[tips] Presentation tactics

 Know the purpose of your talk

• To inspire
• To impress
• To educate

Identify key ideas

Know your target audience

• Experts in your field

Preparing slides

Add page number

Design the structure and logic flow

• Intro/Motivation
• Problem formulation
• Dataset
• Results (strong results to impress)
• Discussions (insights to stimulate thinking)
• Conclusion (powerful conclusion to summarize the talk)
• Q&A

Tell a story

Maximize SNR

SNR = Signal(key messages) / Noise (redundant words)

How to improve signal

• Use picture
• Use examples
• Use color to highlight
• Use animation
• Avoid typos

Reduce the noise

• Don't copy/paste
• Remove redundant words
• Less equations
• Leave technicle details in the appendix

The 1/3 rule

Each contains 1/3 of the talk

• Intro
• Motivation
• Key ideas

1/3 for experts

1/3 for experts in the field

Tips

• Be yourself
• Practice
• Vivid words
• Vocal variety
• Study from the greats
• Get Feedback
• Apperance
• Pauses
• Body language
• Be confident
• Memorize key sentences
• Time limit

Q&A

• Simulate questions might be asked.
• Complement the question first/repeat the question.
• Think before answer.

Next level

• Crack jokes
• Interact with audiences
• Introduce yourself to the session chair
• Know who's who in the audience
• Not just to impress, but to stimulate discussions afterward

Reference

https://youtu.be/GFsCuPBchfk

Stop working on your slides - Andrei Alexandrescu

Stop working on your slides

Strucuture

• Philosophy
• Strategy
• Tactics

Nirvana levels in tech talks

Level 1: competence

• Focus on understanding
• Study related work
• Able to converse with someone who dedicated life to the topic
• Be one level above the material
• What you teach should be <20% you know
• The currency of public speakers: Reputation

Level 2: Confidence

• Not arrogance
• Truly believe every word you say
• Focus on teaching

Level 3: showmanship

• Each performance is unique
• Get into the character
• Record & watch your performance
• Focus on performing

Stack upon one another

Strategy

• Define 1-3 powerful messages
• Chip away  what doesn't support point directly
• Use distractions sparingly, avoid effects.

The Rule of three

• Strucuture material in threes
• Three parts of a talk
• Three subsections in each part
• etc.

We're empathetic!

Opening

• The first 30s is important.
• Establish contact immediately
• A question
• A story
• A joke
• Make people feel they'd have missed out if late

Closing

• Practice closing

Tactics

• Attire
• Handle your audience
• Handling questions
• scan for raised hands
• thanks for the question; don't say 'good question'
• repeat the question
• reply to the entire audience; not to the asker.
• Posture and body language
• stand straight
• speak loudly
• never talk to your slides
• look at the audience
• drink later XD
• record your rehearsals
• Time management

2023 add-on

Reference:
https://hbr.org/2012/10/how-to-present-to-senior-execu

• Summarize up front
  Say you’re given 30 minutes to present. When creating your intro, pretend your whole slot got cut to 5 minutes. This will force you to lead with all the information your audience really cares about — high-level findings, conclusions, recommendations, a call to action.
  State those points clearly and succinctly right at the start, and then move on to supporting data, subtleties, and material that’s peripherally relevant.
• Set expectations
  Let the audience know you’ll spend the first few minutes presenting your summary and the rest of the time on discussion. Even the most impatient executives will be more likely to let you get through your main points uninterrupted if they know they’ll soon get to ask questions.
• Create summary slides
  When making your slide deck, place a short overview of key points at the front; the rest of your slides should serve as an appendix. Follow the 10% rule: If your appendix is 50 slides, create 5 summary slides.
  After you present the summary, let the group drive the conversation, and refer to appendix slides as relevant questions and comments come up. Often, executives will want to go deeper into certain points that will aid in their decision making. If they do, quickly pull up the slides that speak to those points.
• Give them what they asked for
  This time-pressed group of senior managers invited you to speak because they felt you could supply a missing piece of information. So answer that specific request directly and quickly.
• Rehearse
  Before presenting, run your talk and your slides by a colleague who will serve as an honest coach. Try to find someone who’s had success getting ideas adopted at the executive level. Ask for pointed feedback:
  Is your message coming through clearly and quickly?
  Do your summary slides boil everything down into skimmable key insights?
  Are you missing anything your audience is likely to expect?