How to prepare an oral presentation for a conferenceWhy Do Smart People Give Poor Talks? * Poor speaking is a reaction to fear. * Presentations are not journal articles. They’re a completely different communication, and they require different skills.Principles of Effective Conference Presentations @ Talk, instead of reading @ Stand up ¢@ Move around @ Make eye contact with your audience ¢ Don't only look at one side of the room @ Imitate excellent speakers10 Tips to Develop Confidence in Conference Presentations Expect to be nervous Prepare Practice Breathe Rehearse Focus on your audience Simplify Picture success Connect with your audience 10. Pretend to be confident 2S Se ee & eePurpose of a research talk Is not to Is to * Impress the audience * Give the audience a * Tell them all you know sense of what your about a subject idea/work is * Present every little * Make them want to detail of your work read your paper * Get feedback on your workKnow your audience * Who would be there? — Scientists expert in your field — Scientists not expert in your field — Students — Non experts — Who knows? Most likely a mix so have something for allKnow your audience cont.. * Keep in mind — They might be tired — They can read © — They are thinking “Why should | listen?” — Non-experts will tune off within 2 minutes — Experts after 5 minutes * What can you do?What can you do? * Early motivation - at the beginning of your talk motivate your research with easy to understand examples * Spoil the punch line - State your results early and in simple terms * Visuals — Illustrate your idea with images and diagramsUse examples Examples are your weapon to — Motivate your work — Illustrate the basic intuition — Show your solution in action (baby problem) — Highlight extreme cases or shortcomings If you are running out of time cut the general case not the exampleWhere were you? * People will get lost during your talk, even those who are listening — have a running outline of the main steps of your idea (more than the talk itself) — use visual clue to highlight where you are in the process — present it at the beginning of each stepRelated work Be familiar with all related work Don’t list each paper you read Mainly talk about results that are immediately related to what you did References at the end of the talk or better in the paper itself Acknowledge co-authors (title slide)Technical details: in or out? A fine line — Present specific aspect that show the “meat” of your work — Leave the rest out. If you were convincing they will read your paper — Don’t fill up your slides with lots of equations — Prepare back-up slides to answer questions. Leave them at the end of the presentationThe skeleton What is the problem Motivation and goals Relevant state of the art What is your key idea/contribution Why is your approach good/better What | just said and what | want to do nextPreparing the presentation Less is more. Fill in with narration not words Use animation sparingly Use color to emphasize some points but limit to 2 or3 Be consistent! In the choice and use of color font size/type etc Use slide real estate appropriately * http://www.slideteam.net/powerpoint-templates/real- estate.htmlA Short Conference Talk Outline Title/author/University (1 slide) Abstract (1 slide) - Give the basic problem and answer. Outline (1 slide) - Give the talk structure. Background (2-4 slides) Motivation and Problem Statement (1-2 slides) - Why does anyone care? Related Work (0-1 slide) - Talk briefly about this, or you can eliminate this section and refer people to your paper.Methods (1-2 slide) - Cover quickly in short talks and refer people to your paper. Results (4-6 slides) - Present key results with implications. This is the main body of the talk. Do not cover all the results. Cover the key result well. Summary (1 slide) Future Work (0-1 slide) - Or, you can talk about additional problems coming from this research. Backup Slides (0-3 slides) - You may have a few slides ready to answer expected questions. Possible question areas are ideas you quickly went over, limitations in the methods or results, and future work.Slide layout - Bad * This page contains too many words for a presentation slide. It is not written in point form, making it difficult both for your audience to read and for you to present each point. Although there are exactly the same number of points on this slide as the previous slide, it looks much more complicated. In short, your audience will spend too much time trying to read this paragraph instead of listening to you.Slide layout — Good Show one point at a time: — Will help audience concentrate on what you are saying — Will prevent audience from reading ahead — Will help you keep your presentation focusedFonts - Good * Use a decent font size * Use different size fonts for main points and secondary points — this font is 24-point, the main point font is 32- point, and the title font is 44-point * Use a standard font like Times New Roman or Arial+ Ifyou use a small font, your audience won't be able to read what you have written * CAPITALIZE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY. IT IS DIFFICULT TO READ + Don'tuse a complicated fontColor - Good * Use font color that contrasts sharply with the background * Blue or black font on white background * Use color to reinforce the logic of your structure * Ex: light blue title and dark blue text * Use color to emphasize a point * But only use this occasionallyColor - Bad Using a font color that does not contrast with the background color is hard to read Using color for decoration is distracting and annoying. Using a different color for each point is unnecessary * Same for secondary points Trying to b= creative can alo be badBackground - Good * Use backgrounds such as this one that are attractive but simple * Use backgrounds which are light * Use the same background consistently throughout your presentationGraphs - Good * Use graphs rather than just charts and words — Data in graphs is easier to comprehend & retain than is raw data — Trends are easier to visualize in graph form * Always title your graphsGraphs - Bad January | February | March | April Blue Balls! 27.4 90) 20.4) Red Bails 38.6] 34.6 31.6]100 Graphs - Good Blue Balls Red Balls January February March April Figure 1. Items Sold in First Quarter of 2015Graphs - BadGraphs - Bad Minor gridlines are unnecessary Font is too small Colors are illogical Title is missing Shading is distractingPreparing the presentation Prepare the slides in advance Show them to friends When you think you are done read them again Check all animations with the sound on ©Preparing the presentation Practice, practice, practice — Give a practice talk to a general audience — Give a practice talk to an audience of expert —Time your presentation (allow for speed up effect caused by nervousness) * Always assume technology will fail you. Have backups.Delivering the talk Be keen! If you aren’t; why should the audience be? Make eye contact with the audience Identify a few “nodders” and speak to them Watch for questions. Be prepare to deviate or brush off when irrelevantDelivering the talk Point at the screen not the computer Do not read directly from the PPT or your notes \" Have the “spill” for the first couple of slides memorized in case you go blank Finish in timeHandling questions * Different types — handle accordingly — Need clarification — Suggest something helpful — Want to engage in research dialog — Show that he/she is better than you * Anticipate questions (additional slides) * Don’t let them highjack the talk (postpone)How can | get better? * Practice every chance you can Observe others — Steal good presentation ideas — Notice all the things that turned you off * Seek comments from friends and advisersThe Last Thing on Your PowerPoint * At the end of your presentation while answering questions, leave up a contact info slide containing your —name — e-mail — address — website URL related to the talk if you have oneSome resources * http://research.microsoft.com/~simonpj/pape rs/giving-a-talk/writing-a-paper-slides.pdf + http://wit.tuwien.ac.at/research/tips/good re search talk slides.pdf * http://research.microsoft.com/~simonpj/pape rs/giving-a-talk/giving-a-talk-html. htmlSome resources http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/howto write.html http://www.iasted.org/conferences/formattin g/Presentations-Tips.ppt