Giving presentations

Talks at a conference Keynote speech Tutorial Luncheon Talk Paper talk Poster Birds-of-Feather (BOF) – informal gatherings of people who are interested in talking over issues on the same topic

Making presentations Only practice can turn a nervous researcher into an accomplished public speaker but with the right preparation even a first talk can be successful. The purpose of a talk is to introduce a research program and persuade the audience that the work is significant and interesting.

The Attention Curve Almost everyone listens in the beginning divide your presentation in several parts, each ended by an intermediate conclusion

Content What and how much to select depends not only on the time available also on the expertise of the audience. a diverse audience may be unfamiliar with even the area of your research, so it may be necessary to introduce basic concepts before proceeding to the results A workshop attended by specialists

constructing a talk Choosing the single main goal the particular idea or result the audience should learn. Then work out what information is required before the result can be understood Often this information is a tree whose branches are chains of concepts leading to the result at the root. Much of the hard work of assembling the talk is pruning the tree

constructing a talk In the second phase, assemble the talk by critically selecting the important points and ordering them into sequence. During the second phase you should judge harshly because otherwise the talk will contain too much material

A talk should be straightforward Context can be as important as the ideas. why a problem is important where it arises why previous approaches are unsatisfactory. Complex issues should be presented slowly and in stages avoid detail that the audience is unlikely to follow.

Organization A crucial difference between a talk and a paper is that talks are inherently linear Broadly, the structure might be: – the topic of the talk – any necessary background – the experiments or results – the conclusions and implications of the results

The introduction Define the Problem Motivate the Audience Introduce Terminology Discuss Previous Work Emphasize the Contributions of your paper Provide a Road-map

The introduction X This talk is about new graph data structures. I’ll begin by explaining graph theory and show some data structures for representing graphs. Then I’ll talk about existing algorithms for graphs, then I’ll show my new algorithms. I’ll show experimental results on our cluster machine and then show why the algorithms are useful for some practical graph traversal problems."

A better introduction √ "My talk today is about new graph data structures. There are many practical problems that can be solved by graph methods, such as the travelling salesman problem, where good solutions can be found with reasonable complexity so long as an optimal solution isn't needed. But even these solutions are slow if the wrong data structures are used. I‘ll begin by explaining approximate solutions to the salesman problem and showing why existing data structures aren't ideal, then I‘ll explain my

introduced with a tale or anecdote a talk on automatic generation of acceptable timetables began with an account of the timetabling problems at a certain large University the speaker made a good story of the estimate that, without computer support ， the timetabling of a new degree utilizing existing subjects from several faculties would require 200 years.

The Body Abstract the Major Results Explain the Significance of the Results Sketch a Proof of the Crucial Results …..

The conclusion X "So the output of the algorithm is always positive. Yes, that's about all I wanted to say, except that there is an implementation but it's not currently working. That's all.“ Clearly signal the end. Use the last few moments to revise the main points and ideas you want the audience to remember

Preparation Rehearse the talk often enough and the right words will come at the right time. You want to appear spontaneous, but this takes practice Time the talk and note what stage you expect to reach at 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and so on, to help you finish on time.

Delivery speaking well making good use of slides, and relating to the audience Use a natural tone of voice. Breathe deeply, not by gulping air like a swimmer but by inhaling slowly to the bottom of your chest.

Delivery Speak a little slower than you would in normal conversation; around words per three minutes is right for most people Beware of irritating habits Be modest. Don't talk down to the audience or make aggrieved statements such as "people all said it couldn't work, but my work proves them wrong".

Delivery Expect to be nervous -- give a preparatory talk or two, so if possible practice before a friendly (but critical) audience Control your time

Getting through to the Audience Use Repetition Remind, don’t assume Don’t Over-run Maintain Eye Contact Control Your Voice Control your motion Take care with your appearance

Question time Question time at the end of a talk is used to clarify ， misunderstandings and to amplify any points that listeners want discussed in more detail Five or ten minutes is too brief for serious discussion: keep answers short and avoid debating with an audience member

Question time Involve the audience in question time. Repeat the question in your own words and talk to the whole audience, not just the questioner Never try to bluff when you don’t know Never be rude to audience members or dismissive of their questions

Slides Slides are a point of focus for the attention of the audience A typical slide consists either of text or of a figure with a few words of explanation What you are saying, rather than the sketchy content of a slide, should be the centre of attention Don't use slides as a way of avoiding contact with the audience

Slide tools Slide layout – Light fonts on dark background do not display as well as dark fonts on white. Animation Don 't add music or noises to individual slides.

Text slides Text slides provide structure and context The audience will expect you to discuss every point listed on each slide Each point should be a topic to discuss, not necessarily a complete statement in itself

Text slides Some speakers use a kind of pidgin-English for their slides. X Coding technique log-based, integer codes. Be brief, but not meaningless. √ The coding technique is logarithmic but yields integer codes.

Figures An illustration from a paper may not be appropriate for a talk. Figures in slides, as in papers, should focus on the technical content. Distracting elements should be removed

A slide example The font is too small. There is too much text; There is also too much detail. The equation numbers aren't valuable

A revised version Some detail has been removed and the terminology has been made more accessible.

Another example Too cryptic; it gives so little support to the speaker that it is almost irrelevant. The text is difficult to parse because the form of the sentences is too far removed from that of ordinary text.

A revised version The statements have been fleshed out into complete sentences and a little information has been added. This is about the maximum amount of text that is reasonable for a slide. The single bullet adds emphasis, identifying the key conclusion the audience should be aware of.

Conference presentations Excellent to get noticed Learn to use Powerpoint effectively (keep it simple) Don’t try to cram too much in 20 mins talk, make sure there is some time left for discussion) Be clear, don’t speak too quickly (don’t read text!!!) Try and make the audience laugh Welcome all suggestions, acknowledge limitations of study, refer to future work Never pretend to know it all (nobody does)

A presentations checklist What is the key thing the audience should remember? Is there enough background material for the intended audience? Is any material unnecessary? Could some of the material be left for people to read about later?

A presentations checklist Is the talk self-contained? Does the talk have a motivating preamble? Have complex issues been explained in gentle stages? Are the results explained? Are the numbers necessary? Are more diagrams needed? Are the slides simple? Do they have unnecessary ornamentation or distracting use of color?

Conference Poster

scientific posters The purpose is to present work to an audience who is walking through a hallway or exhibit. In poster presentations at conferences, the presenter usually stands next to the poster, thus allowing for passers-by to engage in one-on-one discussions with the presenter. In other situations such as the hallways of laboratories, universities, and corporations, posters are stand-alone presentations for passers-by.

Don’t tack your paper onto your poster board directly For a poster to communicate the work, the poster first has to orient an audience that is not seated, but that is standing. Often the audience has distractions of noise and movement from other people. Given those distractions, a journal article tacked onto a board fails as an effective poster because the audience cannot concentrate for a time long enough to read through the paper. In fact, given the distractions that the audience faces, many in the audience will not even bother trying to read a journal article tacked onto a board.

Poster sections a title banner the abstract Introduction Method Results Discussion and conclusions – Technical details of poster production include decisions on what materials and methods to use

A poster layout

Guidelines the title of an effective poster should quickly orient the audience the poster should quickly orient the audience to the subject and purpose the specific sections such as the results should be easy to locate on the poster you should design the individual sections of a poster so that they can be quickly read