Presenter Details

Develop your session by following this step-by-step guide for an engaging, interactive, psychologically safe, accessible and inclusive session. Also consider these quick tips:

• Start with your audience in mind. Consider what you can offer that is likely to be relevant and useful to attendees and structure your presentation so as to make clear what they will take away from your session or program. In particular, think about how attendees could learn from your experiences as they try to advance sustainability on their own campus.
• Engage the audience. Consider best practices for building your session as a collaborative experience which taps into the expertise of the participants and leaves them feeling energized and inspired. 
• Focus your session on something specific (e.g., the findings of a particular research project; a valuable skill or competency; or an especially successful initiative). Don’t just provide a general overview of an institution’s sustainability efforts.
• Highlight the unique or novel aspects of your program/initiative/topic while still demonstrating relevance to other institutions. For example, if you are presenting a session about your institution’s green fund, be sure to describe any special features that distinguish your green fund from other green funds and that might be useful for other green fund administrators to implement.
• Go deep! Many of our members are seeking advanced, in-depth content. 
• Be provocative. We appreciate sessions that thoughtfully challenge conventional wisdom.
• Emphasize the impacts of your research or initiative (e.g., on sustainable behaviors, carbon emissions, or operational costs). Sessions that demonstrate significant real-world impact tend to be more successful. 
• Provide evidence to support your presentation. Attendees value presentations that are well supported with evidence and/or empirical research.
• Avoid sales pitches. All sessions must be educational in nature. 
• Prepare your presentation materials and load any slides on a thumb-drive. To minimize technical issues, bring both PowerPoint and PDF versions of your presentation.
• Make sure your slides are in widescreen format (16:9 aspect ratio). Learn how to switch to this format.

Attendees will be able to access slides and other presentation materials via the mobile app. We encourage presenters to share their materials by uploading them through the Speaker Portal in advance of the conference. This will also enable AASHE to post these materials in the Campus Sustainability Hub after the conference. If you prefer, you may wait until after your live presentation to share your materials.

Field Reports & Learning Labs Presenters

• We strongly encourage you to familiarize yourself with the program overview and layout of the conference in order to arrive at your session on time. You can access session locations and maps within the mobile app (will go live later in October).
• Each session room will be equipped with
  • Technology:
    • a PC laptop (with MS Office installed), screen, projector, 
    • Mac laptops and Mac adapters will not be provided.
    • Use a USB drive to transfer your presentation to the laptop.
    • You may not project from your own device.
  • Furniture:
    • podium with microphone,
    • head table with one table microphone and three chairs behind it.
    • Sessions with more than three presenters may move additional chairs from the audience seating area to the front as needed.
    • Please be sure to return chairs and any other furniture to the correct place when your session is over.
    • Round tables with 6-10 chairs for the audience.
• A limited number of supplies will be available for borrowing from the registration desk on the second floor.
• Recording of sessions or performances is prohibited without written consent from AASHE.
• Arrive at your room at least 10 minutes before your presentation is scheduled to begin to test the equipment and get your presentation ready.
• If technology problems arise during your session, AASHE Program Staff stationed near session rooms will be able to help locate AV support.
• Be prepared to monitor your start and end times to keep on the conference schedule.
• Speak slowly and loudly so everyone can hear you and face the audience as much as possible.
• If you would like to project video, please make sure that videos in your slides are embedded and also bring them along separately on your thumb drive. Attempting to stream your video from the internet may result in choppy, poor-resolution videos. Reminder: Slides should be 16:9 format.
• Using tape or other adhesives on the walls of the convention center is not allowed. Sticky notes are okay.

Networking Meeting Facilitators

In addition to the above, the following also apply:

• These sessions are intended to encourage networking among attendees from the same region or with a common interest.
• Meetings should be highly interactive and typically do not include a formal presentation with slides.
• To prepare for a networking meeting, you may wish to develop a series of questions for group discussion. We also recommend activities that foster small-group discussion among attendees.

• If you haven’t yet, upload presentation slides, poster files and other presentation materials into the Speaker Portal so that these can be shared through the Campus Sustainability Hub. Please do not upload your materials directly to the Hub.