Make It MEMORABLE: A PRESENTATION ON PRESENTATIONS

1. Make It MEMORABLE: A PRESENTATION ON PRESENTATIONS Kentaro Toyama Summer School on Computing for Socio-Economic Development MSR India / Indian Institute of Science June 25, 2010

2. Talk Outline • Explain how to give a “good” oral presntation, which is exciting and fun………………. • Good presentations are Difficult because there are many factors to consider, such as Content, format, font Size,,Posture, ,volume, length ,,audience, storyline, etc. • If you know how to put the factors together correctly ,,it can lead to a good presentation. Otherwise, the presenttion will not be half as good as it can be. • The Goal: In this talk, the focus is on All of the Above except for the content…… • PowerPoint is a “Great” tool for giving presentations: 6 million PPTs everyday are given • The “advantages” of using Powerpoint will be reviewed. Here is a summary: • Easy to use • Animations • Bullets can be used by anyone, even people who don’t understand “parallel structure” • You may have realized that this slide is a parody. If so, please raise your left hand! • The attention span equation (McClay, Renie, Sales Training Solutions, Kaplan Publishing, 2006) will also be discussed, for anyone who still hasn’t caught on: 2 of 98 March 23, 1998 – Jim Gray Workshop Series

3. Just kidding!

4. Talk Outline • Explain how to give a “good” oral presntation, which is exciting and fun………………. • Good presentations are Difficult because there are many factors to consider, such as Content, format, font Size,,Posture, ,volume, length ,,audience, storyline, etc. • If you know how to put the factors together correctly ,,it can lead to a good presentation. Otherwise, the presenttion will not be half as good as it can be. • The Goal: In this talk, the focus is on All of the Above except for the content…… • PowerPoint is a “Great” tool for giving presentations: 6 million PPTs everyday are given • The “advantages” of using Powerpoint will be reviewed. Here is a summary: • Easy to use • Animations • Bullets can be used by anyone, even people who don’t understand “parallel structure” • You may have realized that this slide is a parody. If so, please raise your left hand! • The attention span equation (McClay, Renie, Sales Training Solutions, Kaplan Publishing, 2006) will also be discussed, for anyone who still hasn’t caught on: 2 of 98 March 23, 1998 – Jim Gray Workshop Series

5. Boring isthe enemy.

6. Make It Memorable!A Presentation on Presentations Kentaro Toyama Summer School on Computing for Socio-Economic Development MSR India / Indian Institute of Science June 25, 2010

7. The Goal? The audienceshould… understand, remember, and be impressed with your message.

8. Outline Audience Brevity Structure Story Emotion Miscellaneous Tips Preparation

9. Outline Audience Brevity Structure Story Emotion Miscellaneous Tips Preparation

10. I just don’t get these Japanese jokes. Or, maybe they’re not even jokes? One Problem Slide 22 and so far, it’s all review of stuff we all know! Where’s the new stuff? I have no idea what he’s talking about! I wonder if they’ll have pakoras for lunch.

11. Boringisthe enemy –tailor content for the audience.

12. Another Problem 15 min 30 min 45 min Reported degree of attention during a talk. Source: Niemansverdriet, J. W. http://www.catalysis.nl/links/presentations/presentation.php Caveat: original source of the graph could not be traced; might be an urban myth.

13. Boring is their enemy.

14. Outline Audience Brevity Structure Story Emotion Miscellaneous Tips Preparation

16. Boring, monotonous, too long, and overly-detailed-in-a-way- that-nobody-could-possibly-grasp-or-rememberis the enemy. Oh, and just because you have 60 minutes to speak doesn’t mean that you have to fill all 60 minutes. Of course, too short while missing content is no good, either. As Einstein said, “Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler.” In addition, Shakespeare also wrote, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” And, in a quotation attributed to Mark Twain, but more likely to have been written by Blaise Pascal, there’s this comment, which is telling: “I would have written you a shorter letter, but I didn’t have the time.” Conciseness takes time, effort, and intelligence!

18. Outline Audience Brevity Structure Story Emotion Miscellaneous Tips Preparation

19. Chunking “…the span of immediate memory impose[s] severe limitations on the amount of information that we are able to receive, process, and remember.” “By organizing the stimulus input simultaneously into several dimensions and successively into a sequence or chunks, we manage to break (or at least stretch) this informational bottleneck.” Source: Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63, 81-97.

20. I D F N O R T H M A O I R C I A C E S R S E

21. I • N • F • O • D • R • T • R • H • O • M • A • I • C • A • C • I • E • S • R • E • S

22. Alphabetical AA CC D EE F H III M N OO RRR SS T Aggregate 22 letters, 13 unique letters, 41% vowels, nothing after “U” 1 instance: D F H M N T 2 instances:AA CC EE OO SS 3 instances:III RRR Occurrence Symmetry III Phonetic EE OO AA

23. A A C C D E E F H I I I M N O O R R R S S T A C A C H E S O R T I N F O R M E D I R I S M I C R O S O F T R E S E A R C H I N D I A I SACRIFICED RAT HORMONES Thanks to the Internet Anagram Server: http://wordsmith.org/anagram/

24. Boring and unstructured is the enemy.

25. Outline Audience Brevity Structure Story Emotion Miscellaneous Tips Preparation

27. Typical Movie Plot Set up Boy meets girl. • Outline • Introduction • Problem Statement • Related Work • Proposed Solution • Results / Proof / Analysis • Future Work Conflict Girl ignores boy. False climax Boy’s friends console. Rising action Boy plots to get girl. Climax The plot works! Denouement Happiness ever after. The typical talk outline actually makes a pretty good story!

28. Alternate storylines can work, too!

29. Boring is the enemy, andgood stories aren’t boring.

30. Outline Audience Brevity Structure Story Emotion Miscellaneous Tips Preparation

31. Memory and Emotion From psychology research… • Emotions help memory • Eysenk (1976) • Cahill & McGaugh (1995) • Nielson et al. (2002) • Humor helps memory • Kaplan & Pascoe (1977) • Schmidt (1994) • Caveat: Cartoons can distract from main content, if used without care • Sagaria & Derks (1985) ?

32. Funny can be your friend.

33. Outline Audience Brevity Structure Story Emotion Miscellaneous Tips Preparation

34. Miscellaneous Tips Make text legible • Use sans-serif fonts (not serif fonts) • Keep background simple • Contrast text color with background • Use large font sizes (this is probably too small!) • Minimize amount of text on each slide – use keywords, not long sentences Don’t present everything Project confidence and respect • Stand, don’t sit • Avoid leaning • Avoid slouching • Don’t put hands in pockets • Speak loudly enough Stick to your rhetorical goal • Everything you say and show should contribute to the case you want to make Apply variation to minimize boredom • Use multimedia – photos, video, animation • Speak louder or softer, to make a point • Switch between walking and standing Use a “teaser” slide at the beginning • Be interactive – ask the audience questions • Create a reason for people to pay attention until the end Look up design suggestions Practice, practice, practice • Practice with a live audience; get feedback • At home, practice out loud • Memorize your slides, so you don’t have to look at them for cues Break rules, as necessary – these are just guidelines!

35. Miscellaneous Tips (Take 2) Books • Atkinson, C. (2006) Beyond Bullet Pointshttp://www.beyondbullets.com General advice for computer-science talks • Hill, M. D. (1992) “Oral presentation advice” http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~markhill/conference-talk.html • Patterson, D. (1983) “How to give a bad talk” http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~markhill/conference-talk.html (scroll to bottom) • Hanselman, S. (2008) “11 top tips for a successful technical presentation” http://www.hanselman.com/blog/11TopTipsForASuccessfulTechnicalPresentation.aspx On design • Tufte, E. (1983) The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. • Tufte, E. (2006) Beautiful Evidence.

36. Boringis the enemy.(Some things, the audience can go read in the paper.)

37. Outline Audience Brevity Structure Story Emotion Miscellaneous Tips Preparation

38. TED Presentations Lawrence Lessig on law and creativity http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/larry_lessig_says_the_law_is_strangling_creativity.html Robert Lang on mathematics of origami http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/robert_lang_folds_way_new_origami.html Ron Eglash on fractals in Africa http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ron_eglash_on_african_fractals.html Hans Rosling on world poverty http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html

39. Boringis the enemy.Learn from excellent presentations.

40. Summary Keep the audience in mind. Less is more. Think and re-think structure. Tell a good story. Engage emotions. Omit some content. Nothing beats good preparation.

41. Summary Research results for mostly researcher audience. Used typical CS talk outline. Bollywood references for mostly Indian audience. Keep the audience in mind. Less is more. Think and re-think structure. Tell a good story. Engage emotions. Omit some content. Nothing beats good preparation. Microsoft iPod video and Zune for Microsoft audience. Didn’t discuss font-size, etc. Math and CS talks for CS audience. Tried to keep slides simple. Didn’t talk about specific CS talks Structure of seven points took some time. Story co-evolved with structure. Tried to insert intentional boredom (first slide) and humor. Used links for miscellaneous tips. Each section linked to next by some logic. Gave talk aloud at least twice. Slides took roughly two hours a day for a week. Not sure I really needed to do the animated text, but it was fun Could have practiced some more!

42. Boring is the enemy! Boring is the enemy! Thank you very much.

43. Back-Up Slides

44. What I tried to do in this presentation… Illustrated the ideas in the presentation with the presentation itself: • Tailored the content for an audience of mostly Indian computer-science researchers at Microsoft: • Microsoft references • Bollywood references • Computer-science references • References to scientific research • Logical, deductive arguments • Tried to keep slides and sections short and to the point; whole talk in <30 min • Spent a couple of hours each day over a week to settle on structure and content • Told a story: • Unusual opening directly raises the problem • Conceptual links tie each section to the next • Incorporated some fun and humor • Avoided covering everything; pointed people to other references for more Illustrated some other ideas that I didn’t mention explicitly: • Stuck to a legible, coherent “look and feel” that I’ve developed over time • Asked a lot of questions to make the presentation interactive • Guided the audience to construct main points using questions (but, illustrated with novel examples) • Applied some PowerPoint animation, but not too much • Used different kinds of multimedia: text, cartoons, photographs, video, puzzles • Repeated the key message (with variations), for emphasis • Anticipated “what about technical presentations?” question Needs improvement: • Allocated insufficient time for practice: only practiced out loud 2-3 times Note: This slide is not particularly exciting, but as a back-up slide, I didn’t spend as much time on it. I also know that anyone who sees it is necessarily curious. Since this is a case where the audience brings with them their own strong motivation and reason to remember, I don’t have to work as hard to motivate or entertain.