PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/Conference presentation

How to Cite a Conference Presentation in MLA 9

An MLA 9 Works Cited entry for a conference presentation gives the presenter's last name and first name, the presentation title in quotation marks and title case, the conference name, the day the talk was given (15 Nov. 2023), and the city where it took place. If you found the talk in the conference's online program, add the link, and you can end with a short description, like Conference presentation. The in-text citation is the presenter's last name with no page number: (Dent et al.).

The format

Last Name, First Name. "Title of the Presentation." Conference Name, Day Mon. Year, City, State, www.url.com. Conference presentation.

PERRLA MLA Experts · Updated October 29, 2026
Checked against the MLA Handbook, 9th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Choose Conference & Symposium Materials, then Conference Session or Presentation. Add each presenter in the Author / Presenter role, in the order the program lists them. Then fill in the Contribution Title, the Type of Contribution (like Conference presentation or Paper presentation), the Conference Name, the city and state, and the date of the talk in Conference Start Date. Paste the link to the program listing last, if you found the talk online.

PERRLA puts the title in quotation marks and title case, writes the date day-month-year with the month shortened, shortens three or more presenters to the first one and et al., and puts your description at the end of the entry.

Only know the conference's dates, not the day of the talk? Add an end date, and PERRLA prints the whole range, like 12–15 Nov. 2023. Quoting a slide? In the citation, pick Other, type slide as the label, and the slide number as the value.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.

The parts of the works cited entry

1. Presenter

Start with the presenter's last name, a comma, and their first name as the program prints it. End with a period.

Rabourn, Mike, and Nathaniel Johnson.

Two presenters: invert only the first name, then write and and the second name in normal order. Three or more: give the first presenter, a comma, and et al. A talk by seven presenters still shows only one name.

Dent, Randl, et al.

2. Title of the presentation

Put the title in quotation marks and capitalize it in title case, even when the program prints it in sentence case or all lowercase. The period goes inside the closing quotation mark.

"Addressing Health Worker Burnout: Insights from the Dr. Lorna Breen Act Grantees."

Programs often lose capital letters (this one printed "the dr. lorna breen act"). Put back the capitals on names, laws, and acronyms.

3. Conference name

The conference is the container, so its name comes next, in plain type (not italics), followed by a comma. Use the name the program uses, year and all.

APHA 2023 Annual Meeting and Expo,

4. Date

Give the day the talk was given, written day, month, year, with months longer than four letters shortened (Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.). Session pages in an online program usually show the day.

15 Nov. 2023,

If you can't find the day, give the conference's dates as a range.

5. Location

Give the city where the conference met, with the state for a US city. If you know the venue, like a convention center or hotel, MLA puts it before the city. For a talk at a virtual conference, write online in place of the city.

Atlanta, GA.

6. Link

If you found the talk in the conference's online program, end the conference details with the link to its listing, without https://. Skip it for a talk you heard in person with nothing posted online.

apha.confex.com/apha/2023/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/526574.

7. Description

MLA lets you end the entry with a short description when the kind of source isn't obvious from the rest, like Conference presentation, Paper presentation, or Keynote address. It isn't in brackets, and it ends with a period.

Conference presentation.

Examples

A talk on health worker burnout given November 15 at the 2023 American Public Health Association meeting in Atlanta, by seven presenters from George Washington University and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. MLA names only the first presenter, then et al., and the link points to the talk's page in the online program.

  • In-text citation(Dent et al.)
  • Narrative citationAs Dent et al. explain, …

A paper presentation you heard in person

A two-presenter talk on the Nurse Licensure Compact and hospital staffing, given November 12 at the same 2023 meeting. You were in the room, and no slides or recording were posted, so the entry ends with the city and the description, with no link.

  • In-text citation(Rabourn and Johnson)
  • Narrative citationRabourn and Johnson argue that …

A presentation with three presenters

A study of school connection and adolescent suicide risk, presented October 27 at the 2024 American Public Health Association meeting in Minneapolis. Three presenters is enough for et al. in MLA, in the Works Cited entry and in the text.

  • In-text citation(Bird et al.)
  • Narrative citationBird et al. report that …

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation for a conference presentation is the presenter's last name. A talk has no page numbers, so there's nothing to add after the name.

  • One presenter: the last name alone.
  • Two presenters: both last names joined by and: (Rabourn and Johnson)
  • Three or more presenters: the first presenter and et al.: (Dent et al.)
  • A slide: a comma, then slide and its number: (Rabourn and Johnson, slide 4)
  • Name in your sentence: when nothing is left to put in parentheses, leave them off: Dent et al. describe what the grantees learned.

If you cite two talks by the same presenter, add a short version of the title in quotation marks: (Dent et al., "Addressing Health Worker Burnout").

Common mistakes

  • (Dent et al., 2023)(Dent et al.)That's APA. MLA in-text citations don't take the year, and a talk has no page to add.
  • False Promise: Nurse Licensure Compact Fails to Improve Nurse Staffing at Hospitals [Paper presentation]."False Promise: Nurse Licensure Compact Fails to Improve Nurse Staffing at Hospitals."That's the APA habit. MLA puts the title of a talk in quotation marks, and the description, if you use one, goes at the very end of the entry with no brackets.
  • Dent, Randl, Candice Chen, Julia Strasser, et al.Dent, Randl, et al.With three or more presenters, MLA names only the first, then et al.
  • APHA 2023 Annual Meeting and Expo, November 15, 2023,APHA 2023 Annual Meeting and Expo, 15 Nov. 2023,MLA writes the date day, month, year, and shortens months longer than four letters.
  • APHA 2023 Annual Meeting and Expo,APHA 2023 Annual Meeting and Expo,A conference is an event, not a published work, so its name isn't in italics.

Quick checklist

  • First presenter inverted, full first name as printed
  • Three or more presenters: first presenter, et al.
  • Title in quotation marks and title case
  • Conference name in plain type, then the day of the talk
  • City and state, then the program link if you used one
  • Optional description at the end, like Conference presentation
  • In-text citation: last name only, no year

Questions students ask

Do I use the date of the talk or the dates of the conference?

The date of the talk. The MLA Style Center's own example of a conference paper gives the day it was presented. If the program doesn't show the day, give the conference's dates as a range, like 12–15 Nov. 2023.

How do I cite a presentation from a virtual conference?

The same way as an in-person one, with the word online where the city would go. In PERRLA, type online in Location - City and leave the state and country blank.

Do I need the words Conference presentation at the end?

It's optional. MLA adds a description at the end when it helps your reader see what kind of source this is, and for a talk it usually does. Use the label the program uses, like Paper presentation or Keynote address.

What if I watched a recording of the talk online?

Cite the recording you watched. A talk posted on YouTube or a conference's video page is cited as an online video, with the site as the container and the date it was posted.

How is MLA different from APA for a conference presentation?

MLA spells out first names, uses et al. for three or more presenters, puts the title in quotation marks and title case, and gives the date of the talk after the conference name. APA lists every presenter, italicizes the title, and puts the description in brackets right after it. In the text, MLA uses the name alone (Dent et al.) where APA adds the year.

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapters 5 and 6 (the core elements, optional elements, and in-text citations), and the MLA Style Center's answer on citing a paper presented at a virtual conference (presenter, title, conference name as the container, date presented, and location). Example sources are the ones verified for the APA 7 page; for MLA, each session page in the American Public Health Association's online program was re-read by curl on October 29, 2026, for the presenters' full first names, the title, and the session date (Dent et al., 15 Nov. 2023; Rabourn and Johnson, 12 Nov. 2023; Bird et al., 27 Oct. 2024).

PERRLA builds the conference presentation entry for you, with the title in quotation marks and the date in MLA order.

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