Conference presentations are the moment to share your results, and to connect with researchers about future directions. However, presentations are often created as an afterthought and as a result they are often not as exciting as they could be. In this slidedeck Felienne Hermans shares hands-on techniques to engage an audience. The talk covers the entire spectrum of presenting: we start with advice on how to structure a talk and how to incorporate a core message into it. Once we have addressed the right structure for a talk, we will work on adding stories and arcs of tension to your presentation. Finally, to really perform as a presenter, we will talk about how slide design and body language can support your presentation.

1. Presenting
Structure, story and support
I am Felienne
Feedback welcome!
@felienne
mail@felienne.com

2. Presenting
Structure, story and support
I am Felienne
Feedback welcome!
@felienne
mail@felienne.com
Hi! In this slide deck, I’ll share three
ways to impove your presentation
skills:
Structure
Stories
Support

3. Presenting
Structure, story and support
I am Felienne
Feedback welcome!
@felienne
mail@felienne.com
Hi! In this slide deck, I’ll share three
ways to impove your presentation
skills:
Structure
Stories
Support
But first of all? Why would you want
to be a better presenter?

4. First of all, to increase your impact.
This guy is famous Dutch scientist
Robbert Dijkgraaf and he has a law
for scientific impact.

5. First of all, to increase your impact.
This guy is famous Dutch scientist
Robbert Dijkgraaf and he has a law
for scientific impact.
Knowledge =
Information * Audience

6. First of all, to increase your impact.
This guy is famous Dutch scientist
Robbert Dijkgraaf and he has a law
for scientific impact.
Knowledge =
Information * Audience
So if you want your ideas to spread,
make sure you have a big
audience that is actually getting it.

7. If you don’t care about spreading
your knowledge, you can improve
your public speaking skills for you.

8. If you don’t care about spreading
your knowledge, you can improve
your public speaking skills for you.
Fear of public speaking is the
second most common fear, second
only to snakes.
If you become a better presenter
(for example by following my tips)
you’ll be more relaxed and less
scared!

9. The good thing is that there is really
only 1 rule to presenting. I know
there are loads of lists like
‘the n tips for presenting like
awesome person y’
But in my book, there is just 1 rule.
Ready for it?

10. Don’t lose
your audience

11. Easy, right?
The only thing you need to do is get
your audience from the beginning
to the end of your talk, without
them being tempted to fall
asleep/look out of the
window/check their email.
Don’t lose
your audience

12. When preparing many presenters
(myself included) think about
themselves first:
What do I want to share?
What will people think about me?
To make a great presentation, think
about the audience first. What do
they already know, what do they
like or hate. And most important,
what tools will I use to get them
through my talk. This presentation
gives you tools for achieving this.
Don’t lose
your audience

13. Another way of putting this is you
have to minimize ‘exit moments’,
moments where the audience
might drop out.
Next time when you are at a
conference and you feel tempted
to stop paying attention, try to
figure out why. Did you miss the
‘why’, was the speaker
monotonous? Recognizing exit
moments in others will help you
prevent creating them yourselves.

14. Don’t lose
your audience
In the remainder of this
presentation, I’ll share three
techniques you can use to not lose
the audience.

15. Don’t lose
your audience 1) Right structure

16. Don’t lose
your audience
Ever sat in a presentation where
you where like “why is he/she
telling me this” or “where is this
going?” And not in the good movie
arc of tension style?
That is the sign of a badly
structured presentation.
1) Right structure

17. Don’t lose
your audience
“Energy spent on
trying to follow you is
not spent on listening
to your message”
Ever sat in a presentation where
you where like “why is he/she
telling me this” or “where is this
going?” And not in the good movie
arc of tension style?
That is the sign of a badly
structured presentation.
1) Right structure

18. Structure gets your audience from A to B

19. Structure gets your audience from A to B

20. “Successful presenting is constantly
answering the questions the
audience has in mind”
Stolen from this book ->
It’s my favorite

21. “Successful presenting is constantly
answering the questions the
audience has in mind”
In other words, you are having a
CONVERSATION

22. What people think about
when they prepare a talk

23. What you should think about
when preparing a talk

24. What you should think about
when preparing a talk
Most conversations do not go like
this.

25. What kind of work do you do?

26. What kind of work do you do?
First I will tell you how local
government works in the US
Then I will elaborate on the
position of city treasurer
Finally, I will tell you about some
legal troubles I am currently
facing.

27. First I will tell you how local
government works in the US
Then I will elaborate on the
position of city treasurer
Finally, I will tell you about some
legal troubles I am currently
facing.
Most conversations do not go like
this, because it sounds crazy.

28. First I will tell you how local
government works in the US
Then I will elaborate on the
position of city treasurer
Finally, I will tell you about some
legal troubles I am currently
facing.
Most conversations do not go like
this, because it sounds crazy.
So please no more outlines (or as
one of my colleagues calls it “the
zone outline”)
Don’t waste time and scare people
off with meta-remarks.

29. Think about
conversation
if you structure a
presentation

30. Some ideas
So, if I don’t start with an intro, how
shall I start then?

31. Some ideas
Start with the end
“40% more performance”

32. Some ideas
Start with how
“We spoke with the lead dev”
Start with the end
“40% more performance”

33. Some ideas
Start with how
“We spoke with the lead dev”
Start with why
“Building a web API is hard”
Start with the end
“40% more performance”

34. In any case

35. Don’t copy
the paper

36. Don’t lose
your audience 1) Right structure

37. Don’t lose
your audience 1) Right structure
2) Adding stories

38. “Successful presenting is constantly
answering the questions the
audience has in mind”

39. So how do you get the questions in?
“Successful presenting is constantly
answering the questions the
audience has in mind”

40. Stories

41. Stories
Of an average presentation, how much
is remembered after 3 months?

42. Stories
5%
Of an average presentation, how much
is remembered after 3 months?

44. Adding visuals and storyline increases this
to…

45. Adding visuals and storyline increases this
to…
60%

46. Yes... but...
Now, you are like “yes, but my
topic is so boring, I cannot not
possibly add cool stories”
You were thinking that, right?
Sure, my topic is

47. Spreadsheets!

48. Spreadsheets!
What is more boring than a
spreadsheet? Exactly.
If I can do it, so can you!
(Curious how I work stories in my
talks? Have a look at this one)

49. Spreadsheets!
What is more boring than a
spreadsheet? Exactly.
If I can do it, so can you!
I am going to presume you like
your topic. So there must be a cool
story there.
How did you start it?
Did you manage to screw up big
time once?
Stories like that stick.

50. A good story There’s a great book on stories that
stick, I highly recommend it.

51. A good story
S Simple
U Unexpected
C Credible
C Concrete
E Emotional
S Stories
There’s a great book on stories that
stick, I highly recommend it.
Is says a story should be

52. A good story There’s a great book on stories that
stick, I highly recommend it.
Is says a story should be
These three are the easiest to start
with.S Simple
U Unexpected
C Credible
C Concrete
E Emotional
S Stories

53. An example
Here a standard slide on SickBeard.
It’s a personal video recorder, etc.

54. My story for this:
Do you know what will happen on
April 6th?
(It’s the launch of the new Game of Thrones.
Crowd goes Yes, we know)
Don’t you dread that day? You
can’t go on Twitter or Facebook,
because your friends in the US
have already seen in. So you have
to hide from spoilers all day.
What would be worse than having
to manually download the episode
when you get home?
This is what SickBeard solves!

55. Appealing, right?
Simple (short)
Concrete (relating to a real event)
Emotional (dread, hide)
If you think about something that
connects you to the audience, it is
easy to come up with a good story.

56. Don’t lose
your audience 1) Right structure
2) Adding stories

57. Don’t lose
your audience 1) Right structure
2) Adding stories
3) Support
Once you have the right structure,
and added memorable stories, the
last thing you can do is support
your presentation in the right way.
Supporting is done with:
• Beautiful slides
• Good body language
• Clear use of your voice/speech

58. Awesome slides
You watched my slides so far, so I
guess you have an idea on my tips
for slide design:
• Consistent style
• One thought/sentence per slide
(Note I added these grey text boxes for the online
version! They are not in the real slides)
The problem with text heavy slides
is that the audience starts to read
them, and stops listening to you.

59. Special attention to the final slide.
To often it is this:

61. Special attention to the final slide.
Remember, this slide will most likely
be on the screen the longest. So:
• Add your contact details
• Summarize your results

62. Putting the science
in computer science
Felienne
Delft University of Technology
These slides (with narrative) are on
SlideShare.com/felienne
Want to know more?
• I’m around all day
• Send me a tweet (@felienne)
Or have a look at my website
www.felienne.com
where I regularly cover the newest
SE research

63. Body language

64. Body language
Body language can really support
your talk. This part of my tutorial
was interactive and it is a bit hard
to explain without, you know, a
body, but I’ll give you some hints.

65. Curse of knowledge
But first, why care?
Because of the curse of
knowledge. You think you are very
clear, because you live and breath
your topic. But you might not be as
clear as you think.

66. Body language
Body language can underline
important parts of your sentences.
Instead of saying: we did two case
studies one big and one small, try
to use your body and stress ‘small’
with your hands.
Like this

67. “Small”

68. “Small”
I know this feels ridiculous in the
beginning, but it really helps,
especially if you are a non native
speaker, or your audience are non
native ‘listeners’
As an exercise, you can try to spot
body words in either your own talks
or others, and try gesturing them in
your own talks.
Big, small, two, three, different,
slow, all candidates from stressing
with your body.

69. The final tool for supporting your
talk is your voice.
My most important tip:
Pause.
Ideally between each sentence.
(if you watch talks, try to pay attenten to how
many speakers pause or ‘ehm’ in the middle of
sentences!)
But at least pause before and after
important sentences. Ironically, the
best way to get attention of the
whole room is to shut up!

70. Don’t lose
your audience 1) Right structure
2) Adding stories
3) Support
That’s it! All you need to keep your
audience awake.
Okay, not really.

71. Don’t lose
your audience 1) Right structure
2) Adding stories
3) Support
One more thing…

72. PRACTICE !

73. PRACTICE !
You have to practice this stuff!
Please don’t think “I am’just’ not
good at this”
No one is born a violin player or a
marathon runner. Everyone needs
practice.
I like this book, but the most
important lesson I got from it is that
even Steve Jobs practised and
practised still, for every talk.
It is not a god given skill.
So look for user groups, meetups or
toast masters in your
neighbourhood. I’m sure they’d
love to hear from you.

74. Presenting
Structure, story and support
I am Felienne
Feedback welcome!
@felienne
mail@felienne.com