than 12 slides or overheads. Your presentation may be scheduled in a smaller room seating 100 or in a larger room seating over 350. Make your audiovisuals legible and use at least a 32 pt font. Before submitting your PowerPoint presentation, please ensure it is correctly formatted. If using slides, take the time to preview your slides ahead of time to ensure they are in the correct order, and facing up and forward. A slide preview room is available for this purpose.

The 6 x 6 rule for audiovisuals will ensure that the audience will be able to read them:
- six lines per slide or overhead and six words per line
- a six column by six row table
- six bars on a chart
- six lines on a graph and one graph per slide or overhead

• You cannot over-prepare

Every hour you invest in organizing what you want to say and perfecting your skill in saying it will reap abundant returns from your audience. Audiences are extremely appreciative of well prepared and carefully presented talks.