Conference co-presentations

Conference co-presentations take place when evaluators and evaluation commissioners or users jointly present findings or discussions about processes from an evaluation.

There are many benefits of conducting a presentation with a co-presenter. It can help to share the load, both in terms of the preparation as well as the weight of engaging with an audience for the duration of the presentation, freeing up the non-speaking presenter(s) to monitor the audience's response. It can make presentations seem more dynamic and engaging to an audience, and presenters are able to feed off each others' energy, as well as pick up or jump in if the other presenter starts to flounder or goes off track. Additionally, there is much to be gained by combining the different knowledge, strengths and areas of expertise of multiple presenters.

Advice for using this method

Make sure you allocate time before the presentation to go over each others' roles and expectations:
- Who will create the slides
- What content each will cover
- Who will be responsible for fielding questions
- What the overall tone of the presentation will be
- Who will be monitoring the time
Pay attention to your co-presenter's signals and energy during the conference
- Good communication makes presentations appear much more professional and run more smoothly
Make it clear how you will signal to the other that you are handing the floor to them
- Hand signals or vocal cues such as intonation can be used as ways of indicating a change of speaker
- Making eye contact or subtle body language (e.g. raising a finger) could indicate that you would like to add something
- Placing your finger on your wrist can indicate that time is running out
Make references to your co-presenter's content (eg. 'As X said earlier), and if there are differences of opinion between presenters, address these tactfully to give the audience the full benefit of your collective ideas (e.g. 'X has offered one viewpoint on this matter already. Another way of looking at this is...") (LTConsulting, 2011)

Resources

Total Success: Co-Presenting Tips and Techniques

This article by Total Success, a UK business training organisation, gives detailed and practical advice about successfully conducting professional looking co-presentations.
Co-presentation with Leslie J. Morse at SGNOLA – advice and retrospective

In this blog post, Natalie Warnert uses her experience of being a co-presenter at a conference to give tips and advice to those who are new to the realm of co-presenting.

Sources

LTConsulting (2011, September). 'Co-Presenting Tips and Techniques' in Total Success: A different type of training [Website]. Retrieved from: http://www.totalsuccess.co.uk/co-presenting-tips-and-techniques/

Warnert, N. (2014, May). 'Co-presentation with Leslie J. Morse at SGNOLA – advice and retrospective' in Confessions of a ScrumMaster [Blog]. Retrieved from: http://nataliewarnert.com/co-presentation-with-leslie-j-morse-at-sgnola-advice-and-retrospective/