Table Of ContentCHAPTER TITLE
HOW TO PRESENT
AT MEETINGS
Edited by
George M Hall
Professor of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine
St George’s Hospital Medical School,London
i
HOW TO PRESENT A MEETING
© BMJBooks 2001
BMJBooks is an imprint of the BMJPublishing Group
All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted,in any form or by any means,
electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording and/or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publishers.
First published in 2001
by BMJBooks,BMAHouse,Tavistock Square,
London WC1H 9JR
www.bmjbooks.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0-7279-1572-X
Cover design by BCDDesign Ltd,London
Typeset by FiSH Books
Printed and bound by JWArrowsmith
ii
CHAPTER TITLE
Contents
Contributors v
Preface vii
George M Hall
1 Principles of communication 1
Angela Hall and Peter McCrorie
2 Preparation of the talk 9
Mal Morgan
3 The three talks 17
Mal Morgan
4 Visual aids 26
George M Hall
5 Computer-generated slides:how to make
a mess with PowerPoint 34
Gavin Kenny
6 How to appear on stage 46
Alan Maryon Davis
7 How to sell a message 53
Martin Godfrey
8 How to deal with questions 58
Sir Alexander Macara
9 How not to give a presentation 66
Richard Smith
10 How to chair a session 71
Roger Horton
Index 77
iii
HOW TO PRESENT A MEETING
iv
CHAPTER TITLE
Contributors
Martin Godfrey
Vice President of Marketing
Medschool.com
Santa Monica,USA
Angela Hall
Senior Lecturer in Communication Skills
St George’s Hospital Medical School
London
George M Hall
Professor of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine
St George’s Hospital Medical School
London
Roger Horton
Professor of Neuropharmacology and Vice Principal
St George’s Hospital Medical School
London
Gavin Kenny
Professor of Anaesthesia
University of Glasgow
Sir Alexander Macara
Visiting Professor of Health Studies
University of York,York
Past Chairman
British Medical Association,London
Alan Maryon Davis
Senior Lecturer in Public Health Medicine
King’s College,London
v
HOW TO PRESENT AT MEETINGS
Peter McCrorie
Reader in Medical Education
Director of Graduate Entry Programme
St George’s Hospital Medical School
London
Mal Morgan
Reader in Anaesthetic Practice
Imperial College School of Medicine
Honorary Consultant Anaesthetist
Hammersmith Hospital
London
Richard Smith
Editor,British Medical Journal
London
vi
CHAPTER TITLE
Preface
Many trainees in medicine, while competent in their specialty,
struggle to give a good presentation at a meeting.The aim of this
book is to provide a basic framework around which a proficient talk
can be built.The content covers not only the essential parts of a
presentation; preparation, visual aids and computer-generated
slides, but also provides advice on how to sell a message, how to
appear on stage and how to deal with questions.All contributors
are experienced speakers and provide simple didactic advice.I am
grateful for their enthusiastic co-operation.
George M Hall
vii
HOW TO PRESENT A MEETING
viii
CHAPTER TITLE
1 Principles of
communication
ANGELA HALL AND PETER McCRORIE
Many readers of this book will have attended conferences and
listened to doctors making presentations. Think about these
presentations.Which ones were memorable and why?
Communication is, by definition, a two-way process – an
interaction. Presentation tends to be one way only, so is there
anything at all that we can take from research underlying
communication and how people learn, that is of any relevance to
the topic of this book? Assuming that the intention of your
presentation is to inform your audience, so that something is
learned from you, what do we know in general about how people
learn?
People learn best when:1
(cid:127) they are motivated
(cid:127) they recognise their need to learn
(cid:127) the learning is relevant,in context and matches their needs
(cid:127) the aims of the learning are clear
(cid:127) they are actively involved
(cid:127) a variety of learning methods is used
(cid:127) it is enjoyable.
Presenting at meetings is not of course just about giving
information (“I told them, therefore they know it”) but about
imparting it in such a way that people understand and take
something away from it. Can we draw a parallel with the
information-giving process between doctors and patients? There is
in fact much evidence from research into medical communication
showing that the following behaviours result in the effective
transmission of information from doctor to patient.2
1
