Presentations

Discussing and presenting your work at conferences (and just with other people) is very different than writing the paper. In these slides, we’ll talk about how conferences work, and we’ll talk about some best practices for presenting.

Conferences

So how do conferences work?

• Different submission rules/norms for different conferences
• Split into “smaller” and “larger” conferences

Smaller conferences

• Usually 1-2 days
• Often 30-45 minutes to present
• Submit a full draft (or close to it) for consideration
• Call for papers can be hard to find, not widely circulated - check with advisers in your field

Larger conferences

• Think AEAs or major field conferences (American Society of Health Economists, Econometric Society, etc.)
• Conference organized around “sessions”, each with a few papers
• Short presentation time (10-20 minutes max)
• Call for papers usually widely circulated
• Unwritten rule: much better chance of acceptance if you organize an entire session or submit as part of someone else’s session

The “conference circuit”

• Critical to building your network
• Critical for people to see your work
• Who do you see here?
  • potential referees
  • potential editors
  • potential letter writers
  • potential co-authors

Seminars

• Not a concern right now…
• More informal process
• If you have a reason to go somewhere, consider initiating the invite yourself
• Great place for comments on your work and networking

Submitting to a conference

Presenting

OK - so you’ve made it into a conference or seminar of some kind. Now you need to present your paper. This can be a little scary…

Presenting: Introduction

Some rules for starting your presentation:

1. Motivation: Quickly convince your audience on the value of your topic

Presenting: Introduction

Some rules for starting your presentation:

1. Motivation: Quickly convince your audience on the value of your topic
2. Question: Clearly state your research question

Presenting: Introduction

Some rules for starting your presentation:

1. Motivation: Quickly convince your audience on the value of your topic
2. Question: Clearly state your research question
3. This paper: What do you do that’s different and relevant? What are you adding?

Presenting: Introduction

Some rules for starting your presentation:

1. Motivation: Quickly convince your audience on the value of your topic
2. Question: Clearly state your research question
3. This paper: What do you do that’s different and relevant? What are you adding?
4. Preview: 1-2 main takeaways before everyone leaves!

Presenting: Main Paper

Let’s assume you killed the first 5-10 minutes. Your audience is hooked. Now…

Presenting: Main Paper

Please, please, please, please…

Simple example

\[\begin{align} Pr(\text{Service})_{it} = &\Phi(\beta_{0} + \beta_{1} F_{it} \\ & + \beta_{2} Y_{t} + \beta_{3} Y_{t} \times F_{it} \\ & + \beta_{4} \text{FPMarket}_{it} + \beta_{5} F_{it} \times \text{FPMarket}_{it} \\ & + \beta_{6} Y_{t} \times F_{it} \times \text{FPMarket}_{it} + \beta_{7} H_{it} \\ & + \beta_{8} D_{it} + \beta_{9} HMO_{it} + \beta_{10} HHI_{it}) \end{align}\]

Simple example

\[\begin{align} \color{red}{Pr(\text{Service})_{it}} = &\Phi(\beta_{0} + \beta_{1} F_{it} \\ & + \beta_{2} Y_{t} + \beta_{3} Y_{t} \times F_{it} \\ & + \beta_{4} \text{FPMarket}_{it} + \beta_{5} F_{it} \times \text{FPMarket}_{it} \\ & + \beta_{6} Y_{t} \times F_{it} \times \text{FPMarket}_{it} + \beta_{7} H_{it} \\ & + \beta_{8} D_{it} + \beta_{9} HMO_{it} + \beta_{10} HHI_{it}) \end{align}\]

• High versus low profitable service offering
• Determined in Horwitz (2005), based on interviews, MedPAC and ProPAC reports, and literature

Simple example

\[\begin{align} Pr(\text{Service})_{it} = &\Phi(\beta_{0} + \beta_{1} \color{red}{F_{it}} \\ & + \beta_{2} Y_{t} + \beta_{3} Y_{t} \times F_{it} \\ & + \beta_{4} \text{FPMarket}_{it} + \beta_{5} F_{it} \times \text{FPMarket}_{it} \\ & + \beta_{6} Y_{t} \times F_{it} \times \text{FPMarket}_{it} + \beta_{7} H_{it} \\ & + \beta_{8} D_{it} + \beta_{9} HMO_{it} + \beta_{10} HHI_{it}) \end{align}\]

• Ownership type (for-profit, not-for-profit, government)

Simple example

\[\begin{align} Pr(\text{Service})_{it} = &\Phi(\beta_{0} + \beta_{1} F_{it} \\ & + \beta_{2} Y_{t} + \beta_{3} Y_{t} \times F_{it} \\ & + \beta_{4} \color{red}{\text{FPMarket}_{it}} + \beta_{5} F_{it} \times \color{red}{\text{FPMarket}_{it}} \\ & + \beta_{6} Y_{t} \times F_{it} \times \color{red}{\text{FPMarket}_{it}} + \beta_{7} H_{it} \\ & + \beta_{8} D_{it} + \beta_{9} HMO_{it} + \beta_{10} HHI_{it}) \end{align}\]

• Indicator for high share of patients going to for-profit hospitals (\(\geq\) 15%)
• Construct share of for-profit patients using “distance-weighted” measure of hospital markets:

Simple example

\[\begin{align} Pr(\text{Service})_{it} = &\Phi(\beta_{0} + \beta_{1} F_{it} \\ & + \beta_{2} Y_{t} + \beta_{3} Y_{t} \times F_{it} \\ & + \beta_{4} \text{FPMarket}_{it} + \beta_{5} F_{it} \times \text{FPMarket}_{it} \\ & + \beta_{6} Y_{t} \times F_{it} \times \text{FPMarket}_{it} + \beta_{7} H_{it} \\ & + \beta_{8} D_{it} + \beta_{9} HMO_{it} + \beta_{10} \color{red}{HHI_{it}}) \end{align}\]

• Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (sum of square market shares)

Simple example

What does this example highlight:

• Discussion of data and methods simultaneously
• Much clearer than an equation first then lots of slides of content, or vice versa

Presentation: Results

• Show with figures whenever possible
• Do not discuss every result and every robustness check and every sensitivity analysis
• OK to discuss some of the biggest vulnerabilities and how you deal with them
• Have a final takeaway to wrap up your story

Presentation: Other rules

Slide design

• Minimalist design
• Take out superfluous Beamer stuff
• Cut out text whenever possible
• Figures and pictures much, much better than text
• See Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham’s Beamer tips

Presentation: Other rules

Slide content

• People look at the slides while you talk…slides should aid your talk, not replace your presence
• They are complements, not substitutes
• Slides are not a stand-alone, self-contained document

Presentation: Other rules

• The slides are for the audience, not you
• Practice, practice, practice
• You really shouldn’t need the slides

Presentation: Major no-no’s

Now for some things that you absolutely should not do in a presentation…

1. “I’m running out of time, so I’ll talk fast”

Presentation: Major no-no’s

Now for some things that you absolutely should not do in a presentation…

1. “I’m running out of time, so I’ll talk fast”
2. “Sorry this table is so small”

Presentation: Major no-no’s

Now for some things that you absolutely should not do in a presentation…

1. “I’m running out of time, so I’ll talk fast”
2. “Sorry this table is so small”
3. “I’m not sure why this is so blurry”