Good talks – some hints

1. Good talks – some hints Henning Schulzrinne http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/etc/talk-hints.html

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 • 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 • 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 • avoid full sentences or paragraphs • Stand nailed to podium • Ignore audience