Thank you for presenting at the 2023 FICP Annual Conference! Use this resource as a one-stop-shop while preparing for your session. If you have any questions along the way, please reach out to Lindsey Williams.
Tip! Pending your speaking role, not all sections on this page will be relevant to your session and/or participation. When in doubt, connect with the FICP Education Team.
IMPORTANT DATES
- Conference Dates: November 12 – 15, 2023
- Deliverables:
- Participate on a Prep Call: October 16 – November 3, 2023
- Submit Your Presentation Deck: November 6, 2023
About FICP
Preparing for Your Onsite Experience
Travel & Hotel Information
Presentation Guidelines
Make Your Content Stick!
Market Your Presentation
ABOUT FICP
With a history spanning 60 years, Financial & Insurance Conference Professionals (FICP®) provides access to education, experience and resources targeting the needs of financial services and insurance meeting professionals from across North America. FICP offers first-rate conferences, symposia, virtual networking and educational opportunities to assist the development of high-caliber meetings professionals. These resources also serve to help meetings professionals increase their success and strategic value. FICP boasts a community of 1,500 meetings and events professionals and hospitality partners and maintains a unique, balanced planner-to-hospitality partner ratio at all events.
PREPARING FOR YOUR ONSITE EXPERIENCE
Audio/Visual Provided & Layout
All rooms will have a screen, projector, laptop, advancer, and lavalier microphones for the speakers. The speakers will present from a riser.
Depending on the room configuration, attendees may be in rounds or theatre.
Your PowerPoint will be pre-loaded on the laptop in advance of your session. Should you have any changes, please bring a copy on a USB drive and send the new version to the FICP Education Team.
TRAVEL & HOTEL INFORMATION
The 2023 FICP Annual Conference will be held at the JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort. You can read more about the accommodations here.
JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort
400 South Collier Boulevard
Marco Island, FL 34145 USA
PRESENTATION GUIDELINES
Presentations are due Monday, November 6, 2023. Submit your final presentation materials to Lindsey Williams.
PowerPoint Guidelines
- Utilize the 2023 FICP Annual Conference PowerPoint Template for your presentation to ensure all presentations are unified under the conference theme.
- To support greener, more sustainable conference practices we will not provide hard copies of presentation materials; instead, these materials will be available via the conference mobile app for attendees' use before and after the conference.
- When creating your slide deck, reference our presentation best practices under the Make Your Content Stick! section below.
The FICP Education Team will organize a prep call before going onsite. During this call, we will review your outline and/or PowerPoint if ready. After reviewing content, we will cover logistics for the conference.
MAKE YOUR CONTENT STICK!
Adult Learning Principles
Various studies show that within one hour, people forget 50% of new information presented. Within 24 hours, that number rises to 70%, and within a week, it rockets to 90%. Use the following guidelines to help you tailor your presentation to adult learners:
- Their willingness to learn is in direct correlation to the ROI or relative importance/applicability of the learning. Relevance to real life and "what's in it for me" play a very important part in cognition and engagement.
- Clear learning outcomes, real life applicability, examples and connections to existing knowledge help degine relevance for the learner.
- Clear and articulated learning outcomes help set a road map for success. Having each new piece of information build logically on the last allows for learners to understand where the learning is going.
- A typical lecture where attendees sit passively can produce cognitive overload. Adults will retain more information when they have opportunities to actively practice their knowledge and skills.
- Stories, case studies and real-life scenarios connect the learner to the lessons. Asking the learner to actually do something (analyze, share, discuss, reflect, demonstrate or present) allows for active processing and better learning.
- They should be encouraged to reflect, share and discuss their knowledge and experience during the learning process.
- Creating associations between concepts can increase our ability to remember details by as much as 40 percent. As Caine and Caine (1991) explain it, "the greater the extent to which what we learn is tied to personal, meaningful experiences, the greater and deeper our learning will be.
- Research shows attention is at its highest when something unexpected (humor, activity, visual aid, interaction, engagement, etc.) is introduced into a learning activity.
PowerPoint Best Practices
Creating slides for a presentation allows you to paint a picture for the audience. Slides should serve as an outline for your presentation, not a script. A good goal is to have no more than one slide for every two to three minutes; a one-hour presentation should have no more than 25–30 slides. When creating content, aim to keep slides SIMPLE:
- Short and sweet: Limit your slides to seven lines of text and seven words per line
- Illustrations: Use images and infographics in lieu of text; white space helps emphasize the most important point
- Maintain font color and size: Consider your delivery method; can attendees see the text from the back of the room?
- Placement: Ensure your message does not get lost; it should be front and center
- Less is best: A learner can only absorb so much from one slide
- Enrich: Build in videos, polling and/or other interactive elements; give your slides a story
Audience Engagement Strategies
Research shows that attention is at its highest when something unexpected is introduced into a learning activity — for example, humor, polling, an activity, a visual aid or group discussion. For the best results, pick a few interactive elements to incorporate into your presentation:
- Incorporate learning activities to demonstrate value
- Tell a story
- Play a quick game
- Poll your audience (we recommend slido’s free version!)
Handouts are a fantastic and helpful way to engage your audience and trim your slide deck. Freshen up on the top tips for effective presentation handouts.
MARKET YOUR PRESENTATION
Be sure to follow and tag FICP on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, and use the hashtag #FICP23 when promoting your session on social media!