Ask HN: Tips on research paper presentation at a technical conference. | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Tips on research paper presentation at a technical conference.

8 pointsrick_20474 comments

I am going to present a position paper at ICISD[1], this will be my first paper presentation. The problem is, I haven't seen any paper presentation even at local college techfests. That would mean I am totally blank about how all this actually works. Right now I am making a 10min presentation giving all the material I have in my paper. I think that should be enough to cover all the points in brief.

But I would like to hear about experience that you have had if you had presented a paper at such conferences or you have seen anyone present.

I am getting really nervous as they would be expecting PG students or research scholars only, I am just a UG student and I don't know how I got an idea that was worthy of getting selected in such a conference. But yes, I did work very hard on this. Anyways, the conference is on monday, hope I get some replies by then.

I would also like to have tips about how I can juice this networking opportunity to the fullest. I am a UG sophmore in US terms and would like to take up a MTech and PhD one day.

[1]http://www.gcet.ac.in/icisd/index.html

I recommend Simon-Peyton Jones' classic "How to give a good research talk" http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/simonpj/papers...

And also some loose bits of advice from me:

* 10 minutes is not enough to present "all the material in your paper". 30 minutes is not enough either. So, don't even try. Even if you talk fast enough, the audience won't get it. I'd expect 10 minutes be enough for a high-level overview of the paper, but if you can include just one bit of technical information which you think is the most valuable bit, that would be brilliant.

* reading from slides is an atrocity, so don't.

* and having too much text on the slides isn't cool either (the same applies to bullet lists, unless you absolutely have to). If you do, expect many people not to listen to you while they are reading the slides. So, only include large bodies of text if it's some code. And even then, format it nicely (color helps, but don't rely on it to convey useful information).

* "pictures are worth a thousand words"... unless they are badly drawn. But a good picture is a great alternative to large bodies of text.

* practice your talk, especially if you haven't given many of them. That makes huge difference in how well you perform. And remember, a technical talk is still a performance.

* if you are worried that your mind would go blank once you take the stage, hard-script the beginning of your presentation and read from the paper. Eventually, you will warm up and won't need it anymore, but it's great to quickly overcome stage fright and the like (helped me a great deal).

Clickable: http://www.gcet.ac.in/icisd/index.html

I would offer some advice. Your objective is not to present the entire contents of the paper. Your paper is, presumably, available. Your objective is to present an overview so that someone gets the idea of what's in it.

Picture this. In the future person A, who was not at the conference, mentions a problem to person B, who was. You want person B to say "Ah - I say a presentation about exactly this. Here's what to look for!"

You want enough content to give an accurate impression of the content and why it's interesting. Then you want something memorable for people to look for later.

Note: I'm not in your field, but I do give presentations professionally. You need to entertain and inform. But your objective is to be memorable for the right reasons.

Email me your topic and I might - repeat might - email some thoughts.

I am in the middle of making the slides (I know, I know I am very late but the speech is almost ready I am reworking the slides in beamer as I suck with power point). Maybe I will email them to you and you can look at it? See if they are too elaborate?

Sure. Note that I'll give you a brain dump, and it's up to you to pick the bits that will work for your style and knowledge.

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