Guidelines for Oral Presentations

The following guidelines for oral presentation are optional, but highly recommended!

1. Generic Talk Outline
   • Title/author/affiliation (1 slide)
   • Forecast (1 slide): Give gist of problem attacked and insight found (What is the one idea you want people to remember about your talk?)
   
2. Outline (1 slide): Give talk structure.
3. Background
   Motivation and Problem Statement (1-2 slides) (Why should anyone care? Audience usually knows very little about problem.)
   • Related Work (0-1 slides) Cover superficially or omit; refer people to your paper.
   • Methods (1 slide)
   • Results/Demo (4-6 slides): Present key results, demo (if any) and key insights. This is main body of the talk. Structure varies greatly as a function of your contribution. (Do not superficially cover all results; cover key result well. Do not just present numbers; interpret them to give insights. Do not put up large tables of numbers.)
   • Summary (1 slide)
   • Future Work (0-1 slides)
   • Backup Slides (0-3 slides) Optionally have a few slides ready (not counted in your talk total) to answer expected questions. (Likely question areas: ideas glossed over, shortcomings of methods or results, and future work.)
   
4. Preparation
   • Be well prepared and especially check on the trivial details!
   • Don't fill transparencies with irrelevant details!
   • Focus on the important aspects! Avoid irrelevant details!
   • Use OpenOffice, NewOffice, PDF or Powerpoint!
   • Good pictures help!
5. How to talk
   • Talk clearly and slowly! Be precise and concise!
   • Do not talk on material that does not interest you!
6. How Much/Long to Talk
   • Use on average one to two minutes per slide (not counting title and outline slides).
   • Do not run overtime!