It was a fantastic experience to give both talks, one for developmental mechanics and the other for the Indian Society of Developmental Biology. I was concerned about the duration of the talk; 25 minutes is long for a presentation but not too long for a seminar. Last year, I had only done long-form seminars, such as for my PhD defense, postdoc interviews, and invited talks. When I practiced with my current lab mates, it seemed that I was significantly over time. Advice from my boss was helpful; he suggested reducing the number of slides. I counted 22 slides and was able to present my work comfortably. I felt very lucky that the talks were scheduled in the same week. So I wasn’t nervous for too long.
It was a pleasure to present alongside such fantastic individuals. Yamini Ravichandran from Geneva gave an excellent talk about the mechanics of hydra development, and Natasha Shylo from Kansas presented on veiled chameleon development. I gained many new ideas from their talks.
The Q&A session was also very engaging. Personally, I appreciated emails from people after the talk with specific questions or ideas for collaboration.