IET Present Around Seattle Competition

How to register

Competitors are asked to prepare a 10-minute slideshow presentation on any scientific or engineering subject. The presentation can be on a co-op experience, a research project, an internship, or really anything that is related to science or engineering. Judging is based on the presenter's presentation skills (70%) and its technical content (30%).

Please contact the PAV Coordinator at ietrepresentativewesterncanada@gmail.com to register your interest by May 14, 2024.

More information

Present Around Vancouver is the IET’s presentation competition for students, recent graduates, apprentices and young professionals aged 18 to 30.

Competitors are asked to give a presentation for 10 minutes on a subject related to engineering and technology, and to answer questions for a further five minutes.

To make it even easier, it is perfectly acceptable to use your final year project presentation, a presentation from your graduate scheme or any other presentation which you already have.

The event is mainly to judge presentation skills although the topic should be appropriate to the intended audience of students and young professionals.

The prizes are £150 (eqv. USD $185) for the winner and £100 (eqv. USD $125) for the runner-up. The runner-up prize will only be awarded if there are four or more competitors (maximum of eight).

Competitors should provide a brief synopsis of their presentation (100-200 words) latest by May 14, 2024. This will be used in event material, be provided to the judges, and then submitted as part of the entry to later stages of the competition.

There will be three judges who will assess the presentations then decide on a winner and runner-up.

In the event of a physical event, the presentation room most probably will have a raised platform, with a microphone system provided for the speakers. A laptop and video projector will be provided as standard, and the competitors will be asked to provide a USB stick with their presentation already uploaded on, or to email their presentation in advance. Any additional equipment will need to be provided by the presenter.

Someone from Chartered Engineers Pacific will chair the event. During each presentation, the chair will indicate the time after eight minutes and then again after ten minutes. The speaker should then finish the presentation as quickly as possible. If necessary, the chair will interrupt the speaker and ask them to stop immediately.

Tips for competitors

1) Minimize text, you are going to tell the audience what they need to know (so do not have them read it as well).

2) Pace yourself, 1 slide per minute is a good general pace.

3) Speak clearly/loudly.

4) Do not fidget, keep your hands in one place except for intentional motions (and don’t shift your body weight back and forth).

5) Take your time, pauses make a clear impact and allow you to collect your thoughts.

6) Remember your audience, though it will be mostly a technical audience there will be a range of backgrounds and not everyone may know the basis of your topic.

7) Don’t get lost in the details; a 10-minute presentation is hard to get a lot of detail in. I suggest you focus on an overview of your topic (or one specific aspect of it).

8) Why? With these presentations the application is generally what peaks most interests, so why is your topic great?

9) Interdisciplinary topics: if your topic is not a core engineering topic, then please ensure you explain the non-engineering basics.