
Tips to rock your next conference talk - rizwanj
http://rizwanjavaid.com/blog/2017/4/3/how-to-rock-your-next-conference-talk-part-1
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scott_s
This doesn't really apply to _academic_ conferences, which tend to have a more
subdued atmosphere. (And you don't control the environment you present in, and
there will be multiple talks in the sessions.)

I am on board with "hook them from the start", but you have to change it for
an academic crowd. They will bristle at trying to be sensational. In an
academic computer science context, it means put your conclusions _first_ ,
along with your best results. People may tune out after the first few minutes,
so you'd better tell them the most important stuff right away. The rest of
your talk is then supporting and explaining how you achieved your best
results.

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sokoloff
I agree (with the sibling comment) that this is more general advice than just
for academic settings.

I can't tell you how many presentations I sit through (or emails I read) that
read like murder mysteries. Tell me the conclusion or essential element up
front, so that I can frame my consumption a little better. Don't start with
the Big Bang, the creation of matter, the coalescing into galaxies and
planets, etc, etc and then build up the conclusion from all those constituent
elements.

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noobhacker
I find books are much better treatment of complex topics like public speaking.
Blog posts of people who give several talks a year don't have the breadth and
depth - they are essentially a list of small tips that work for that
individual.

I would recommend the book "Even a geek can speak".

I did find the tips the author shared. But if you are fundamentally a poor
speaker, you want to work on the fundamentals rather than marginal tips.

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rizwanj
I would definitely push for improving your speaking before you address these
types of details.

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preinheimer
My number one tip for a conference talk is to use the 5 minutes before your
talk starts (but people are filing in) to start connecting to the audience.

During the talk itself there's high expectations. People may have paid a lot,
travelled overnight, found a baby sitter to be there. But during the travel
time and breaks the expectations are much lower.

Use that time to your advantage. Tell a joke, an anecdote related to your
topic, ask a good question of the audience. Start building that rapport before
your slot even begins.

This helps your audience warm up to you, and helps you slide more comfortably
into your talk.

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rizwanj
Love this tip. I like to hand out a worksheet before my talk personally to
each attendee. This way I get to meet them personally to make a connection.
This helps me relax as well. :)

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rotorblade
For academic seminars, I have started to always go through David Tong's ``How
to Make Sure Your Talk Doesn’t Suck'' [0], before and after writing the
presentation. I believe that it has at least helped me improve and feel more
confident.

[0] www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/talks/talk.pdf

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rizwanj
Thanks for sharing the great resource. I was hooked on the first slide. :)

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idlewords
Tips are fun! Here are mine:

\- Make sure to provide a text version of your talk online, in a sane format.

\- Keep text off your slides. Use them to show code, or kittens, but not
bullet points.

\- Remember that you're speaking to an intelligent audience. They'll have more
fun if you leave some stuff unsaid, and let them come to their own
conclusions.

\- Go through the painful process of watching yourself speak on video, to
identify and correct the many verbal tics you didn't know you had.

\- Have a single shot of booze ten minutes before liftoff

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tptacek
Do you write your entire talk out before you give it?

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idlewords
Yes, as many times as I can stand.

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tptacek
Do you memorize and rehearse the fully written-out talks?

For the most part you don't come off as having scripted the whole talk, but
there are tells in your transcripts that they were written first.

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idlewords
I rehearse the talks but don't memorize them, if that makes any sense. The
process of rewriting them ad nauseam helps me remember what to say.

I think of it as crossing a stream, and there are certain rocks that I have to
make sure I step on. But getting between them is somewhat improvisational.

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juskrey
0\. Tell something useful

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rizwanj
That's a pre-requisite. :)

