Introduction

Thank you for agreeing to be a presenter at the 2026 North American Lake Management Society International Symposium. Your role is very important to this symposium and our experience has shown that with a little pre-symposium preparation you can insure a smooth-running session. Your job is critical to producing an effective and worthwhile symposium!

Code of Conduct

The North American Lake Management Society commits to promoting a welcoming environment while fulfilling our mission of forging partnerships among citizens, scientists, and professionals to foster the management and protection of lakes and reservoirs. We intend to do this during daily operations, which includes the annual NALMS symposium, by fostering environments that are safe, collaborative, supportive, and productive for all members and attendees, including sponsors, exhibitors, guests of members, invited speakers, and members of the media. We intend to conduct our business in a fair, honest, and ethical manner that values the diversity of views, expertise, opinions, backgrounds, and experiences reflected among our membership and all conference and event attendees.

All attendees, speakers, sponsors, and volunteers at our conference are required to abide by the code of conduct. Organizers will be available for those that need to report an incident or concern. We expect cooperation from all participants to help ensure a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment for everyone.

Symposium Registration

Registration Options

• Full Registration: Unless you are a student, you should register at the NALMS Member or Non-Member rate.
• Student Registration: Student presenters are subject to the same requirements as other presenters and should register at the Student rate.
• One-Day Registration: If you are only able to attend the day of your presentation, register at the one-day rate. One-day registrations may not be combined to create a two-day registration.
• Workshops and Field Trips: Additional fees apply for participation in workshops and field trips.

Symposium Organization

• Concurrent sessions begin on Wednesday morning following the Opening Plenary Session and morning break. Sessions consist of up to four 20-minute presentations (speakers will have 18 minutes to present with their remaining time being used for their introduction and audience Q&A).
• Multiple sessions are scheduled concurrently Wednesday through Friday of the symposium.
• All posters will be displayed Wednesday – Friday.
• Each set of concurrent sessions is identified by a letter and a number (e.g., B3). The letter identifies the time slot, and the number identifies the session within that time slot. The most current agenda is available on the symposium website.

Oral Presentation Guidelines

• Concurrent oral sessions will include up to four 20-minute presentations.
• Oral presentations must be no longer than 18 minutes in length to allow time for speakers to introduce themselves and for audience questions after each presentation.
• The following audio-visual equipment will be available for your use:
  • Windows-based laptop loaded with Microsoft PowerPoint (please bring back-up copies of your PowerPoint presentation on a USB flash drive) on the presenter’s podium. The laptop will not have amplified audio output.
  • In no case, will presenters be allowed to use their own computers for presentation.
  • Podium microphone
  • LCD projector. Projectors will project images in widescreen format.
  • Laser pointer
  • Internet will be available in the meeting space to all conference attendees. We cannot guarantee the connection speed.
• When presenting, use the microphone; do not assume that everyone can hear you without it.
• When presenting, face the audience, not the screen. Do not read what is on the screen; the audience can read faster than you can talk and can absorb relevant commentary while they take in the slide.
• When taking questions, repeat the question after it is asked if the questioner does not have a microphone so that everyone will know what you are addressing. Answer the question concisely; there may be more questions and going off on a tangent will limit the number of questions you can take in the short time allotted.

Before the symposium

• Respond to your moderator’s requests in a timely fashion.
• Remember you are limited to 20 minutes total to give your talk and take questions. We recommend you plan on an 18-minute presentation. In no case will your moderator allow a speaker to go past their allotted time slot. Any overtime of the presentation within its time slot will reduce the time for questions.
• Moderators will introduce each presenter only by name and affiliation. Please feel free to include a more detailed introduction of yourself and your qualifications at the beginning of your presentation. This introduction is included as part of your 18-minute presentation time.
• Please focus your talk on the uniqueness of your approach, your results and findings, lessons learned and transferability. Presenters tend to spend too much time on background and methods and run out of time to present the most interesting findings. In general, the breadth of the abstracts received goes well beyond what can be explored in an 18-minute presentation. Make sure you will be communicating the most useful parts of your work.
• Practice the talk. Extemporaneous talks tend to run long, get off track, and fail to convey the most important lessons learned.
• Bring a back-up copy of your presentation on a USB flash drive. A copy should be downloaded to the session computer well before the start of the session. Your moderator may request a copy and may load it for you but be sure it is there and working properly before the session starts.
• Your session moderator should arrange to meet you and your other session presenters in the assigned meeting room 20 minutes or more before your session begins. Please plan to arrive at the time designated by your moderator. This gives you time to briefly meet, go over the presentation order one last time and make sure all presentations are uploaded to that room’s laptop and open without any trouble.

At the symposium

• Before the day of your session, please make every effort to meet your moderator, especially if you do not already know them. Make sure they have received your presentation for loading.
• Approximately 20 minutes before your session, all presenters should meet in the session room to make sure all presentations are loaded to the symposium laptop and displaying properly. A folder will be set up on the laptop desktop with the session number and title, and within the folder talks should be labeled 1-presenter last name, 2- presenter last name, and so on, for ease of finding and opening talks in sequential order per program layout.
• It is extremely important to make sure each speaker sticks to their allotted time since symposium participants may switch rooms during sessions. Please be courteous to your fellow presenters and stick to your assigned time slot.
• After each presentation, the floor will be open for any questions to the speaker, only if time allows (e.g., you did not go over your talk time). We will need to limit the questions to avoid going over into the next presenter’s time.
• Student presenters will have their presentations anonymously reviewed by judges as part of the Jody Connor Best Paper and Poster Award.

Again, thank you for taking on the role of Session Presenter at the NALMS International Symposium. We are looking forward to holding what we hope will be NALMS’ most successful and engaging symposium yet. With your help, we’re confident it will be!

Poster Presentation Guidelines

• Each poster will be mounted to a 4’ (1.22 m) tall × 8’ (2.44 m) wide display panel, and posters can be no larger than 3.75’ (1.14 m) tall × 6’ (1.8 m) wide. Please size your poster to fit this space. Pushpins will be provided to mount the poster to the panel.
• Poster presenters should plan on bringing manila envelopes to tack informational handouts to the display panels. Tables will not be provided or permitted.
• Posters boards will be set up in location TBD. Poster boards will be available starting at 7:00 am Wednesday, November 4 for set up. Posters are not assigned to a specific poster board, so choose any open panel for hanging your poster.
• Posters will be displayed for the entire symposium giving participants the opportunity to view posters at their leisure during refreshment breaks and lunch. Posters must be taken down by lunch on Friday, November 7.
• All poster presenters should plan to be present at their poster and available to answer questions during the Poster Session on Wednesday, November 4, from 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm.
• NALMS will provide a large postcard upon request for you to pin to your poster display board, indicating additional times you plan to be at your poster to answer questions/discuss your work. We have extended lunches, so we recommend selecting the final half hour of a luncheon block as a meet up time.
• Student poster presenters will have their poster anonymously reviewed by judges as part of the Jody Connor Best Paper and Poster Award.
• Best practices for poster creation can be found in many places on the internet. Do a search or check out https://www.posternerd.com/tutorials/poster-design-layout.aspx.

Again, thank you for taking on the role of Poster Presenter at NALMS’ International Symposium. We are looking forward to holding what we hope will be NALMS’ most successful and engaging symposium yet. With your help, we’re confident it will be!

General Best Practices for PowerPoint Presentations

(Adapted, in part, from River Rally and NPS Workshop)

• Keep it simple! Avoid lots of text or animation features, you want the audience to listen to you not read your slide. Less clutter makes for greater visual impact.
• Make all images and words on each slide visible to someone sitting 100 feet away. In general, use nothing smaller than 24-point font, and preferably use 30-point font or larger.
• Limit words on the slide; graphics convey the message much better than words, and the words should just be key words or phrases drawing attention to key points or acting as reminders to the speaker about what to say.
• Use graphs rather than tables wherever possible. Audiences can glean the key messages from a graph faster than from a table and less explanation will be needed.
• Stick to standard fonts that are most likely to be on every computer and avoid using serif fonts because they’re designed to be read at smaller sizes.
• Slides should have a consistent design and color scheme to flow easily and guide your audience through the presentation.
• Heighten contrast. Use either a light background and dark letters and images or a dark background and lighter letters and images. Avoid clashing or hard to discern colors for letters on whatever background you have chosen.
• A useful rule is no more than one slide per minute of presentation. Some will go faster than others, but an 18-minute talk should rarely have more than 20 slides.
• Put key conclusions on a slide at the end that can serve as the basis for questions and discussion.
• If you do not want photographs of your presentation taken and/or shared beyond personal use, please state so at the start of your presentation AND have a visual reminder on your slide(s).

General Best Practices for Recorded Presentations

(Adapted, in part, from River Rally and NPS Workshop)

Presenting Tips

• Speak slowly and clearly, with volume. Allow for natural pauses in your delivery to allow audience members to absorb the material.
• Smile! Your enthusiasm will come through.
• Information overload can happen quickly, and when you aren’t in the room to read your audience, you don’t know when they start to wander! Keep your focus clear and stay on point.
• Stay authentic and be yourself.

Script Advice

• Speak naturally, as you would in front of a live audience. Check to make sure after recording that you did not speak too fast. Avoid sounding like you’re reading from a script (even if you are!)
• Develop an agenda to determine how much time you want to spend on each main point.
• If using PowerPoint to present your slides, pause when transitioning between slides to avoid audio glitches when editing slides.
• The audience will begin to lose attention after 8 to 10 minutes of hearing from the same speaker. Here are a couple tips to keep folks engaged:
  • If you have co-presenters, plan to transition who is speaking regularly enough to maintain their attention. Practice these transitions to feel out what works best.
  • If you are presenting solo, interject a question or put up a photo that will spark an anecdote around this time in your presentation, to pull the focus back to you. Since you won’t have a live audience to pose questions as you go, imagine what questions could be asked. g., “At this point in my story, people are usually curious about XXXX… Here’s how I would answer that…”
• If you would like, you may switch between your slideshow and another program during your presentation (e.g., a PDF of a handout or a mapping program). If so, have all your materials ready on your desktop when your session starts. Close out all unnecessary programs from your desktop to ease this process.

Set-up/Staging Best Practices

Lighting

• Light yourself as well as possible, including from the front and above if possible. A window or open bulb desk lamp can really help here. Try to avoid up-lighting or light that comes from under your face.
• Please check to be sure there are no bright lights BEHIND you. This is known as “backlight,” and most cameras cannot produce decent images if this happens.
• Test your camera and try different angles in relation to lamps, overhead lights, and windows. Also keep in mind the time of day you will be recording and note how the sun might impact your light.

Camera / Video

• Your camera should be at the height of your eye level and should be “level” itself (not pointing up or down at you). Look directly into it when you want to connect with your audience. Be sure your camera is stable and won’t move at all during your presentation, which can create a shaky video.
• So, what should it look like? We should see some of your shoulders up to the top of your head. Don’t place your face in the center of the frame with too much headroom above you in the shot. The top of your head should be right at the top edge of the frame with your shoulders showing at the bottom.
• Avoid striped or plaid clothing, as well as large or shiny jewelry, which do not visually translate well on screen. Most cameras will boost contrast, so colors like black or white may not be the best choice as they can become too dark, or bright and ‘blind’ the viewer. Neutral tones like gray or light pastels like lilac or blue are good options.
• Try to keep looking straight at your camera. Turning your head is distracting to viewers.

Background

• Examine what the audience will be looking at behind you – it might be worth taking a few minutes to tidy a bookshelf or adjust where you are sitting.
• The plainer and simpler the better. A white wall, a sheet, office background – whatever you have easy access to. Please avoid any distracting elements in the background.
• Close any unnecessary programs or windows during your presentation and turn off or mute any pop-up notifications that might appear on your desktop while you’re sharing your screen.

Microphone / Audio

• Test your sound to make sure it is acceptable. To avoid feedback from your laptop speakers, it may be necessary to use a headset/headphones plugged into your computer.
• Please make sure your microphone is plugged in. Some laptops have decent mics built into them, so test yours to see if the results are good. You want a direct sound; you do NOT want to sound like you are sitting 10 feet away in a huge room.
  • A note about mic placement: The closer you can get the mic to your mouth and away from other surfaces, the better it will sound. If the mic is more than 12 to 16 inches away from you, it becomes more “roomy” and less “direct.”
• Minimize potentially distracting background noises, like pets, kids, ringing phones, or circulating fans.

Recording and Uploading Your Presentation

• Please double-check your presentation for audio quality and length before uploading to EventMobi. Watch the entire recording to be sure the audio quality is consistently clear.
• Videos should contain a prominent view of the presentation slides along with audio of the spoken presentation. You may also include thumb-sized video of the speaker overlaid on the slide images:

• PowerPoint and Keynote include tools for recording audio and video which can then be exported to a video file.

• PowerPoint Instructions
  • Add audio and video to your PowerPoint presentation
  • Export your PowerPoint presentation with audio and video to MP4
• Keynote Instructions
  • Add audio and video to your Keynote presentation
  • Export to PowerPoint or another file format in Keynote on Mac

• Video format: EventMobi supports mp4 video files and YouTube links. Links to presentations posted on YouTube are preferred. Power Point (PPT, PPTX) and Power Point Show (PPSX) files will not work.
  • File too large? You have a couple of simple options:
    • Add a video link (e.g., YouTube, Vimeo, etc.). Preferred format.
    • Upload from a cloud URL (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.)
      • Make sure you have turned link sharing on to make the link public. We will only use the link during the upload process.
• Uploading your video file
  • You will receive an individualized link from EventMobi to complete your presenter profile.
  • Open the link, fill in or update your information such as bio and photo.
  • To upload your pre-recorded video, click Add Video in the relevant session, and choose the video source to upload.
  • If you would like, you may also upload handouts, share online articles, or even create a poll on the form.
  • Click Save at the bottom of your form once everything is done. You will receive this pop-up notice if you were successful:

• You can return to your profile to update info whenever needed.

Need Help?

If you encounter any difficulties or have questions that are not answered here, please contact us at nalms2026@nalms.org.