Delegate talks at SCCS

As well as the four plenary speakers, thirty-two student delegates come to Cambridge to give talks.

Each speaker gets 15 minutes to present their work and take questions.

Four talks, grouped by theme, are held in one-hour sessions.

To be selected to give a talk at SCCS 2027, you must apply in Round 1.

Guidance to those selected to give a talk at SCCS 2027

Talks are 12 minutes long with 3 minutes for Q&As (15 minutes in total). Timings will be strictly enforced.

For your slides:

Use PowerPoint to prepare your talk
Ensure your slide size is set to Widescreen (16:9)
Animations or video clips, if used, must work within PowerPoint and not rely on additional software

If you are preparing your PowerPoint presentation on a Mac, we strongly advise you check that it works correctly on a PC to make sure there aren’t any compatibility issues.

All talks must be given in person - online presentations are not permitted.

Try and arrange a time in the month before the conference to give your talk to your supervisors, work colleagues or other students.

Ask them for feedback, for example:

Was the talk clear? Was it easy to follow?
Was there too much text on the slides or too little?
Are there too many slides or too few?
Did you speak loudly and clearly enough?
Did you speak too fast or too slow?

To feel confident, you must practice; and if you feel confident, your listeners will find it easier to focus on what you are saying.

If English is not your first language, make sure you practice your talk with colleagues fluent in English to check for clarity of pronunciation and choice of vocabulary.

Please also consider how your presentation will appear to those watching online as talks will be live-streamed via Zoom.

Your slides will need to be uploaded onto the PC in the Zoology Department’s Main Lecture Theatre before the conference begins. You will therefore need to email your presentation to us by Wednesday, 24 March 2027.

You may share the presentation using OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox or other methods such as WeTransfer to do this.

As a backup, we recommend that you bring a copy of your presentation on a USB stick and save a copy to an online account before you travel.

We will arrange 30-minute slots for groups of four speakers to test out their presentations on Monday, 29 March 2027.

The AV team will show you how the microphones work and you can check that your presentation displays correctly.

Please do not use the time to amend your slides – check for typos etc. before you send it to us.

All those giving a talk are asked to arrive in Cambridge and be available on Monday afternoon for their AV test.

We normally hold 8 one-hour student talk sessions, grouped by theme, with four speakers in each.

Each session will have a different chairperson. Check the full conference schedule, when published, for the date and time for your talk, and for your chairperson.

You must arrive in the Main Lecture Theatre 10 minutes prior to the start of your session. If a plenary lecture precedes your session and there is no break, please arrive 10 minutes before the plenary talk.

Your chairperson will be there too – say hello and tell them how you would like to be introduced.

Please note that at this stage it will be too late to fix any issues with your presentation – these should have been addressed during the pre-conference checks.

The chairperson for your session will leave written feedback on your talk at the Help Desk in the Elementary Lab after your talk – please make sure you collect it before you leave.

Prizes for the top three talks will be awarded on Thursday afternoon.