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In a paper, there is an Acknowledgements section, in which I can thank everyone that helped me along the way. But what do I do in a 15-minute presentation (e.g. in a non-archival conference)? I do want to thank the people that helped me, both for my and for their benefit (in case they may be sitting in the audience, or viewing the talk later in video).

How can I thank/acknowledge people during a short presentation?

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18

As Stephan and posdef already wrote, a (short or long) acknowledgement page at the end of the talk is the standard you see on conferences/talks. However I saw a few, who had a short acknowledgement as one of the first slides or at the start of the chapters of their hour long talk.

This was quite interesting, since you directly saw, who was responsible for the work and the presenter (in this case the group leader/professor) didn't sound like he did all the work.

Also, you can end on your summary page. The end of the talk is often times the most interesting and memorable part, which is why the summary in the end is quite an intriguing point. And the summary will stay to start the discussion and give the hearer again an overview of your talk.

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    I believe the reason for having the acknowledgement slide in the beginning is due to how you want to end a presentation: you want to end it at the most interesting part, which shouldn't be the acknowledgements. This goes in line with the "thanks for listening"-slide which adds nothing to the presentation. This, however, does not qualify for why the ack. slide should be up front. One way of finishing the presentation would be Conclusions, then quick acknowledgements, and then display the conclusions again, as these are the important message you want to send. – MrGumble Apr 29 '15 at 12:33
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    As a variant on this, consider putting the acknowledgements as the next-to-last slide, with an automatic timer that switches it over to a summary. End the talk at the acknowledgements slide, but the summary appears after a reasonable time and stays up during questions. – Patricia Shanahan Apr 29 '15 at 13:09
  • I do it as the first slide so that I always have enough time for it. – StrongBad Apr 29 '15 at 19:21
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    What about the title page? Co-authors are usually listed there, that's a good start for a list of acknowledgements. – Marc Glisse Apr 29 '15 at 19:54
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    @MarcGlisse Depends on the University/filed. In chemistry afaik it's normally only the presenting author on the first page. Esp. so, if a professor presents the work of his group. – Julian Apr 30 '15 at 6:56
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You can put such acknowledgements on the very last slide, which will stay up while you field questions after your presentation (unless you need to flip back to a specific slide to answer a question).

Don't recite every single name in a presentation. Just end your talk like this:

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who has helped me in this project.

Then look expectantly at the session chair, who should lead the applause and ask for questions, while everyone who is interested can read your acknowledgements on the slide.

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    Actually I don't like this at all. The last slide is much better used to provide an overview of the talk and topic to elicit questions and give the audience a summary. A list of collaborators is boring and useless to an audience. – dsfgsho Apr 30 '15 at 13:49
  • @dsfgsho That is what can come in the slide before the acknowledgements. When discussion starts, just flip back to it. – skymningen Feb 23 '17 at 12:23
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In addition to the other answers: don't forget to put your funders on your acknowledgements slides!

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It's common practise to have an Acknowledgements slide, at the very end, before you take any questions.

I disagree with Stephan about the certainty with which he recommends clumping up everyone. While it is rather cumbersome and time-consuming to list everyone, you could single out a couple of people, especially if you have done collaborative work, where some people ran samples, did analysis etc for you.

I mean something along the lines of (the stuff in parentheses are spoken, not written out):

Acknowledgements

Your supervisors group

Steve Smith (for his work on 2D gels)

Barbara McDonald (for her help in data analysis)

Colleagues at the group

Other group

Zack Muckerberg (for ...)

Muckerberg's boss (for the possibility to collaborate)

Other collaborators

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3

Something I see very frequently is an acknowledgements slide that consists of, for instance, a group photo (if the people you want to acknowledge are in your research group). Then particular faces may be circled/labeled. Decent way of showing "hey, these people!" without necessarily having just a list.

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