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Are you thinking of submitting a proposal to present at a professional conference for the first time? Have you wondered whether the benefits of presenting outweigh the stress? Do you want an experienced presenter's advice for a successful submission and presentation?

Rustin Reed, PhD, CIH, CSP, presented "How to Train for and Beat the CIH Exam" during AIHA Connect 2024 in May. In his session, Reed sought to convey to participants that preparing for the Certified Industrial Hygienist exam was a "mental marathon" while engaging them with an interactive, participatory presentation style, he told SynergistNOW. Below, Reed shares how presenting increased his professional profile and offers tips for submitting session proposals and presenting sessions at conferences.

Benefits of Presenting at Conference

For Reed, presenting a conference session is fun. "I enjoy presenting," he said. "I wasn't always that way, but through my job and then just practicing and doing it, I've come to really enjoy it. It's fun to interact with people in that sort of setting."

He acknowledged that not everyone relishes speaking to a roomful of people like he does. Nonetheless, "all the members of AIHA have valuable experience and knowledge and insights to share whether they think they do or not," he said. "And people are hungry for that." Presenting a conference session allows professionals a platform for sharing their experience, knowledge, and insights at a time and place where interested audiences can find them. Presenting enhances the networking potential that draws many professionals to conferences, including Reed himself.

"If I go to a networking event, I might meet a couple of people who are interested in the same thing I am," Reed said. "If I'm presenting, I have a room full of people who, instead of me going and trying to hunt them out, all come to me."

Audience members have often introduced themselves to Reed after presentations, leading to new connections and opportunities to collaborate. He has also found that presenting increases his visibility after the conference has ended, an effect he compared to "brand marketing." Reed was offered his current position at Tulane University after his now-supervisor saw a short video of him presenting on studying for the CIH exam. Although not every presentation will lead directly to a new job, client, or contact, presenting at conference helps establish your expertise in a topic area, which eventually pays off.

"Increasing my own visibility and growing my own personal brand—those are huge benefits to presenting," Reed said.

Tips for Submitting Session Proposals

Reed submitted three presentation proposals for AIHA Connect 2024. Two of them were accepted—his proposal on CIH exam preparation and another on advancing industrial hygiene careers—but one was not. Because AIHA's Conference Program Committee shares with submitters their comments on proposals that are accepted and rejected, Reed learned as much from his proposal that was not chosen as from the ones that were.

A prospective presenter should submit a proposal on a topic that "addresses a need within the community," he said. You should also choose a topic that "aligns with your passion and your interests, your expertise."

Your communication skills are a significant component of your presentation, so Reed also recommended spending time on the "wordsmithing" of your proposal abstract. "Get some feedback from someone else," he suggested. "Send it to a few colleagues, to someone else who has submitted and had one accepted."

A proposal may stand a better chance of being accepted if it covers a topic that is interesting to attendees of the conference but for which the conference will have little relevant content. Reed's rejected proposal "had some good competition," he said. "It was a narrow topic field that people are interested in, but there were a number of other good abstracts in that space."

Potential presenters may also improve their chances of acceptance by submitting multiple proposals. If you submit two or three proposals, one might be accepted. "At least you've got the one," Reed said, "and you've got your chance to do all the things we've talked about—increase your visibility, promote your brand, and connect with people."

Tips for Presenting a Session

If your proposal is accepted, Reed stresses that practicing your presentation is "very important in terms of your oral communication skills," even more so than coaching or training. "If you have not had a lot of opportunities to present, then work on that. Get as much practice as possible," he said. "And if you don't have opportunities to present in front of an audience, then practice alone in front of the mirror."

Reed noted that some of the best presentations he's given were those he had to memorize and record ahead of time in case of technological failure. "I had done it so many times to get that perfect recording that when it came time to present, I had zero issues," he said.

Presenters should prepare for unexpected questions from the audience and have a plan for getting the discussion back on track. "If someone has a question and you don't know the answer, it's OK to not know the answer," Reed said. "Just say, 'Wow, that's a great question. I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to get back to you.'"

Moreover, while presenters should generally emphasize the quality of their content over the quantity, Reed recommended that you include content that you know you can skip without impacting the intelligibility of the presentation if you start running out of time. "The ideal is to end just about on time. You don't want to go over by a lot. You don't want to undershoot it by a lot," he said. "Make sure that you can hit your key points, the most important things, before you have to kind of skip towards the end."

Finally, he stressed, "it's OK to fail." It's all right if your proposal is rejected or if your presentation doesn't go the way you hoped. "I've had many presentations I walked away from, and I thought, 'Wow, I should have done this. I should have said that,' and that's OK."

"You've learned, and guess what? Next year, next time, you're going to be better," Reed said. "I think failure is an integral part of growth. You can't get better at writing abstracts, at presenting, or at connecting with people, except by doing it and trying and failing. Sometimes, you'll fall flat on your face. That's OK. Just get up and keep going. You'll get better."

If you're interested in presenting at AIHA Connect 2025, an outline of the Conference Program Committee's proposal review process is available on AIHA's website. More information on presenting can be found on the AIHA Connect 2025 Call for Proposals webpage. Please note that all proposals for educational sessions, professional development courses, case studies, scientific research, and professional posters to be presented at AIHA Connect 2025 must be submitted by Sept. 11, 2024.