Oral Presentation Guidelines - In person and virtual

Guidelines for Recorded Presentations

  • Accepted Video Formats: MP4, MOV
  • Deadline: October 29, 2021

 Instructions

The below instructions tell you how to create your recorded presentations. To learn about how to upload your presentations, please watch this tutorial video here.

Presentations should be as close to 15-minutes in length as possible. For in-person presenters, their 15-minute presentation will be followed by a 5-minute Q&A session. Please record your presentation and send it to us no later than October 29, 2021. Do not use the recording capability built into Powerpoint. We have found the resulting MP4 will not result in a good quality recording. 

File Naming Conventions

In-Person Presenters: time_room_day_name

Virtual Presenters: virtual_name

IMPORTANT: Do not record your screen with a higher resolution than 1920 x 1080. If your computer’s resolution is higher than that, please change this to a maximum of 1920 x 1080. Instructions for changing computer resolution in Windows 10, and in Mac.

We recommend:

These screen recorders will do an excellent job of recording your slide presentation.

  • For Mac — use the screen recording feature built into QuickTime Player, and send us the recording as a QuickTime (.mov) file.
  • For Mac — use the screen recording feature built into Keynote (included with most Apple devices), and send us the resulting M4V file. To edit the recording created with Keynote we recommend iMovie (included with most Apple devices). Please save your file as: Resolution:1080p, Quality: high, and Compress: Best Quality and send us the MP4 recording.
  • For Windows or Mac — Zoom Meeting Application (free account) and send us the MP4 recording.
  • For Windows or Mac — TechSmith Snagit (free 15 day trial), and send us the MP4 recording.

The screen recorders suggested above will do an excellent job of recording your slide presentation. If you would like to record your webcam along with your recording, we only suggest doing so using either the TechSmith Snagit application or the Zoom Meeting Application and following the instructions provided below. You may, of course, also use these applications when recording your presentation without your webcam (more non-webcam application options will follow).

When recording with QuickTime or Keynote, we instead suggest that you simply include a good photo or video of yourself as part of the first and last slides in your presentation. Your physical presence will be missed at the meeting. But if the audience can see your face at the beginning and at the end of your talk, and if the audio quality of the recording is good, then it will almost feel to them as if you were there for a short while. You can record these short videos using TechSmith Snagit or the Zoom Meeting App.

Accessibility considerations: Zoom recently enabled automatically transcribed closed captioning for personal accounts. For the other recording options, there are free online services to add captions to your completed .mp4, such as Amara.org, Subtitle Horse, VEED Online Video Editor, and SubtitleBee. You can also automatically add and edit video captions on YouTube and Microsoft Office 365 Stream. For those with an Adobe subscription, Premiere Pro 2022 has to speech-to-text feature that can be used for captions.

Screen Recorders Able To Record Your Webcam Along With Your Recording

Recording with a PC (substitutions for Mac follow)

IMPORTANT: Do not record your screen with a higher resolution than 1920 x 1080. If your computer’s resolution is higher than that, please change this to a maximum of 1920 x 1080. Instructions for changing computer resolution in Win 10 and in Mac.

When you start the Snagit Application you will see options on how you would like to record:

  1. Click the Video button on the bottom left corner. For Mac: click Capture button in the top left, then a box appears on the top right, here you can click “Video” and change the selection to “full-screen”.
  2. Selection setting should be “Region”. For Mac: leaving this as full-screen yielded best results.
  3. Share setting should be “None”
  4. Webcam should be turned off. You can turn it on during your presentation at any time if you like.
  5. Preview in Editor should be ticked in the on position.
  6. Capture Cursor should be ticked in the on position.
  7. Record Microphone should be turned on, click the arrow to ensure the correct microphone is selected.
  8. Optionally, if you have audio in your presentation (perhaps from an embedded video or YouTube link), Restore System Audio should be ticked on.

Capturing your video in Snagit

  1. Press the red circular capture button.
  2. Press the “F” key on your keyboard to record the fullscreen. For Mac: does not apply in Mac.
  3. Press the record button on the toolbar.
  4. Optionally, while recording you can click on the video icon on the small grey Snagit toolbar to record your webcam video. For Mac: in order to turn your webcam on during your presentation: bring your cursor to the lower right and hover over the person icon, it will read “Switch to webcam”, click. To switch back to recording the presentation on your screen: hover over the same icon, it will read “Switch to screen”, click.

Mac recording shortcuts in Snagit

  •  Start Recording: Control+Shift+Spacebar
  • Pause/Resume Recording: Control+Shift+Spacebar
  • Stop Recording: Control+Shift+V

Setting Zoom Meeting App Options to record your presentation

IMPORTANT: Do not record your screen with a higher resolution than 1920 x 1080. If your computer’s resolution is higher than that, please change this to a maximum of 1920 x 1080. Instructions for changing computer resolution in Win 10, and in Mac.

When you start the Zoom Meeting Application, you will see a settings wheel icon in the top right of the application window:

  1. Click the Settings button.
  2. Click the “Video” menu on the settings column on the left hand side of the screen.
    • If you would like to record your webcam along with your presentation, Uncheck “Turn off my video when joining meeting.”
    • If you don’t want to record your webcam along with your presentation, Check “Turn off my video when joining meeting.”
  3. Click the “Audio” menu on the settings column on the left hand side of the screen.
    • Check your speaker and microphone to make sure you can hear yourself in your microphone. Ensure the correct Speaker and Microphone is selected in the dropdown list if you have trouble hearing yourself.
  4. Click the “Recording” menu on the settings column on the left hand side of the screen.
    • Make note of the location where your Zoom recordings are stored, you can change this by clicking the “Change” button.
    • Optional: There is an option to choose where to store your recordings after each meeting ends.
    • If you would like to record your webcam along with your presentation, Check the “Record video during screen sharing” checkbox, this will reveal another checkbox “Place video next to the shared screen in the recording”, check this checkbox as well.
    • If you don’t want to record your webcam along with your presentation, uncheck “Record video during screen sharing.”
  5. Please consider improving accessibility by enabling automatically transcribed closed captions (click here for instructions).
  6. Close the Settings window

Recording your presentation with the Zoom Meeting App

  1. Click the “New Meeting” button on the Zoom Meeting Application home screen.
  2. Click the “Join with Computer Audio” button.
  3. Click the “Share Screen” button on the bottom of your screen
  4. Ensure “Screen” is highlighted in blue
  5. Check the box “Share Computer Sound” in the bottom left corner
  6. DO NOT check the box “Optimize Screen Sharing for Video Clip” this will prevent you from recording your mouse activity and your webcam
  7. Click the “Share” button in the bottom right corner
  8. To begin recording there are several ways to do this depending on the type of computer you have:
    • On Windows PC we recommend this for a smooth recording: Press and hold down ALT + R to start the recorder. To pause recording at any time press and hold down ALT + P. To unpause the recording press and hold down ALT + P again.
    • On Mac we recommend this method for a smooth recording: Press and hold Shift + Command + R to start the recorder. To pause recording at any time press and hold down Shift + Command + P. To unpause the recording press and hold down Shift + Command + P again.
    • Alternate method on Mac or PC that may require video editing afterwards: Drag your mouse to the Zoom Meeting Control Panel. Hover over the “more” menu and select the “Record” option.
  9. If you selected to record your Webcam, you can hide the webcam while you give your presentation at any time by hovering over the webcam video and clicking the grey minimize button. The webcam will disappear and will now only be a small black bar. You can show the webcam again by hovering over the black bar and clicking the grey maximize button. note: Whenever you hide the webcam video it will disappear in the recording, whenever the webcam is visible you will see it in the recording in it’s own area outside of your presentation. So at no point in your presentation recording will the presentation be obscured by your Webcam video.
  10. When you are finished with your presentation there are several ways to stop recording and they depend on the type of computer you have:
    • On Windows PC we recommend this for a smooth recording: Press and hold down ALT + R to stop the recorder
    • On Mac we recommend this method for a smooth recording: Press and hold Shift + Command + R to stop the recorder
    • Alternate method on Mac or PC that may require video editing afterwards: Drag your mouse to the Zoom Meeting Control Hover over the “more” menu and select the “Stop Recording” option.
  1. Drag your mouse to the top of the screen and click the red “Stop Share” button
  2. Click the red “End Meeting” button in the lower right corner of the screen
  3. Click end meeting for all
  4. Wait for the Zoom Meeting App to finish converting your recording
  5. Click on the mp4 to review your recording

Use the screen recording feature built into Quicktime X and send us the recording as a Quicktime (.mov) file

Mac OS Catalina: Recording with QuickTime Player

IMPORTANT: Do not record your screen with a higher resolution than 1920 x 1080. If your computer’s resolution is higher than that, please change this to a maximum of 1920 x 1080. Instructions for changing computer resolution in Mac.

  1. Press Shift/Command/5. This will open a QuickTime control panel with icons to illustrate your recording functions.
  2. Clicking the Options button here will allow you to choose Microphone, Show Mouse Clicks, etc. Choosing Show Mouse clicks is useful when illustrating a point on your slide as each click will show a black circle around your pointer to indicate where you are directing attention.
    • Record Entire Screen: Choose this option in control panel. Your pointer changes to a camera symbol. Click anywhere on your screen to start recording that screen or click Record in the control panel.
    • Record Selected Portion of your screen: Choose this option in the control panel and then drag your mouse to select an area of the screen to record. To move the entire selection, drag from within the selection. Click Record in the control panel.
  3. To stop recording press Shift/Command/5 to return the recording control panel to the screen and press the Stop button. Alternatively, you can also press Command-Control-Esc.
  4. The recording will default to the desktop unless you choose another location in the Options menu in the recording control panel.
  5. If you need to edit, such as trimming the beginning and ending, see these instructions.

Prior to Mac OS Catalina: Recording with QuickTime Player

IMPORTANT: Do not record your screen with a higher resolution than 1920 x 1080. If your computer’s resolution is higher than that, please change this to a maximum of 1920 x 1080. Instructions for changing computer resolution in Mac.

  1. Begin by opening your presentation (not slideshow mode yet).
  2. Open QuickTime Player and click New Screen Recording under File in the menu bar at the top of your screen.
  3. A small, black Screen Recording control panel will open. Click the down arrow next to the red record button to view your microphone options as well as the ability to Show Mouse Clicks in Recording. Choosing Show Mouse clicks will show a black circle around your pointer when you click.
  4. To begin recording, click the red record button. A pop-up window will appear with the following options/instructions:
    1. Click to record the full screen.
    2. Drag to record part of the screen.
    3. End recording by clicking the stop button in the menu bar (This option is only available if QuickTime is displaying in your menu bar).
  5. Once you have made your selection, a black record button will appear at the top of your screen indicating that recording is in progress.
  6. Now you can enter slideshow mode in your presentation.
  7. The recording will default to the desktop unless you choose another location in the Options menu in the recording control panel.
  8. If you need to edit, such as trimming the beginning and ending, see these instructions.

IMPORTANT: Do not record your screen with a higher resolution than 1920 x 1080. If your computer’s resolution is higher than that, please change this to a maximum of 1920 x 1080. Instructions for changing computer resolution in Mac.

  1. Open your Keynote Presentation.
  2. Select Play in the Keynote Menu bar.
  3. Select Record Slideshow. Note: Rehearse Slideshow gives you all the visual elements you have while recording without actually recording.
  4. Click the red record button at the bottom of your screen to begin recording.
    • Once you click the record button Keynote will give a countdown of 3,2,1 before it starts recording.
    • To stop recording click the record button again.
  5. After stopping the recording the Rewind button, the Play button, the Slider Bar and the Trash Can will appear.
    • The slider bar allows you to rewind or fast forward to a specific point in your recording.
    • If you want to rerecord a section you can use the slider bar to find that point in your recording.
    • When you click record again a pop-up window will appear and ask if you want to rerecord from the current location.
  6. Once you’ve made a recording, if you press record button again, and you’ve made no adjustments, it will add to the existing
  7. To delete a recording and start a new one you can click on the trash can symbol in the recording toolbar after stopping the recording. You can also delete the recording by returning to the Keynote Menu Bar, selecting Play, and then choosing, Clear Recording.
  8. When you are satisfied with your recording, click Export To Movie under File in the Keynote menu bar and then choose Movie.
  9. Once the Export Your Presentation window pops up, make sure Slideshow Recording is selected in the Playback drop down menu and then click Next.
  10. Choose the name and location to save your recorded presentation and then click Export. 
  11. If you need to edit, such as trimming the beginning and ending, see these instructions.

Editing your Keynote recording with iMovie:

  1.  Open iMovie/ click Projects/ Create New.
  2. At the prompt select Movie/ Import Media/ Import Selected.
  3. Drag the recording you made with Keynote down into the timeline.
  4. Click on the area you want to edit (use arrow keys to be more precise).
  5. Press command B, click on the last frame you want to remove and press command B again.
  6. Click on the area between the lines you wish to remove, right click and select delete.
  7. When finished click File/ Share/ File, change ‘Resolution’ setting to 1080p (If unavailable choose the highest number resolution below 1080p), change ‘Quality’ setting to High, and change the ‘Compress’ setting to Best Quality.
  8. Click Next/ give it a name under Save As/ select a location under Where/ click Save.
  9. A time wheel on the top right will indicate progress.
  10. A notification appears when it’s complete.

How to Upload Your Recorded Presentation or Poster
to the Speaker Resource Center

Speaker Check-In and AV Loading

In-person oral presenters can also upload their PowerPoint slides in advance as a .ppt file using the Speaker Resource Center.  The file naming convention is time_room_day_name (for example, 0800_Latrobe_Monday_ekretschman or 1300_Latrobe_Monday_ekretschman). 

If you plan to upload your PowerPoint slides on-site, please visit the Speaker Check-In and AV Loading Room at least 24 hours in advance of your talk(s). Speaker Check-In and AV Loading will be located at the Brent Room in the Hilton and is open at the following times:

  • Saturday, November 6: 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
  • Sunday, November 7: 7:00 am – 5:00 pm
  • Monday, November 8: 7:00 am – 5:00 pm
  • Tuesday, November 9: 7:00 am – 5:00 pm
  • Wednesday, November 10: 7:00 am – 2:00 pm

Poster Presentation Guidelines - In person

Please note: The recommended size for in-person posters is 42″ x 42″, with a maximum of 48″ x 48″.

Poster Session Schedule

Saturday, November 6

  • 3:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Poster set-up

Sunday, November 7

  • 8:00 am – 11:00 am: Poster set-up
  • 11:00 am – 6:00 pm: Exhibits and posters open
  • 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm: Trade Show and Poster Networking Event (please be at your poster)

Monday, November 8

  • 8:00 am – 6:00 pm: Exhibits and posters open

Tuesday, November 9

  • 9:00 am – 1:00 pm: Exhibits and posters open
  • 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Poster take down

Poster Presentation Guidelines - Virtual

How to Create Your Virtual Poster

As with in-person presentations, AFS also asks in-person poster presenters to create a virtual version of their poster to benefit our virtual audience.
Please create your poster as a PDF or MP4 document and limit its size to no more than 250MB. For details on how to create your poster presentation, please see below. The program you use is up to you so long as your finished product is in a PDF or MP4 format and at or below 250 MB.

PowerPoint
  1. In PowerPoint, begin by creating a 1-slide PowerPoint presentation – choose a blank slide. (The entire poster must be contained in only one slide.)
  2. Adjust the slide size to make the poster dimensions a maximum of 42″ x 42″ or a smaller size if desired.
  3. Save your poster as a .pptx file while you are working on it. (When you are all finished and ready to submit your poster, save a copy as .pdf)
  4. The poster file size may not exceed 10MB.
Google Slides
  1. Go to slides.google.com in your browser
  2. Click the big “+” symbol to start a new slideshow
  3. In “File / Page Setup” choose “Custom” and set the size of your slide to 42″ x 42″ or a smaller size if desired.
  4. In “Slide / Apply Layout” choose “Blank”
  5. When you are all finished and ready to submit your poster, choose “File / Download” and choose “PDF Document”
  6. Make sure your PDF does not exceed 10MB before submitting it.

Adding Narration to Your Poster: While a PDF version of your poster is acceptable, adding narration to your poster can make it much more engaging for attendees and viewers. Please see below for instructions on how to add this narration by using Zoom (you may use the application of your choice).

  1. Open your PPT or Google Slide presentation.
  2. Open Zoom and sign in. Then click on “new meeting.”
  3. Ensure your mic is not muted and decide if you’d like to enable your video to add a video of yourself speaking along with the audio narration.
  4. Select “share screen” and select your PPT/Slides presentation as the window to share. If not already done, maximize your presentation window.
  5. Start your PPT/Slides presentation from the beginning. Hover over the “More” button on Zoom and select your preferred recording option (on computer or cloud).
  6. Perform the narration of your presentation. You can either stay with a full screen view of your entire poster, or you can add additional slides which focus on key areas of your poster as you narrate, essentially giving you a “zoom” function on particular portions of your poster you’d like to focus on as you speak.
  7. Once you’re done with your presentation, click on “more” and then “stop recording”. End the zoom meeting. A dialogue box will then pop up letting you know the presentation is being converted.
  8. A folder should then open which displays the created MP4 file. Then rename your virtual poster presentation according the AFS naming convention: virtual_poster_name. Please upload your virtual poster to the Speaker Resource Center.