17th Global Slag Conference 2025
25 - 26 June 2025, Vienna, Austria
Imperial Riding School hotel, Ungargasse 60, Vienna, 1030 Austria
'Maximising profits from slag'
#globalslag
Join the Global Slag LinkedIn group
Presenters at Global Slag Conference should carefully note the following points and deadlines
Main points: Authors should supply the presenter biography, passport copy and finalised Powerpoint presentation by 2 June at the latest!
General
Confirmed authors are included in the conference programme on the web site. Presenters are strongly encouraged to include new information in their presentations. Authors should use metric units throughout their presentations.
Conference proceedings
The powerpoint slides of all presenters are available for download as a PDF by all delegates. All presenters must also send, at the same time, a short biography (around 100 words), which allow the session moderator to introduce them.
Conference presentations
Presenters will have 20 minutes each to give their presentation, and up to 10 minutes will then be allowed for questions. Please note that, in theory and in practice, presentations/questions are not allowed to run over their allotted time. All presentations will be given in English.
All presentations should be given using PowerPoint software. Presenters should send a copy of their presentation by email, which will be installed in the correct sequence on the conference laptop computer. If your presentation includes any video clips, send using DropBox or similar, prior to the conference.
Important note
If your material is not with the organisers by the deadline, your presentation will be deleted from the programme and placed on a waiting list, and you will be charged the full delegate registration rate applicable at that time to attend the conference - even as a speaker. So, you see, we are serious about receiving your conference materials on time!
Presentation format
All presenters must use a standard introductory 'slide', which will include the conference logo, the title of the presenter and the title of the presentation. This slide must also be used at the end of all presentations, while the question session is underway. Other 'slides' may take whatever form the presenters wish, but should include the conference logo in any of the four corners.
Download Powerpoint introduction and end slide. (322kb)
(if you have any problems downloading the slide, contact the organisers as soon as possible)
Download conference logo: (click & hold on the image below, then save the image).
Best Presentation Award
The conference questionnaire will include a section allowing delegates to vote for their favourite presentations at Global Slag Conference. A small prize will be awarded to the presenter of the 'best' presentation, at the informal reception at the end of the conference.
Global Slag Conference will be hard work, but will be rewarding and will also be a lot of fun. The convenors of the conference would like to thank all presenters for their hard work.
We look forward to meeting you soon!
Tips for speakers
We’ve had the pleasure of sitting through literally thousands of presentations over the years. In that time, we have seen some really terrific presentations, where the audience was literally on the edge of its seat, and where listeners waited for every utterance as if their lives depended upon it. We have also heard a few presentations that were not so good. We thought we would take the opportunity to give a few hints to potential speakers...
What not to do...
• Don’t give an advertisement. The audience didn’t come to the conference to listen to you trying to sell them something. They really hate this (we know, they tell us). Tell the audience something useful that they can take home. In fact, if you give them something useful and interesting, then the audience will forgive many other failings - but they won’t forgive you trying to sell them something for 25 minutes (and they won’t forget it either). Keep your company information to ONE slide.
• Don’t read from a script, even if you think you need to. One of the best presentations we ever saw started as a deadly-dull script-based talk. Half way through, the presenter lost his place and did the rest from memory - it was excellent (he went on to win the best presentation prize...).
• Don’t stand too close to the microphone: think of your listeners. You wouldn’t shout in their ears... and standing at sensible distance from the mike also avoids ‘popping,’ where a pronounced ‘p’ can make an amplified booming sound.
• Don’t have too many slides: We once saw a presenter try to get through 125 slides in 25 minutes (that’s 12 second per slide). 25 slides should be your absolute maximum.
• Don’t try to be too clever. If you get lost in your own powerpoint, you will have lost your audience a long time ago.
• Don’t talk too fast, especially if you have a strong accent. This applies to native-English speakers as well!
• Never ask for questions in the middle or at the end: Questions in the middle break up the flow of your talk. Even if you have given a good talk and you ask for questions at the end, you will inevitably be confronted by an embarrassing silence. At the end, simply say “Thank you very much.” There will be applause: Then the chairman will ask for questions. Simple.
• Don’t try to get too much information across: If you can only get the audience to take home three pieces of information (which might still be asking too much) consider which three are most important (to you*)...
• That thing about ‘tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you’ve told them’? Don’t bother. Please just spend your time telling us your interesting story - we don't need to be told it three times. Also, you might need to know the underlying structure of your talk, but we probably do not.
What to do...
• Follow the instructions for authors - supply all the materials and hit all the deadlines (the conference convenor/moderator is your friend... don’t rile him!)
• When you get to the conference, check to make sure that your presentation runs as you expect it to (including any movies).
• Familiarise yourself with the lecturn/computer/microphone/laser pointer etc well before your alloted presentation time. On the day, don’t blame anyone else if you didn’t do your homework!
• Tell a story. All good presentations have a start, a middle and an end. Often it might be ‘We had a problem, this is what we did to fix it and this is how it all turned out.’ Or it might be ‘The industry is in this situation, we’ve invented machine X, this is how it can benefit you.’ Or 'This is the way the industry was, these are the current trends and this is what the industry will look like in X years.' A good talk needs a structure. Take the audience on a journey - tell us a story.
• Use pictures or video to help tell your story (but make sure that you have supplied your video in a format that can be used by the conference computers).
• Think about your audience at all times: What will make them listen to you and take on board what you are telling them?
• Content is king: *Think about what the audience will find most useful as a take-home as well.
• Make all slides readable from the back: I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard “You might not be able to read this, but...” If in doubt, leave it out. Better still, make graphs or infographics out of your tables of numbers. Tables of numbers in a presentation are a waste of space and a wasted opportunity.
• Open your mouth to let the words come out. Use your voice carefully: not too high or too low, not too fast or too slow: speak carefully and be aware as well of the power of silence.
• Use body language if required: connect with your audience (for example by trying to look into the eyes of every one of your listeners at least once during the presentation). Wandering about will distract your audience from your message. Never walk down the central aisle to speak from behind the front-most members of the audience - it is creepy!
• Smile: the audience wants you to succeed!
If you follow our tips, you will be in with a chance of winning the ‘Best Presentation Award.’
Good luck!
