THE MARKUP THEORY & PRACTICE CONFERENCE August 7-10, 2007 Montréal, Canada August 6, 2007 — Preconference Overlap Workshop

Presentation Guidelines for Extreme Markup Languages

These guidelines are intended to help presenters and are in no way requirements. Rather, they are techniques that many experienced presenters find improve their presentations and their audiences’ understanding of their material.

There are several things to consider in giving a talk:

• visuals (slides)
• speaking, both prepared material and questions & answers
• demeanor

Visuals

Slide Technology — Any presentation software is acceptable, but we suggest that you consider using a XML-based one. There are quite a few listed at http://www.mulberrytech.com/walkthewalk.html (Mulberry’s Presentation Tools page).

Keep your slides short and simple:

• no more that 10 lines on a slide
• no more than 7 words on a line
• fonts at 18 points or bigger, even on graphics
• no red — It may look bright on the screen, but it vanishes when projected.

Graphics

• Shrink your full-screen graphics to 3 inches wide, print them, and see if you can read them. If not: simplify, make the fonts bigger, and reduce clutter.
• Assume that the audience will see the general layout of any screen shots, but that they will not be able to read the contents of the screen shot.
• Don’t show big blocks of code in "normal" sizes — the only people who will be able to see it will be some of the people in the front row. Instead, pick a few key examples and show them in 18 points so the audience can see them.

Test how readable your slides are:

• Project if possible, and look from 50 feet away, or
• Look at your laptop screen from 12 feet back — and be sure you can read everything (if you are younger than 30, stand 15 feet back). (Note: This is a good check for font size; it is not a reliable test for color contrast — contrast will be lost in projecting.)

Speaking

There are two parts of a conference presentation: the prepared remarks and the question & answer time.

The main part of your talk should be the prepared remarks. The key word here is prepared.

• Develop notes on the points you want to make associated with each slide.
• It might help to write the full text of a possible talk, but unless you are an experienced actor or a trained newscaster, do not read your talk! Instead, after you write it, make lists of the main points and talk from those.
• Find our how much time is allocated for your talk (at Extreme, polemics usually have 30 minutes, other talks have 45 minutes). Assume that you will talk for 3/4 of the time and leave the other 1/4 for questions & answers.
• Rehearse your talk, paying attention to the timing. If you are new to public speaking be sure to:
  • practice with an audience
  • project your slides, or at least look at them on your screen
  • stand up while practicing, as if you were at the lectern
  If your talk runs a little long when you rehearse it, cut some material. Then rehearse again. Do not decide to talk faster — speaking quickly in a presentation is a good way to confuse the audience, and a very poor way to communicate.
• Don’t try to put everything that is in your published paper into your talk. Give the most important concepts, a few key details, a few examples. Give the audience a reason to want to read the details in the proceedings.

When answering questions:

• Repeat the question before answering it. There are several reasons for this:
  1. ensure that the whole audience heard the question
  2. ensure that you understood the question (If you didn’t, the questioner will correct you before you answer a question that wasn’t asked.)
  3. give you an extra moment to think about your answer
• Be concise. Give polite but short answers.
• Be friendly. Remember that people who ask you questions, even if they disagree with something you said, are supporting you. If they really didn’t think what you said was interesting or important, they would not ask questions.

Demeanor

Relax. Don't rock, shake, or fidget. If you think you may be a "fidgeter", put one hand solidly on the lectern.

Use the microphone. Even if you think you are very loud, use the microphone so that any members of the audience with hearing problems can hear you.

Wear comfortable clothes, especially comfortable shoes. It is far more important that you concentrate on your material and the audience than that you look any particular way. So, don't wear anything you are not comfortable with.

Look at the audience, or at least glance frequently at several people scattered throughout the audience. When answering a question, look at the person who asked the question.