Stephen Attends a Workshop

Yesterday, I attended a workshop called "Conference Paper Writing and Presenting: Strategies for Success," led by Matt Del Busto, a writing specialist at Purdue’s Writing Lab. Matt, who has an MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan, has a knack for blending creativity with practicality, which made for an interesting mix of advice on writing and presenting conference papers. It wasn’t a “reinvent the wheel” type of workshop, but it definitely offered some thoughtful reminders and a few new tricks to consider.

One of the main takeaways for me was the idea of focusing on the so what factor of your research. It’s easy to get caught up in the technical details or the process of your work, but Matt kept coming back to the importance of framing everything around what the audience should take away. He talked about crafting a clear and concise central message—kind of like an elevator pitch, but less robotic and more tailored to the audience at hand. It made me realize how much time I’ve spent in the weeds of my research and how little I’ve worked on making the big picture shine through.

Another highlight was his advice on presentations. Instead of drowning the audience in text-heavy slides or overly complicated visuals, Matt emphasized simplicity and focus—one key idea per slide, visuals that add value rather than clutter, and a structure that doesn’t overwhelm the audience. He even shared examples of poorly designed slides (which, of course, we all had a good laugh at before realizing we’ve been guilty of some of those same mistakes). It was refreshing to think about presenting not just as a data dump but as a form of storytelling, where the goal is to keep the audience engaged rather than bury them in minutiae.

What stood out most, though, was his approach to practice. It wasn’t groundbreaking advice—practice your talk, time yourself, anticipate questions—but the way he framed it as practicing like it’s game day stuck with me. You can’t just run through your talk in your head and hope for the best; you have to make it as real as possible. That idea clicked for me, and I’m already planning to set up some mock Q&A sessions before my next conference.

This workshop was a good reset for me as a scholar and presenter. It didn’t revolutionize the way I think about conference papers, but it reminded me that effective communication is as much about clarity and intention as it is about content. As someone who sometimes overthinks both writing and presenting, it was a good reminder to keep things simple and focus on connecting with the audience. I walked away with a few ideas I can put into practice right away, which feels like time well spent.