Please see below instructions and examples on how to give an excellent 3-minute flash talk (credits to ASV society).
Guidance for Flash Talk Oral Presentation Details:
- Few PowerPoint slides (maximum of 6 slides)
- 3-minute time limit (no questions)
- Make sure to include your poster #
- Slide details: Widescreen format, 16:9 (width: height)
What is a Flash Talk for?
The purpose of the flash talk is to advertise your poster presentation and draw the audience to your poster for further discussion. To do this, a good flash talk should convey the purpose of your science, your approach, and why it is interesting. Do NOT try to over present your data – you can direct people to your poster for that. Instead, think of your flash talk as an “elevator pitch” to explain what the hypothesis was for your experiments and why your findings are cool! Make sure to prepare well! It takes thought and effort to condense your science down to a “take home message”. This is a great opportunity to learn and practice this skill!
How to give a Flash talk:
- Be clear about your science – just the goals, the basic approach, and the key findings/conclusion.
- Convey your excitement about the science.
- Stick to the time limit so you don’t get cut off early.
- Practice in advance so that you can achieve #1-3.
- Keep your slides simple and don’t get into details – save those for the poster.
- Include your poster # and session so the audience can find you there to talk further!
There are great online recommendations about giving a scientific “flash talk”, here are a few:
EMBL (the European Molecular Biology Laboratory) has an excellent 12-point blog on Flash talks: https://blogs.embl.org/events/2020/09/15/how-to-present-a-memorable-flash-talk-in-12-easy-steps/
A 3-minute video of useful tips on giving a flash talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBhUaghf2Ek
ASBMB (the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) has many resources on flash talks, including a video with three winning examples from their 2022 “Science in a Flash” competition: https://www.asbmb.org/education/science-outreach/science-in-a-flash
Giving an ultra-short but effective science talk: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/gone-flash-how-give-effective-ultra-short-talk-milka-kostic-ph-d-/
