National undergraduate research conferences have been commonplace in the US for many years e.g. the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), and are becoming more frequent elsewhere. Alongside national conferences many universities hold their own events, which are often institution-wide, so as to appeal to a large proportion of their student body. These multi-disciplinary "public" conferences offer students broader experiences than class-based, subject-level presentations, and motivations to participate will be different i.e. based on professional and personal development, forging research contacts, and enhancing employability, rather than securing assessment grades. This is the first of two articles that offer guidance to help the reader maximise the benefits from participating in multi-disciplinary conferences. In this paper, the authors discuss reasons to participate, identify the usual conference format and preparation process, and describe how to prepare an effective verbal or poster presentation.