Giving Good Talks Attending Conferences Most Graduate Students Hate Giving Talks · Survey: Asked adults what they fear most: 1. Public speaking 2. Death · Typical problems for graduate students: · Unsure of material · Poor presentation skills · Thinking on your feet: What if someone asks me a question I don't know the answer to? · Best advice: give lots of talks! It does get better!! Why Should You Learn to Give Good Talks · Essential skill for communicating ideas · Can't have an impact if people don't hear about your ideas · Good ideas can get lost if poorly presented · Most people give rotten talks · Great way to set yourself apart! · Where will you give talks? · Conferences, workshops, research group meetings, area exam, proposal, defense General Advice on Giving Good Talks · Organize talk by time you want to spend on each topic · 25-minute talk · 5 minutes on motivation, previous work · 5 minutes on background, design issues · 10 minutes on results · 5 minutes to summarize, discuss future work · Be realistic about how much you can present in the time allotted · Practice and time yourself: most people take 2 to 3 minutes per slide (25 minute talk: 10-15) · Some people 1 minute, some people 10 minutes A Good Conference Talk Motivates People to Read Your Work · Conference talk: limited time · Can't present every graph in paper · Can't give people in-depth understanding · GOAL: generate enough interest so they will read your paper · ALWAYS start with motivation: why should they care? why is the problem important? · Clearly state the issues and important results · Relatively few graphs, good motivation, analysis, conclusions Practice, Practice, Practice · Don't assume that others are naturally good speakers · Best speakers, best talks are well-practiced · Rule of thumb: practice until you are sick of it · Best audience: fellow graduate students, advisor · Also toughest audience · Not so much part of the culture here at Georgia Tech · Make it part of your culture · Seek out criticism: painful, but the only way you improve · Never had an audience outside that was half as tough as my practice talks in front of friends How to Run a Practice Talk · Reserve a conference room, ask people to come · Allow two to three times the allotted time for the talk for the practice talk · Bring food -- people are doing you a favor, giving up a lot of their time (cookies, crackers, drinks) · Print out copies of your transparencies (2 per page) so people can make notes while you talk · Collect these at the end and pay close attention · Ask someone to time you on a slide-by-slide basis · Helps you figure out where you are stumbling over your words · Give the talk straight through without stopping for questions · Gives you accurate timing · Painful part: getting comments · Ask for overall comments · Do all the parts of the talk make sense? · Is the structure of the talk clear? Could it be improved? · Is the motivation clear? · Are the results well-supported? · Are there issues that the speaker hasn't thought about? · Are there mistakes? good technical check · Next: go through slides in order, taking comments · Anything is fair game: major to trivial · Typical comments: · That slide is too cluttered · It's hard to figure out what you're talking about: can you put in a picture that shows that? · I followed your reasoning up to that third bullet and then you lost me · This slide doesn't make any sense at all--I think your idea here is just wrong · That sure is an ugly font/color/picture/ · The axes on your graph are unreadable/cryptic · It would be better to skip this slide--it just distracts from the main flow of your talk · Typically: get so many comments that you basically re-write the talk from scratch · Advantage: it will be a much better talk · Disadvantage: you might feel the need to do a second practice talk because the new talk is so different from the first one · A good idea: show the slides to one or a few people before your practice talk · Talk it through · Have them point out any major logical/structural flaws so that you don't spend your whole practice talk focusing on them · Once you have revised your talk: practice, practice, practice!! Good Slides · Not too cluttered · Use phrases, not complete sentences · Add space to separate out ideas · Also use indentation to show structure visually · Use large fonts: at least 18 pt (my default is 22 pt) · Enforces conciseness · Use bold for emphasis · For large conferences, use all bold · Use color for emphasis · Use color sparingly (at most 2 or 3 colors) Good Slides · Not too cluttered · Use phrases, not complete sentences · Add space to separate out ideas · Also use indentation to show structure visually · Use large fonts: at least 18 pt (my default is 22 pt) · Enforces conciseness · Use bold for emphasis · For large conferences, use all bold · Use color for emphasis · Use color sparingly (at most 2 or 3 colors) More on Good Slides · "Picture is worth a thousand words" · Ideal: one picture or graph per slide · Probably can't achieve it, but try · Clarifies ideas, keeps talk visually interesting · Big mistake: assume picture tells the whole story · If there is a point you want people to get, put it down in words on the slide!!!!! · Always, always, always put main points on slides · Minds drift, people get distracted · Don't assume people are hanging on every word · Make it possible to read slide and catch up More on Good Slides · Don't cover slides and slowly reveal them · Overlays can be effective, but practice, use them smoothly · Practice and have a sense of exactly how long your talk will be · If spending too long on particular slides, concentrate on exact wording so it will be smooth · Write it down if necessary · Be prepared to discard slides if people ask questions and the talk starts to go over time · Label things well · Graph axes · Graph lines · Don't use parameter names specified by your simulator (meanSimX, arrayNum) · People hate speakers who talk too long! · Rude, unprofessional · Want a graceful way to cut down your time · May want to have extra slides · Short is ok! · In a long talk: (1-hour tutorial) material to cover if you have fewer questions that expected · Predict questions and make slides to cover the answers · After practice talk, should know a lot of the likely questions · Put some answers in your talk · Reserve others for question period Attending Conferences · Great way to learn · Good way to make contacts · Senior people vs. junior people · Ask for introductions to senior people · Intimidating to talk to senior people · Today: junior people · Tomorrow: increasingly important contacts · Consider paying for your own conferences · A wise investment