Nervousness
presenting data in front of peers and experts. Especially experts. They
know so much more. No way to know everything about the subject or all
the answers to all the possible questions the experts could ask. Seems
like a surefire recipe for public embarrassment. Starting out in science
where data and poster presentations are par for the course, these kinds
of non-productive ruminations are commonplace. Since I'm not an expert
on heart physiology, ECG, cannabis and its effects on physiology, I
can't provide a list of possible questions about your poster. However,
I'm going to suggest a way to approach your predicament that empowers
you during your poster presentation and relieves the nervousness. In
fact it's an empowering way to approach poster and data presentations in
general so the particulars are moot anyway.
In hindsight, spending time trying to think of all the possible questions someone might ask and trying to prepare adequate responses is a waste of time. A realization that was an epiphany for me showed me why. The epiphany was that no one can know work I did as well as me. When we present data from work we did, we are the best experts on it simply because we did it. We know everything about it A to Z in a way no one else possibly could.
If there is one thing you could take away from this answer, I hope it would be that no one at that congress or anywhere else for that matter could possibly know as much about the work in your poster as you do. You did the ECG on those subjects, you know all the little details that went into that work because you did them.
Yes, this is a psychological tool to feel self-confident when presenting in front of an expert audience but one that's rooted in fact. It's just a fact that's not easily self-evident, that the person who does a piece of work is the world's greatest expert on that piece of work simply because they did it.
If it helps, you could also think of your study and the wider world it belongs in in terms of the microcosm and macrocosm, respectively. The microcosm? Something on which you are the expert and no one else, what you did, why you did it, even the mistakes you made and the limitations of the study. The macrocosm? The implications, the past studies that led to your study, heart physiology, the ECG technique, cannabis and its effects on physiology. The macrocosm is where the experts and their pesky questions enter the picture. You likely know some of that macrocosm but not all and likely some experts at that medical student congress will know more, and that's the source of your nervousness. But hopefully, now your nervousness will be tempered by the fact that even those experts can't compete with you in the domain in which you alone will be the expert at that poster presentation, the microcosm, the work you did.
This approach relieves the mind of all that pressure of performance, replacing non-productive rumination with productive focus. Now, even if you don't know all possible questions and their answers, instead of being only a source of embarrassment to turn away from with all haste, an unanticipated question during your poster presentation becomes an opportunity to engage with the asker. More than anything else, it allows the mind to enter the scene open to engagement rather than anticipating to flee, and that makes all the difference.
https://www.quora.com/What-questions-can-I-expect-to-recieve-at-a-science-congress/answer/Tirumalai-Kamala
In hindsight, spending time trying to think of all the possible questions someone might ask and trying to prepare adequate responses is a waste of time. A realization that was an epiphany for me showed me why. The epiphany was that no one can know work I did as well as me. When we present data from work we did, we are the best experts on it simply because we did it. We know everything about it A to Z in a way no one else possibly could.
If there is one thing you could take away from this answer, I hope it would be that no one at that congress or anywhere else for that matter could possibly know as much about the work in your poster as you do. You did the ECG on those subjects, you know all the little details that went into that work because you did them.
Yes, this is a psychological tool to feel self-confident when presenting in front of an expert audience but one that's rooted in fact. It's just a fact that's not easily self-evident, that the person who does a piece of work is the world's greatest expert on that piece of work simply because they did it.
If it helps, you could also think of your study and the wider world it belongs in in terms of the microcosm and macrocosm, respectively. The microcosm? Something on which you are the expert and no one else, what you did, why you did it, even the mistakes you made and the limitations of the study. The macrocosm? The implications, the past studies that led to your study, heart physiology, the ECG technique, cannabis and its effects on physiology. The macrocosm is where the experts and their pesky questions enter the picture. You likely know some of that macrocosm but not all and likely some experts at that medical student congress will know more, and that's the source of your nervousness. But hopefully, now your nervousness will be tempered by the fact that even those experts can't compete with you in the domain in which you alone will be the expert at that poster presentation, the microcosm, the work you did.
This approach relieves the mind of all that pressure of performance, replacing non-productive rumination with productive focus. Now, even if you don't know all possible questions and their answers, instead of being only a source of embarrassment to turn away from with all haste, an unanticipated question during your poster presentation becomes an opportunity to engage with the asker. More than anything else, it allows the mind to enter the scene open to engagement rather than anticipating to flee, and that makes all the difference.
https://www.quora.com/What-questions-can-I-expect-to-recieve-at-a-science-congress/answer/Tirumalai-Kamala
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