How to give a talk (that doesn’t put your audience to sleep)

Ramesh RaskarMIT Media Lab

http://raskar.info

Other Resources• See my homepage (http://raskar.info)

– ‘How to come up with new ideas’– ‘How to quickly get started writing a paper’

• How to give an academic talk, Paul Edwards• http://pne.people.si.umich.edu/PDF/howtotalk.pdf• http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~jrs/speaking.html

• Fredo Durand, MIT• http://people.csail.mit.edu/fredo/TalkAdvice.pdf

• How to give a bad talk• http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~markhill/conference-talk.html

Overview Slide

• I will start with a statement that is too general • Mention terms I haven’t explained yet• I will talk about related work about topic you

don’t know yet• Tell you more about things you have no idea• I will show you results after you have already

lost me• I will conclude with conclusion

Getting Started• Don’t start with an OVERVIEW slide• Start with a question or motivating example• Give the zeroth order idea in one sentence • Show the ‘magic’

– Conclusion goes first !– Make the audience wonder how you will get there– then on the next 2 slides show a teaser but give away the key idea!

• Gauge your audience and adapt. If you're not good at gauging, just stick with your original presentation plan.

Curve of Excitement

Time (or Slide #)

Audience Interest

People are excited even before you start because you have a great title/abstract

You have shown the ‘magic’ with a

question or motivating example

Nitty gritty of the math/algo/implementation. You are

losing some people but its ok.

Cool results

Teaser results, people are

wondering how you got there

‘Whats in it for me’ You give

audience something they

can use with ‘Future Directions’

But there is more. Wait and see how

next year I will show you more

cool stuff. Go see my website.

Curve of Boredom

Time (or Slide #)

Audience Interest

No clue what the title/abstract, jargon words

Your Intended Curve

Real CurvePeople are excited anyway

Start with meaningless ‘Overview’ slide

Describe theory

Describe second order details

Share results which you were trying to keep secret till the end

Discuss future directions

Related work

Too late to share those cool results

We don’t know the context of the theory

Audience is lost because they don’t know ‘why’

The S curve of excitement • The flipped S-curve of audience excitement vs. time line of

your presentation. – • First 1/3: content that causes maximum excitement. • Middle 1/3: Excitement stay a constant low. But that is ok.• Last 1/3: Get everyone with you agaian. The ending should

pick up(results/future directions). • In essence, the audience is really listening to you only at the

beginning (and bit at the end) unless you engage them in an interactive way.

Getting Started

Motivate the context or application Why is what you are doing important? Why should people care? This could be audience background based

Logical BreaksOverview diagram of the project should be at the

beginning and not at the end.Ok to have an overview slide after setting up the key

concepts

READ your Slides !

• Yes, read your slides ..– Do opposite of what people have been telling you

• We live in a globalized world– Not all are native English speakers

• Try to use same words while talking – Spoken words, pictures, and text on the slide should all be

in sync (and in same order) and say the same thing. They should all also stand independently of the rest of the slides.

– Important when you are publishing your ppt online with ‘Notes’

Staying on the message• Conveying key ideas with figures/diagrams/images is

essential.• Repeat the key point again and again.

– Roughly follow the title->question->explanation->conclusion flow in each subsection.

• Talk != paper– Give only limited information about the work. Motivate

listener to go read your paper for the details. Only present what most people would understand.

• You can ignore 2nd and 3rd order details– Just give a flavor of the complexity and your conclusions

The rule of 1/3rds• 1/3 of your talk should be

understood by everyone (intro, motivation, results, future work)

• 1/3 of your ppt should be understood by people in your field

• 1/3 of your ppt should maybe understood by just a few people in the room. For this part you can include figures, equations. Just having them is enough, don't try to explain.

• Watching talk videos online– previous Siggraph presentations– VideoLectures.net– Avoid TED style for your technical presentation

• Unless you want to rewind the story all the way to your childhood and how what you are doing is directly shaped by your childhood experiences

• Use white board – Great if you are giving tutorial style presentation– Saves time on making nice looking slides

• During Practice Talks– Add Slide number to each slide

• People can give you comment for each slide• Don’t include slide num on your final version

– Ask a friend to take notes• Timing and suggestions/questions on each slide

• Get a wireless remote + laser pointer• Avoid ‘rehearse’ time mode– Clicking a button during presentation is ok– Wireless remote makes it even easier

Blank slides force people to focus on the speaker. You can hit 'B' in Microsoft power point to make the screen go blank. ‘B’ again to show your presentation.

If you are digressing from the slide, audience may get confused by what is on your slide. Hit ‘B’.

• Have a photo/figure/sketch on every slide

• The image can be unrelated• If you run out of ideas for a

photo on each slide, just search for the keyword online (here I searched ‘unrelated;)

Last Slide• Never end with a ‘Thank you’ slide !

– This is the slide that will be up for a long time during Q&A– Last slide should be

• Summary of your talk• Website for further info• State problem. State conclusion. Contact info. Nice pictures

– Don’t end with Acknowledgement slide• Appreciated but not useful to most of your audience• Ack slide can be one before ‘Summary’

– Don’t show a video during Q&A• You cannt squeeze out the time

– How to encourage questions in Q&A• This slides should have take home points and conclusions• State some open questions at the end of the last slide.

Thank you Slide

• Never end with a ‘Thank you’ slide !• Last slide should be – Summary of your talk– website for further info

‘After’ the last slide

• Appendix slides – Keep them ready in same ppt after your

presentation. – Explanation for possible questions in Q&A– Videos etc.– If you are posting slides online, Appendix slides

can have more details

Tips from Ted Adelson• Have a good last sentence; say "thank you" and not "I will take

questions". This gives the audience a chance to clap without feeling awkward. And the host a chance to take charge.

• Most of the audience is interested in question, "what is in it for me?". Know your audience and try to answer their question. Also, if the audience is diverse, talk about a variety of things.

• Don't assume that the audience is alert and listening to everything you say. It is okay to repeat important stuff.

• Look at "bad talks" to learn how not to give one. A good talk is nothing but a not-bad talk. You do not have to do anything spectacular.