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Scientifically justified pastimes
It's summer. That time of year when your inbox contains more out-of-office replies than actual replies. Things have quieted down at work. And you may …
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Learning to present better by hopping on an airplane
Do you ever pay attention to the safety tutorials on an airplane? I’m guessing no. You’ve seen them numerous times before and they bore you …
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How a five-minute presentation changed our lives
If anyone tells us that presentations don’t make an impact, we answer them about the five-minute presentation that changed our lives. This is the story …
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Is there life after your PhD?
‘It’s hopeless,’ says Fons Leroy, head of the Flemish Employment Service VDAB, after having spoken with a couple of PhD students. ‘They don’t have a …
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Slide design for Dummies Part II
Reworking your slides is not as painstaking as you may think. It is often just a matter of adding some extra boxes and selecting the …
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How deep down are you?
The longer you do research or perform any other type of work, the deeper you dig. This is called expertise. You begin with both of …
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How to pitch your idea
Do you sometimes need to sell an idea to your own team, a subsidy agency, or even potential buyers? That means you will be pitching. …
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PechaKucha: the dream of any audience
A world without boring PowerPoint presentations? It may sometimes feel like less of a struggle combatting climate change, than teaching speakers to give strong presentations. Fortunately there …
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How to explain difficult things
‘That will never work, my research is just too complex.’ Researchers often feel that they are simply buried too deep in their research domain to …
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Can robots make us into better presenters?
Robots are already capable of a great number of things. But for them to give a presentation? Nah. That is what I thought. And possibly, so …
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Why your research is (not) hitting the media
So, why is your scientific breakthrough not hitting the news? After all, you did your best: you found a clever angle, reached out to your …
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Letter to Donald Trump
Dear Mister President, In the newspapers I read that your Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Wilbur Ross, had fallen asleep during your speech in Jerusalem. No need …
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Where is the Brussels inner ring road located?
There is more jargon out there than you think. In this blog post we will answer the question: ‘Where exactly is the Brussels inner ring …
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Never go overtime again during your presentation
5 helpful tips for successful time management. There’s nothing more annoying than presenters going overtime, upsetting the entire program. But how should you manage your time …
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From mediocre to masterly in 48 hours
‘Everything is under control’, he assures me. It is Sunday evening. In exactly 48 hours he will be presenting his talk at the University of …
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Find the opposition
Imagine that you are driving along a dark highway. You are all alone in the car and the road is deserted. You have another 400 …
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No more excuses! What not to say during a presentation
Just a couple of words could make or break your presentation. Has this ever happened to you? That moment when you think: ‘Drat, where is …
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Creating a poster in 4 clear steps
Our blog is filled with advice on how to create your next poster. And yet, many researchers are simply not applying those tips. Why is …
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5 tips to score points with your PhD defense
Could you also apply our presentation tips to a PhD defense? This is a question we are often asked. As if jury members at a PhD defense …
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Slide design for dummies
Because all too many researchers struggle with the design of their presentation, I wanted to show you a couple of before-and-after slide examples. Extreme slide …
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Why your presentation should not be anything like Facebook
Imagine life being a string of Facebook posts. A latte macchiato on a sunny day, attending a festival together with good friends, completing that 10K event, …
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How to write and send newsletters
Instead of aiming to improve your presentation skills, this blog post will show you how to share your research with the world. A newsletter is an …
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Start thinking like a burglar
Having company over is fun, except when they show up unexpectedly. Or worse, if they turn your whole house upside down. That happened to me not …
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Why general practitioners are bad presenters, and what you could learn from this
The guidelines for the thesis presentations for our future general practitioners (GP's) are as follows: Give a 10-minute presentation containing no more than 10 slides with …
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How to make it into the news (and detect mechanical doping)
Wouldn’t you secretly love for your research to be featured on the radio, on news websites or in the newspaper? This happened to Jeroen Peeters, …
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Dead fish in your audience?
You have just spent hours preparing your presentation. Your results are excellent and your slides are top of the line. And yet, your audience is giving …