Tips for Writing a NISOD Presentation Proposal
 Whether you are a veteran presenter or a first-timer, making the most of your presentation begins with a well thought-out proposal. Below are suggested questions to ask yourself and ideas to help guide you through designing a proposal that will be accepted.
- Focus. Start with the focus of the presentation. What is your area of expertise? What can you share with other professionals in the field to help them? Which NISOD strand best covers the focus of your presentation?
- Barebones. Don’t start with what you want to say—start with the overall goals of what you want the participants to learn. Who is the audience for your session? Faculty (new, adjunct, or experienced)? Staff (which department)? Administrators (senior level, mid-management)? What are the proposed outcomes for your session? What are the main points (3-5) you want participants to take away from your session? After you identify the goals of your session, break those goals into objectives.
- Narrow the Focus. You only have one hour for breakout sessions and 45 minutes for roundtable sessions. Narrow the broader focus into an outline of what you are able to present.
- Engage Participants. NISOD strongly discourages lecture formats. How will you make your presentation engaging? Will participants be able to ask questions during the presentation or at the end during the question-and-answer period? Make your presentation relevant and applicable to the participants. What will they be able to take away from your session and to their campuses? (If you are going to talk about a project on your campus, make sure you apply the lessons learned to participants on other campuses. For example, what do you wish you would have known before starting the project?)
- Proposed Content and Activities. Before you develop the title and 50-word description of your presentation, create an outline for the content and activities of your session. How much time will you spend on each part? Is material laid out in a logical order? How much time is dedicated to participants being actively involved in the presentation? How are they involved (e.g., Q&A, small-group work, role-playing)? Move your session from being a case study of what worked for you to implications that could work for other participants.
- AV Needs. What are your AV requirements? Presenters will be provided with data projector and stand. If you need a laptop, we suggest you bring your own. You can rent a laptop or other AV equipment, but it is costly. The Austin Convention Center provides free wireless Internet service. Remember that free wireless Internet can be much slower than hard-wired. To make your presentation flow much more smoothly, you may want to take screenshots of the web pages you will be referencing or pay the additional fee to the Convention Center to have your presentation hard-wired.
- Description of the Presentation*. After you have tightened and finalized the outline for your session, then it is time to begin to develop the 50-word description of your session, which will be used in the conference program. (Click here for sample descriptions.) Make sure your description accurately reflects the outline of your session. Instead of writing declarative sentences that start with “This session will…” we suggest that you use words that will encourage participants to attend. You might choose to highlight the outcomes that participants will receive after attending your session. You might want to include questions in your description. But remember—the most important part is that your description matches what you will actually present. Be realistic.
 Title of the Session. After you have developed the outline of the content of the session and have written the description, now is the time to develop your 10-word title for the session. You might want to make the title catchy. But, remember, the most important part is that the title matches the description and outline of the presentation. Don’t promise something you can’t deliver in 45-60 minutes.
My Presentation Proposal Was Accepted, Now What?
- Start Early. Develop your presentation in advance of the NISOD Conference. The breakout sessions are the heart of our conference; participants are expecting presenters to be prepared. Begin planning early. Remember when planning your presentation that the content needs to match the description and title of your presentation.
- PowerPoint Hints. PowerPoint can make or break your session. If you use PowerPoint, here are some helpful hints:
- Make sure your text is at least 24-point font.
- Have a limited amount of text on each slide. Participants do not enjoy having slides read to them.
- Use images, videos, and audio to make it more appealing to the participants.
- Font should use upper and lower-case text and be organized in a horizontal, left-to-right manner. Left justify the text. The easiest to read fonts are Times, Helvetica, and Palatino.
- Less is more. Participants would rather have fewer PowerPoint slides than too many.
- Group Participation. Think carefully about the questions you want to ask to elicit an engaging dialogue. Allow adequate time for discussion.
- AV Needs. Your AV needs are due by March 3. AV problems are not unusual—be prepared to present without audiovisual support.
- Rehearse. Rehearse your session in advance, and try not to read your presentation. Have a dialogue or conversation with your participants. Use good eye contact.
- Handouts. Bring more handouts rather than fewer. Sheryl Powell will email you with the capacity of your scheduled room in March. If you have extra handouts, you may place them on the Handout Table next to Registration. If you don’t have enough handouts, you might prefer to email the participants. But, remember, it is better to have too many handouts than not enough.
- The Audience is Rooting for You! The audience wants to enjoy your presentation. Be comfortable and have fun!
*One of the most common comments we receive for areas of improvement is regarding the accuracy of session descriptions. To make sure the information in the conference program matches what you will be presenting, please follow these steps.
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