Logout Manage Profile

Speaker Resources

General Speaker Information

The EDUCAUSE staff is committed to assisting all speakers in making sure their presentations are a success. There are many logistical details that are best organized in advance, so your cooperation in responding by the various deadlines as communicated to you is sincerely appreciated.

Speaker Frequently Asked Questions

In an effort to answer speakers' questions, we have developed this FAQ section. The FAQs are divided into session types, so follow the links below for answers to commonly-asked questions.

If you still have a question, contact Leslie DeGrassi at ldegrassi@educause.edu, for track-, corporate presentation-, or featured speaker-related questions, or Victoria Fanning at vfanning@educause.edu for poster session- or seminar-related questions.

What Kind of Session Are You Presenting?

 

Speaker Staging Room

The speaker staging room is located in the Convention Center in Meeting Room A302, open Sunday through Thursday; see the daily schedule for exact times. Speakers are encouraged to check in with the technicians to test their equipment. If you need to prepare for your session, a computer with a printer will be available in the speaker staging room, which is equipped with computers for practicing your session and making last-minute modifications.

Check-in

To ensure the success of the audio/visual and networking aspects of your presentation, we strongly request that presenters using technology check in at the speaker staging room well before their session. (NOTE: Poster Session presenters are not required to check into the speaker room.)

 

Testing

The speaker staging room will enable presenters using their own computers to test their equipment with the type of projector that will be used in the meeting rooms. It will also enable presenters using the EDUCAUSE-provided computers to either transfer their presentation to our server which can be accessed from the meeting room computers, or write their presentation to a CD.

Each computer will have the following programs as well as floppy, CD, and DVD drives, and USB ports. There will be PCs available in the Speaker Staging Room on which speakers can make last-minute changes to their presentations.

  • Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access)
  • Acrobat Reader
  • Internet Explorer
  • Firefox
  • WinZip
  • Windows Media Player
  • Real Audio
  • Macromedia Flash Player
  • Macromedia Shockwave Player

When you arrive at the conference, please come to the Speaker Staging Room to test your computer, review your presentation, and/or place your presentation onto removable media and the network. The room will be staffed by Davis Audio-Visual personnel for help in connecting your personal computers to the AV equipment, as well as providing a test run of presentations to be made using the meeting room computers. EDUCAUSE personnel will also be staffing the room to help transfer your presentation to CD and/or to place a copy of your presentation on our local server.

Hours

  • Sunday, 1:00–5:00 p.m.
  • Monday, 7:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
  • Tuesday, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
  • Wednesday, 7:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
  • Thursday, 7:00–9:30 a.m.

PowerPoint Template

Here is a PowerPoint template that you can use as you create your slides. To use this template, follow these steps.

  1. Download it to your computer.
    • Right click on the link above, then release.
    • Select "Save Target As..."
    • Choose a destination folder, and click the Save button.
    • The "Download complete" dialog box will appear.
    • Click the Close button.
  2. Open Microsoft PowerPoint
  3. From the Menu Bar, select File > Open. The Open window will appear.
  4. Go to the directory containing your download and double-click the EDUCAUSE2006_Speaker_template file to open it. This will give you the template for your presentation.
  5. To modify the editable background areas shown on the template, select View > Master > Slide Master from the Menu Bar, and make desired changes.

Read tips for creating effective PowerPoint presentations.

Contact Information

For answers to any track- or featured speaker-related questions, please contact Leslie DeGrassi, Speaker Liaison, at ldegrassi@educause.edu, 303-939-0325.

For answers to any poster session- or seminar-related questions, please contact Victoria Fanning at vfanning@educause.edu, 303-939-0315.