Throughout my career I’ve collected a nice set of Strong Opinions about relatively unimportant things. Here’s one: Don’t end your talk with a slide that just says “Thanks!” or “Questions?” The slide that remains up during audience questions should be a summary of your main points
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As a side bonus it also gives you 1-2 minutes of flexibility on timing, which can be super useful for short talks. If you’re under time you can walk through the conclusions. And if you’re short on time, just say “Time is tight, so I’ll end here with my conclusions - thanks for listening”.
Of related interest, see "PowerPoint Does Rocket Science–and Better Techniques for Technical Reports":
https://www.edwardtufte.com/notebook/powerpoint-does-rocket-science-and-better-techniques-for-technical-reports/
In PowerPoint and LibreOffice Impress, you can also just type a slide number and press enter any time during the presentation to jump to the slide.
(Sorry, I was following a perceived pattern in the comments. But I do agree that much!)
I have never finished with either of those. I always finish with link to slides + lots of contact URLS. Which are valid, I think.
But you're dead right ("recency effect").
I think you post might make me split final sides into two parts.
LHS: key points.
RHS: links & contacts.
I do wonder who taught them to do this though... it's so common.
Absolutely going to do this from here on out. Thank you!
I also add my contact info to the last slide if the audience doesn’t know me well.
That really helps people figure out whether they want to come to your talk, and sets expectations nicely.
Class war is the only war
Also: there is no need for an outline slide. We all know you are going to start with an introduction, then methods and results, etc.
Triggering more of my pet peeves here :) Most have to deal with the information content per slide. And if you have to say "you don't need to read/see all this": don't show it!
That's just me.