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District 1 first developeCanadian ITE’s guidelicompilation of these e

INSTITUTE OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERS DISTRICT 1

October 2003

PROCEDURE for

PLANNING and MANAGING DISTRICT ANNUAL MEETINGS

APPENDIX

d draft guidelines on August 1, 1990. This complete update has been based on the nes and augmented by District 6, and the Southern District of ITE. This publication is a xamples and based on previous experience in District 1.

ITE District 1 Policy and Procedure for Planning and

Managing Annual Meetings

APPENDIX

A Locations of Previous District Annual Meetings/Conferences B Typical Conference Schedule C Sample Registration Package & Forms D Making Effective Technical Presentations E Sample Budget F Sample Final Report

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APPENDIX D

Making Effective Technical Presentations

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Presentation Tips: Preparing and Delivering a Technical Presentation Making a technical presentation at an ITE meeting? As an ITE meeting participant, your presentation will reflect the professionalism of the Institute and its members. Your audience has registered for the meeting to listen to you. They deserve a well prepared presentation. The key to a successful presentation is clear thinking and good planning. Here are some tips (adapted from "Speak like the Best of Them", by Daniel A. Cirucci, Association Management, May 1993) to help you prepare and deliver your presentation successfully. Note: To improve the quality of visual materials/aids presented at ITE meetings, ITE will provide only an LCD projector for all speakers of technical sessions at the Annual Meeting and Spring Conference. WRITE TO THE AUDIENCE The first step in finding the right words and delivering an effective technical presentation is the audience. Ask certain questions to pin down for whom you're writing.

• Who is the audience? • What do the members of the audience have in common? Are they mostly engineers?

Planners? Are they mostly from the same country? • Why has the audience been brought together? • Why have they invited me to make a presentation? What makes it unique? • How much time do I have? • Do they expect or want me to talk about a specific subject and, if so, what? • In other words: Who are these people and why are they here?

Identifying the audience is extremely important. It will set the tone and the technical level of your presentation. The more you or your presentation writer know about all of the questions listed above, the better your presentation will be. If you are making a presentation at an ITE Annual Meeting, for example, ITE should provide this information for you. You can expect the audience to be highly educated, with knowledge of engineering terminology and concepts. If the audience is internationally diverse, you should avoid jargon, acronyms, and colloquial terms. Never make assumptions about your audience what audience knows. If you are not sure, it is better to start at a lower technical level. Regardless of the type of audience, waste no time in making a quick, clear, and simple connection. Find something in common with your listeners and lead with it. BE CAREFUL WITH HUMOR The all-important link with the audience can often be established with humor. Many speakers use humor by telling a joke or anecdote. But this technique is not as simple as it may seem. Leading with a joke has become almost a cliche; and sometimes the joke can fall flat. Unless you've tried the joke or anecdote before with a similar audience and know it will trigger laughs, caution is the byword. Test the story out with a few friends or colleagues. Ask them to be particularly frank with you in assessing its impact. Your presentation will be remembered by the knowledge it imparts, and not by the jokes it contains. Beyond humor, other audience-linking introductions can make listeners feel comfortable with familiar words, images, concepts, and experiences. All human beings have some similar shared experience, and you're bound to reach most of your listeners. This common-bond approach follows a basic rule; begin the dialogue with your audience on a recognizable, friendly, and agreeable terrain. Before you do anything else, get the audience's attention and create the right atmosphere. A THREE-ACT PLAY A technical presentation is actually a three-act play: a beginning, a middle, and an end

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(introduction, body, and conclusion). Each part of the presentation must be clear and distinct, but at the same time, the three parts must work as one. The theme or topic is what holds all three parts together. The best presentations can be summarized in a single sentence. Often, an even shorter single phrase within the presentation will come to describe your topic. TELL THEM, TELL THEM, TELL THEM Regardless of the nature of the presentation or the composition of the audience, the speaker owes it to his or her listeners to plan, write, and deliver the presentation in a professional, convincing manner. An effective way to make the beginning, middle, and end of the presentation work together is to remember this three-pronged rule of clear communication: Tell them you're going to tell them, tell them, tell them that you told them. In the beginning of the presentation, preview what is to come. This approach grabs the audience's attention and opens the door to the main body of the presentation: the middle. It is also a good idea to tell them for how long you will speak: "For the next 15 minutes I will....". This will give the audience an idea of the scale of you presentation to avoid the guess work. In the middle, present most of what you have to say. Simple, declarative lists ("First, the purpose of the study was ....") can organize the middle of the presentation to help the listener move along. In the end, wrap up ("To summarize...."). Approaching the three parts of the presentation this way is the simplest and easiest way to organize yourself and make your thoughts understandable to all and easy to follow. DYNAMIC TECHNIQUES Many other techniques can be employed to make a presentation work especially well. All recognize one fact: A presentation is prepared for the ear. To be effective, the words and ideas must be retained in the listener's mind. The following techniques can be particularly effective while delivering your presentation: Repetition. Besides helping your audience remember something, repetition builds greater awareness of central points of the main theme. Often, repetition contributes to the flow of the presentation. Do not be afraid to repeat the main point of your presentation. Quotes. The best quotations are short and memorable. They not only say something meaningful, but they say it clearly. Good quotes work on several levels, forcing the audience to think. Make sure the quote is clearly attributed and that it was said by someone your audience will probably recognize. Quotations are often particularly effective at the beginning or end of a presentation but can work well almost anywhere. Startling or surprising moments. Surprise is used to draw attention to the point you are about to make. Saying something the audience is not expected to hear can reawaken the audience. Tell a short story. Everyone likes to hear a story. As we listen, we visualize the action of the story in our minds. This is why and how we remember stories long after we have forgotten a lot of other things. In a presentation, of course, a story has to be short (it cannot come to take the place of the presentation itself) and it has to make a point in the context of the presentation and its theme. Use all of these devices sparingly in your presentations. If overused, the presentation becomes exaggerated and can quickly turn into a farce. Used with care and to move the presentation along, they usually work exceedingly well. TIME CHALLENGES If making a presentation as part of a technical session, where more than one speaker speaks, it is very important to adhere to your allocated time limit. The overall session must end at certain time. Exceeding your time will make the audience wander and lose their concentration. It can ruin your presentation. As you write and edit your presentation, the general rule to follow is to allow about 90 seconds for every double-spaced page of copy. Rehearsing your presentation will tell you approximately how long it will be. To stay within the allocated time, it is very important that you write the presentation that you are going to deliver. If you have prepared a written version of your presentation, for the Compendium of Technical Papers, for example, NEVER read it. Take your time to prepare a custom presentation, one that incorporates some of the techniques described above.

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Your written paper and the presentation you deliver should NEVER be the same. Of course, if you feel you are the wrong person to speak on a certain topic, or if you don't feel comfortable about delivering a paper written by someone else, don't hesitate to say so. But be prepared to recommend someone else. DELIVERING A TECHNICAL PRESENTATION Planning carefully, organizing your thoughts, and composing a good technical presentation constitute only part of the process. You have to be able to deliver the presentation well to carry it all off. Follow these 10 tips to achieve success.

1. Get comfortable with it. Read the presentation silently a few times. In your mind, listen to yourself delivering the presentation. Then read it aloud several times. Hear the sound and flow and cadence of it. Get to know the presentation so that you can quickly recall its sounds and words. Time it.

2. Watch your timing. Know where the beginning, middle, and end of the presentation click in. Identify the climax-the single most dramatic point in the presentation-which usually comes about two thirds of the way into it.

3. Mark it up. Give yourself notes and clues, if needed, along the margins or in the body of the presentation, to tell you where to slow down, modulate, raise your voice, speed up, and so forth.

4. Highlight the points that have to be made. 5. Deliver the presentation just slightly above the conversational mode. Speak calmly and

clearly in a manner that makes it seem like you are in control, with total confidence. If you get nervous, slow down.

6. Maintain frequent eye contact with the entire audience. Look down at your notes, not to read the presentation but to remind yourself where you are.

7. Keep a glass of water at the podium. Anxiety can create an instant dry mouth. If necessary, steal a moment (when folks are laughing or applauding) to take a drink. Also, don't be afraid to take a moment to catch your breath. The audience will wait. A long pause is also a good technique to regain the audience's attention.

8. Don't think about the delivery of the presentation as you are delivering it. Ignore that little voice inside you that wants to criticize the presentation as you're speaking.

9. Delegate the responsibility for the sound system, lighting, and visual aids to others. Always arrive early and try everything out. Make sure the lighting is right for your visual aids. Check the orientation of your slides. Check the microphone and its cord to make sure it is long enough to reach the overhead projector. Check, check, check.

10. Enjoy your presentation and share your enjoyment with the audience. The spotlight is on you, but you have prepared well and practiced. Now earn the accolades. Savor the moment.

Presentation Tips: Preparing and Presenting Visual Aids GENERAL

• Slides and overhead transparencies are intended to enhance your presentation. Use them sparingly.

• Prepare your presentation, and then select the points you wish to emphasize in visuals - don't build your presentation around file visuals.

• Limit each slide or overhead to one idea and a maximum of 15 words. You want the audience listening, not reading.

• Keep the format of the visual aids the same throughout your presentation. Don't switch from horizontal to vertical layouts. Be consistent in your format, color, and style.

• Vary typefaces with restraint - use them only to emphasize. • Choose a readable typeface and stick to it. Some proven winners are Helvetica, Bookman,

Palatino, Futura, and Century Schoolbook.

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• For optimum readability, have the text of your visual aids set flush left, ragged right (that is, non- justified).

• Use large letters and numbers - the larger the better. Remember, you want your visual aids to be able to be read by all members of the audience - including those with less-than-perfect eyesight and those in the back rows. As a rule-of-thumb, if you can read a 35-mm slide when held at arm's length in front of you, it will be readable by the audience in a normal-size room. A typesize rule-of-thumb: Make heads 20% bigger than text. Consider using all bold type so it will more easily stand out from the dark background.

• Avoid all UPPER CASE letters, as they are difficult to read; use Upper and Lower Case instead. • To give the presentation a sense of unity and a finished look, add a border or a simple logo

to every visual. Remember, though, to leave plenty of "air" between the words and the border.

TABLES

• If you must use a table in a visual aid, show only those figures you specifically mention in your table (don't photocopy or photograph entire tables from reports).

• Give your figures credibility by discreetly identifying their source. • Using Color Effectively in Slide Presentations • Foreground should contrast sharply with background. • Choose and stick with one color palette throughout the presentation. • Use colored backgrounds rather than white or clear (black is very effective as a background

color). • Avoid more than two colors per slide. Use a third color only to highlight a key item. • Blue or red type is difficult to read (the most readable combination is yellow type on a dark

background). • Use a dull color such as gray to display axes, tick marks, and grids to avoid distracting from

the data itself. PIE CHARTS

• Limit pie charts to no more than 6 slices. • Avoid showing slices of less than 10% of the total. Combine all these into an "other" category. • When possible, use color rather than hatching to distinguish pieces of the pie.

BAR CHARTS

• Keep multiple bars and stacked bars to a minimum since they are harder to understand; the audience should be able to read and understand your chart in less than 30 seconds.

• Provide a legend or label the bars directly. LINE AND AREA CHARTS

• Limit line charts to no more than 5 lines for readability. • Whenever possible, differentiate lines by color and thickness rather than by symbols to avoid

clutter. • Include only those data that illustrate the point you want to make - don't overdo it in one

chart. • Position labels horizontally rather than vertically. • Whenever possible, label bars and lines directly rather than using legends for faster

understanding. • Keep "decorations" such as tick marks, grids and labels to a minimum. • Divide the axis into units that are multiples of two, five, or ten for ease of interpretation.

USING A SLIDE PROJECTOR

• If bringing your own slide tray, make sure the tray fits the projector. Don't leave anything to chance - try it out ahead of time to be sure.

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• Make sure all slides are oriented correctly. • If using a remote control, check ahead of time to make sure it works. • As soon as you are finished with the slides, turn the projector off. • Talk to your audience, not to the screen. • Avoid reading your slides. Slides supplement your talk, not the other way around. • Use a pointer. Never stand in front of the screen to point at something with your finger.

USING AN OVERHEAD PROJECTOR

• Layer your overheads with tissue or paper between each transparency, to keep them from sticking to each other.

• To point out specific items in your overheads, lay a pencil on the transparency. Avoid using your finger to point.

• Turn off the overhead projector once the audience has read and understood the chart - you want the audience to focus on you, not the overhead.

AND MOST OF ALL...

• If presenting a published paper, do not read it. • Whenever possible, provide handouts, and be sure to bring enough copies. This will help the

audience listen by freeing them from taking copious notes.

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APPENDIX E

Sample Budget

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2003 ITE District 1 Annual Meeting Break-Even 150Budget - 1/16/03 Membership 1700

Estimated Costs Lodge at

Woodcliff Estimated Income

QuantityUnit Cost

Estimated Cost Quantity Unit Income

Estimated Income

Accommodations NY Uptate Section Seed 1 $1,000 $1,000 Vendor Accommodations 10 $50 $500 Vendor Fees 10 $250 $2,500

Room/Rental/Setup 1 $800 $800 Sponsors 15 $200 $3,000 Equipment Rental 1 $2,500 $2,500 Registration Fee (Members) 130 $220 $28,600

Continental Breakfast - 2days 225 $7 $1,575 (Non-members) 10 $250 $2,500 Breaks - (4) 425 $5 $2,125 Late Registration (Members) 10 $250 $2,500

Lunch- 200 $15 $3,000 (Non-members) 0 $275 $0 Total Registrants 150 Welcome Reception Total $40,100

Eastman House Rental Fees 1 $2,750 $2,750 Food 100 $15 $1,500 District Advance (to be returned) $3,500

Annual Dinner Cost Dinner 125 $40 $5,000

Gratuity/Service Charge (19%) $3,753 Accommodations Subtotal $23,503

Keynote Speaker Speaking Fee 1 $2,000 $2,000

Travel Expenses 1 $500 $500 Woodcliff Speaker Subtotal $2,500 Income $40,100

Gifts/Souvenirs Expenses $39,945 Speakers 75 $18 $1,350 Profit/Loss $155

Attendees 250 $12 $3,000 Tax (0%) $0

Gift/Souvenirs Subtotal $4,350 Publications

Name Tags(Boxes) 10 $15 $150 Misc. supplies 1 $250 $250 Historical Registration fees

Programs 225 $2.30 $518 2003 Rochester NY Post Cards 600 $0.28 $168 Registration $ 220

Registration Package 1700 $2.30 $3,910 Hotel /night $ 89 Folders 225 $1 $225 2002 Shelter Island

Literature Subtotal $5,221 Registration $ 200 Tech Tours / Spouse Program Hotel /night $ 89 Bus Rental 3 350 $1,050 2001 Mystic Misc. Expenses 1 250 $250 Registration $ 190

Tech Tours Subtotal $1,300 Hotel /night $ 120 Postage 2000 Niagara Falls

Post Cards 600 $0.25 $150 Registration $ 250 Registration Package 1700 $0.60 $1,020 Hotel /night $ 110

Postage Subtotal $1,170 1999 Bear Mountain Misc. or Contingency - 5% $1,902 Registration $ 120

Total Expenses $39,945 Hotel /night $ 136
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APPENDIX F Sample Final Report

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