With MDS Conference/ GP2 Annual Meeting 2025 coming up, wanted to share a couple tips about answering questions during talks or poster presentations. First things first, make sure you understood the question, if you’re not sure you can ask them to clarify and share you’re not sure if you understood a certain part. Sometimes people ask looooooooooooong questions, and your anxiety may cloud your comprehension (it happens to me all the time). There’s absolutely nothing wrong with asking for clarification, English may not be your or their first language either, so a clarification never hurt anyone. Noone’s there to take away your funding, your position, or anything, so not answering well or not knowing the answer is not the end of your career. You can say if you’re not sure, if you don’t know, or if you’re making an assumption (actually be pretty clear if it’s an assumption to not have the audience take it as a fact). If it’s a poster and you have a question based on what they ask you, turn it into a conversation to see where they’re coming from and you may actually get ideas for your project as well. Think about when you ask a question, if the presenter says “i don’t know”, you’re not gonna think the presenters less smart or anything, noone has to know everything at that exact moment, and it’s totally fine. Just as you get anxious answering questions, people get anxious asking as well. If you ever stood up during a conference to ask a question, it’s tough, and you may try the question in your mind a billion times to make sure it sounds ok and it makes sense. So it’s a two way street, don’t forget that while answering questions. Veeeery rarely, someone may be a bit bitter or ask questions to point out their own perspective (it’s not a question but a comment, and they may even talk about their own work). We all have egos, so they may take offense that you’re on stage and that you didn’t represent their perspective enough. Don’t panic, we don’t have long hours for talks or posters, there is no way you’ll touch on every single paper out there and share everyone’s perspectives. You’re there for your own work. So if you get a question/comment like that, you can just share you’re thankful for the contribution and that you’ll absolutely look into it (if you already weren’t aware) or you’d love to talk further with them during a longer time period so you can share perspectives and build up your work. Not every question is directed to judge you, and even if you crumble (like me) and can’t find words, nothing happens. We’ve all had the experience of getting asked questions we don’t know the answers to, sometimes it turns into something we actually add to the study to improve things, and sometimes it turns into just an old memory at a meeting. Don’t let imposter take over and make you feel like your work/your presentation is not good enough.
You got this!