Ian F. C. Smith

Giving a Talk – Conference or seminar

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Disclaimer

This is mostly opinion.

Suggestions are incomplete.

There are other strategies.

Why give a talk at a conference ?

Good reasons for giving a talk at a conference are to• Present your work to a crowd of strangers• Advertise your work and your lab “Wave the flag”• Obtain feedback from questions and comments• Participate in a meeting and this leads to increased

chances that you will– Find out who is doing what– Build trust with people in the community who

become friends over time– Find future job contacts and sources for reference

letters– Understand various research contexts

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Why give a talk at a conference (2) ?

Bad reasons to give a talk at a conference are to• Explain your work in detail• Obtain lots of feedback regarding your work• Hope that everyone at the meeting will

understand your work once you present it• Sell technology• Look for an immediate job offer• Assume that all your potential fans and current

friends will attend your session

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Why give a talk to a small audience?

Reasons for giving a talk to a small audience in a seminar setting are

• Inform participants of progress

• Obtain feedback from questions and comments. This is always opportunity to get suggestions and ideas from team members, including your supervisor.

• Practice a conference presentation

• Initiate collaboration with other groups

• Industrial presentations may result in, for example, obtaining data from practical cases for validation of your research. 5

Typical conference conditions

Conference talks have particular characteristics. Some of them are• There are strict time limits (8-20 minutes)• Preceding and following presentations may not be

related to your topic• A parallel session may be on a very popular topic

and this means that there may not be many people listening to you

• Previous presenters may have already used all the time allowed in your session

• Coffee break or lunch may be next• There is always a risk that you may be asked to

speak in the last session of the last day of the conference

It is rare to have all these things at once … don’t panic!!

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Typical seminar conditions

Small seminars have particular characteristics. Some of them are

• There are flexible time limits (15-40 minutes). Don’t plan to talk for more than 40 minutes. Even if they say 40 min, plan to use only 30-35 min.

• They are usually informal

• Not everyone knows or remembers what you are doing and why

• People are close to the screen

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Typical seminar conditions - 2

• Questions in the middle of your presentation are possible

• Intermediate results are ok.

• Open questions and challenges are ok.

• People will come late and leave early. Do not take this personally!

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Preparing Slides-1

Aim for one slide per minute of talk time.

Although you do not need to count the title slide and repeating slides (e.g. table of contents), do not relax this too much!

Too many slides can lead to going on too long or talking too fast.

People may have tight schedules – a presentation that is too long can be annoying

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Preparing Slides-2

Do sketches of all slides that are essential regardless of the length of the talk

Examples of essential slides are • Introduction• Objectives• Flow-chart of methodology • Experimental description• Illustrative case description• Conclusions

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Preparing Slides-3

The difference between

- the number of minutes allowed (number of minutes)

- and the number of essential slides

is the number of slides you can use to present results.

You do not have to (and you should not) present everything.

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Read the conference paper to decide what results to present. Choose the results that would be of most interest to the audience.

Knowing what results you will talk about will allow you to revise the conclusions. Do not conclude aspects that you do not discuss.

If you have time, you can add additional aspects and future work on another slide.

The number of slides left for results will determine the level of detail you can go into.

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Preparing Slides-4

Making slides-1

It is rare that figures and tables in a paper can be used directly as a slide.

Take the time to rework them so that they contain only the information you need to reach your conclusions.

Unreadable slides can be insulting to those who have taken the time to come and listen.

For a small audience, direct reuse may be acceptable in some situations but usually, it is not.

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Making slides-2

Minimum font is 24pts for almost everything.

This includes all figure labels, axis titles, axis quantity labels, legends, etc.

Be very strict with yourself about this!

Bits of information in headers and footers (references, page numbers, talk progress) are possible exceptions.

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Making slides-3

X-Y Plots: Remove all but two to four axis-quantity labels per axis. People do not need more than an idea of scale.

Delete all information in a figure that you are not going to present.

Down with information pollution!

You can keep a more detailed version for eventual questions.

No cheating!!15

While this is not absolutely necessary a white background is preferable. Dark slides may make people drowsy.

White backgrounds imply that you are not interested in marketing. In academic circles, this is good.

Not too many colours.

No animation.

No sound effects.

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Making slides-4

Making slides-5

You will probably reuse seminar slides for a conference paper. Start reducing file sizes of data-rich figures before importing into the presentation package. No figure needs to be more than 100kb for a standard-screen presentation.

This assumes a jpeg compression factor of only 1/10. Small file sizes make handling and transmission easier. This means that figures will be in two versions, one for paper publication and (at least) one for presentation. This is standard.

Check that your slides are easy to understand.17

Presenting the talk-1

Do at least one rehearsal.

This will ensure that you get good content feedback rather than just clarification questions.

Even if content explanation does not improve (rare), information about timing is important.

You will also bring the right words “forward” in your head. This reduces the “um’s and ah’s” when you present.

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Presenting the talk-2

Practicing in front of the mirror does not work. Use real humans for an audience.

After the rehearsal, go through the talk with them slide-by-slide. How can you improve clarity?

Identify 1 to 3 places in the talk that are important for understanding.

Develop short messages that contain essential information at these places .

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Answering questions

If you are not sure of what has been asked, or if not everyone heard the question, repeat it before answering.

If it is a good question, say so and thank the questioner … but don’t say this for every question. When you have a solid reply it is most effective to say “good question”.

If people ask several questions at once, answer the easiest and then go on to another person saying that you can discuss the other questions at the end of the session.

Avoid long replies. This may be boring for others and annoying for those who want to ask another question.

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Conclusions - conference

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Presenting a conference paper can be the first step to becoming a gifted orator! Regardless of your natural skill, it is always a useful exercise in communication.

Many people are so bad at giving talks that a little extra effort will make you look really good!

It is a big investment in your time and your lab’s money. Make it worth while. Be proactive with contacts.

There is always room for improvement.

Follow up immediately after the meeting with people.

Conclusions - seminar

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Presenting a good seminar to a small audience is a necessary skill regardless of what job you have.

There is always room for improvement.

Ask friends what they understood. Prepare to be surprised.

Make a list of the clarification questions that were asked so that you can improve subsequent presentations.

Make a list of research suggestions. Come back to them in a day, month, year. Your opinion may change with time.