Scientist Bill is about to give an update on the findings from his most recent research. His audience is mostly non-scientists. As he proceeds through the background, methodology used and the detailed scientific data, he notices his audience's attention waning. After he finally relays the results of his research 20 minutes later, he fears the significance of his work is lost on his audience.

Bill's fears are probably true. Bill has violated the first tip for creating a compelling scientific presentation for non-scientists; he has created the great American mystery presentation. He "saved" the most compelling portion of his research for the end. While this works well for novels and movies, it rarely plays out well in technical presentations. Non-scientific audiences need compelling information up front. So what should Bill do? He should save the mystery approach for his next screen play and focus on the five tips below that provide the essential lifelines for compelling technical presentations.

1. Put the conclusion up front

Oral technical presentations are different than papers published in journals. Technical papers begin by laying out all of the background, outlining the methodology, describing the data, and then drawing conclusions. For technical papers, this works well as the reader can thumb back through the document to see how the data supports the conclusions stated at the end. Unfortunately, audiences can't "rewind" a presenter to revisit supporting data. Therefore, strong technical presenters state the conclusion up front. Then, as the presenter proves their findings throughout the presentation, the audience can more easily piece together their data. Restating the conclusion at the end also ensures the coherence of the presentation. The diagram below illustrates the comparison between written and oral communication of technical content.

2. Data alone doesn't convince