Ok, I was ̶s̶t̶r̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶r̶m̶e̶d̶ asked to do a presentation at one of the EpiUsers sessions at Insights 2023.
I’ve never really done anything quite like that before.
I’m not gonna give away my topic, but it is a programming project I will be sharing, along
with the resulting product. (The resulting product is what is interesting for most.)
There is not really enough time to do a deep dive (20 minutes?) so most of it I assume will be a
broad overview, and a video or demonstration of the results and some questions.
Anyway, any tips, tricks, suggestions on format, how not to embarrass myself etc?
I’m sure others will have more input but for the panel I usually treat it like a show and tell since there isn’t a lot of time for a deep technical walk-through.
Answer the questions:
Problem That We Had: How did we solve it: (Highlight any note worthy, clever or un-usual techniques/caveats) Demo (if prudent) Q&A:
I personally don’t love power point so I try to just Show and tell as much as possible. For the Panel Q&A tends to lead to quite a bit of back and fourth (I’m sure it will for your topic)
If at any point you need a rescue just do the secret hand signal and Me or one of the others will jump in and do a stand up routine while you recover
Presentations are easy. While you are presenting pretend like you know everything about everything you’re talking about, even if you don’t. Confidence, even fake confidence, and help give you momentum to push through to the end of any presentation.
The suggestion of grouping in threes is a great way to keep people’s attention in our distracted society.
You are a smart guy. I am sure you will do just fine! Anything you present can’t be any more embarrassing than Kinetic!
All great advice above. You have 22 minutes if everything runs on time. You may have less if you go second. And you don’t want to go long if you go first. The layout Jose proposes works the best. People have problems and want to know how you solved yours. They will have questions that you won’t be able to answer right away. That’s not the point of the current presentation though. It’s this problem and this solution. They’ve given you fodder to follow up with on a new thread here or maybe even another talk in the future.
Glad to hear you will use videos of your code running. Live demos are, uh, exciting - not too bad if no Internet required. Bring a copy of your presentation on a USB drive and in the cloud in case something happens to your laptop.
Don’t read your slides. If you want to tell people something, tell them. They can read the slides just as well as you. I put a ton of references on slides last year but I knew people could read them later if they wanted to, so I didn’t read everything on them.
Practice. Practice. Practice. Don’t stop until you finish in the same amount of time. Shoot for 17 minutes.
Offer to take questions during the talk but reserve the right to answer them later, especially if the answer appears later in the presentation.
Leave time for Q&A. At least four to five minutes. You can always go back and explain something further if you have leftover time. Also, have some “expected” questions in mind. If there’s silence, you can start the ball rolling with one of those.
Finally, most of the people there already know you. You will have more friends in the audience than strangers and a fair number of them have stood there too.
Ever-helpful Bing AI is here to help you break the ice:
I am pretty sure it grabbed some of these from this very site!
A programmer walks into a bar and orders 1.000000119 root beers. The bartender says, “I’m gonna have to charge you extra; that’s a root beer float”. And the programmer says, “Well in that case make it a double”.
How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb? None. That’s a hardware problem.
When your hammer is C++, everything begins to look like a thumb.
Just be ready to go at anytime. I thought I was last in the lineup last year and after the first or second presentation Jose looks over and says you ready. I almost died and blasted thru my 20 minutes in about 5.
Honestly, I find that a Mimosa or two with breakfast (if you’re in the AM session) or a beer/bourbon with lunch (for the afternoon session) has always worked for me to calm the nerves.
