1. Good talks – some hints Henning Schulzrinne

2. Clear presentation goals
Status update
Milestones, deliverables, …
Discussion guidance
IETF open issues
Summarize somebody else’s work
candidacy, teaching
Convince somebody
(research) proposal
Present own research
conference, thesis proposal, project summary

3. Summary presentation Always answer Use common terminology
what is the basic problem the paper is solving
what is the core idea (algorithm, insight, …)
what’s the approach (simulation, analysis, measurement, …)
what is new about it
Use common terminology
may have changed since paper was published
avoid introducing lots of symbols if used only once
Use tables, trees, … to compare different papers
Be careful with re-using drawings
often too detailed for overviews
Critical analysis
any dubious assumptions - less general than claimed?
conclusions sufficiently well-founded or stretching data?

4. General hints Focus on concepts and motivation Tie together concepts
Don’t just repeat the paper or RFC
Why is something being done that way?
What value does this add?
What assumptions are being made?
Tie together concepts
Why

5. Content and presentation
Add diagrams
Network model, message flow, interactions
RFCs often have too few!
Don’t just cut-and-paste the ASCII art…
Don’t overload pictures – use several similar ones
Add tables
Comparisons, summaries
Use examples
Allow listener to quickly grasp what’s going on
Confirms concepts

6. Slide mechanics No more than 6-7 bullets per slide
Fonts smaller than 14 pt are unreadable
Longer talks can have “bookmarks”, highlighting each section
Gray-out the ones you already covered
Use animation to focus on parts of a slide
Avoid read-ahead by audience

7. Don’t Read slides aloud Stand nailed to podium Ignore audience
avoid full sentences or paragraphs
Stand nailed to podium
Ignore audience