I'll be presenting the D Programming Language at the next monthly BLUG meeting. It'll mostly be for people who haven't heard of D yet. There'll be a fair chunk of D1 in there, but I'm hoping to touch some of D2's new features as well.

These meetings are free for everyone to attend, so come by if you live in Beijing, or you happen to be there.

More information at http://tinyurl.com/y9ttldt

See you there!

Lionello.

(I'm fairly new to 'presenting stuff' in general, so all tips are highly
welcomed.)

Lionello Lunesu wrote:
> I'll be presenting the D Programming Language at the next monthly BLUG
> meeting. It'll mostly be for people who haven't heard of D yet. There'll
> be a fair chunk of D1 in there, but I'm hoping to touch some of D2's new
> features as well.

Awesome!


> (I'm fairly new to 'presenting stuff' in general, so all tips are highly
> welcomed.)

I've noticed that things seem to go better if the presenter tries to engage the audience by asking them questions thereby inviting more of a group discussion, as opposed to just reading the slides to them.

On 10-3-2010 8:35, Walter Bright wrote:
> Lionello Lunesu wrote:
>> I'll be presenting the D Programming Language at the next monthly BLUG meeting. It'll mostly be for people who haven't heard of D yet. There'll be a fair chunk of D1 in there, but I'm hoping to touch some of D2's new features as well.
> 
> Awesome!
> 
> 
>> (I'm fairly new to 'presenting stuff' in general, so all tips are highly
>> welcomed.)
> 
> I've noticed that things seem to go better if the presenter tries to engage the audience by asking them questions thereby inviting more of a group discussion, as opposed to just reading the slides to them.

Good tip, thanks.

I'm wondering: should I do the 'scrolling HTML', in true D style? The
lazy part of me says yes :))

On Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:47:00 +0800, Lionello Lunesu wrote:

> On 10-3-2010 8:35, Walter Bright wrote:
>> Lionello Lunesu wrote:
>>> I'll be presenting the D Programming Language at the next monthly BLUG meeting. It'll mostly be for people who haven't heard of D yet. There'll be a fair chunk of D1 in there, but I'm hoping to touch some of D2's new features as well.
>> 
>> Awesome!
>> 
>> 
>>> (I'm fairly new to 'presenting stuff' in general, so all tips are
>>> highly welcomed.)
>> 
>> I've noticed that things seem to go better if the presenter tries to engage the audience by asking them questions thereby inviting more of a group discussion, as opposed to just reading the slides to them.
> 
> Good tip, thanks.
> 
> I'm wondering: should I do the 'scrolling HTML', in true D style? The
> lazy part of me says yes :))

Try to make page1.html, page2.html .. :>

Lionello Lunesu wrote:
> On 10-3-2010 8:35, Walter Bright wrote:
>> Lionello Lunesu wrote:
>>> I'll be presenting the D Programming Language at the next monthly BLUG
>>> meeting. It'll mostly be for people who haven't heard of D yet. There'll
>>> be a fair chunk of D1 in there, but I'm hoping to touch some of D2's new
>>> features as well.
>> Awesome!
>>
>>
>>> (I'm fairly new to 'presenting stuff' in general, so all tips are highly
>>> welcomed.)
>> I've noticed that things seem to go better if the presenter tries to
>> engage the audience by asking them questions thereby inviting more of a
>> group discussion, as opposed to just reading the slides to them.
> 
> Good tip, thanks.
> 
> I'm wondering: should I do the 'scrolling HTML', in true D style? The
> lazy part of me says yes :))

I suggest not. When you'll be more experienced you'll be able to make-do even with the white board, but for now focus on preparing good slides and rehearsing them.

Walter's advice is good. Plus: make sure through rehearsing that your material fits within the allotted time.


Andrei

Lionello Lunesu wrote:
> Good tip, thanks.

welcs

> I'm wondering: should I do the 'scrolling HTML', in true D style? The
> lazy part of me says yes :))

I've abandoned it in favor of pdf:

1. HTML rendering sucks compared with pdf rendering. I don't know why, but when it gets blown up on a big screen, the HTML looks lousy. (The fonts.)

2. HTML tends to not scale well to different screen resolutions. So, if you're using a projector or something with a different screen res than you developed the presentation on, it can look cropped or otherwise goofy. PDF seems to scale well automatically.

3. It's hard to do any sort of simple graphics in HTML. It's easy with a powerpoint program.

4. I've had problems with margins on HTML, i.e. some projectors would do things like just cut off the left side. No problems with PDF.

5. The scrolling HTML comes off as quirky to a lot of people, and that reflects poorly on the presenter and what they're presenting.

6. I've been using Impress (part of Openoffice) and while it can be a wacky thing to use now and then, the result can be exported to a pdf which is pretty bulletproof and looks great when projected.

7. PDF packs everything you need into one convenient file. HTML is a directory full of files.

8. Your presentation computer may have a different browser than the one you developed the presentation on, and so may render unexpectedly differently, or even fail completely.


Always always always carry an extra copy of your PDF's on a USB stick and an SD card, and carry them separately from your laptop. Laptops break and get stolen. With your presentation on a USB stick, you're good to go with just about any computer available.

I've also found it worthwhile to bring along a laser pointer. It's easier than running around at the last minute trying to scrounge one from the event organizers. Same goes for a wireless remote that plugs into your laptop to page up and down. The remote and the laser are often in one convenient device.

Bring fresh batteries for the remote!

Walter Bright:
> I've abandoned it in favor of pdf:

> I've also found it worthwhile to bring along a laser pointer.

I do all you do for the reasons you do. I just lack the laser pointer :-)

Bye,
bearophile

On 10-3-2010 10:01, Moritz Warning wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:47:00 +0800, Lionello Lunesu wrote:
> 
>> On 10-3-2010 8:35, Walter Bright wrote:
>>> Lionello Lunesu wrote:
>>>> I'll be presenting the D Programming Language at the next monthly BLUG meeting. It'll mostly be for people who haven't heard of D yet. There'll be a fair chunk of D1 in there, but I'm hoping to touch some of D2's new features as well.
>>>
>>> Awesome!
>>>
>>>
>>>> (I'm fairly new to 'presenting stuff' in general, so all tips are
>>>> highly welcomed.)
>>>
>>> I've noticed that things seem to go better if the presenter tries to engage the audience by asking them questions thereby inviting more of a group discussion, as opposed to just reading the slides to them.
>>
>> Good tip, thanks.
>>
>> I'm wondering: should I do the 'scrolling HTML', in true D style? The
>> lazy part of me says yes :))
> 
> Try to make page1.html, page2.html .. :>

Yes, I'll go the PDF way, with real pages :)

On 10-3-2010 10:07, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> Lionello Lunesu wrote:
>> On 10-3-2010 8:35, Walter Bright wrote:
>>> Lionello Lunesu wrote:
>>>> I'll be presenting the D Programming Language at the next monthly BLUG
>>>> meeting. It'll mostly be for people who haven't heard of D yet.
>>>> There'll
>>>> be a fair chunk of D1 in there, but I'm hoping to touch some of D2's
>>>> new
>>>> features as well.
>>> Awesome!
>>>
>>>
>>>> (I'm fairly new to 'presenting stuff' in general, so all tips are
>>>> highly
>>>> welcomed.)
>>> I've noticed that things seem to go better if the presenter tries to engage the audience by asking them questions thereby inviting more of a group discussion, as opposed to just reading the slides to them.
>>
>> Good tip, thanks.
>>
>> I'm wondering: should I do the 'scrolling HTML', in true D style? The
>> lazy part of me says yes :))
> 
> I suggest not. When you'll be more experienced you'll be able to make-do even with the white board, but for now focus on preparing good slides and rehearsing them.

Hmm, yes.

> Walter's advice is good. Plus: make sure through rehearsing that your material fits within the allotted time.

Well, I noticed that most other presentations I've attended did indeed go over time and not by a small amount either. So, apparently it's very hard to stay within a certain time? Or, once you're standing there and 'get in the zone' you forget about the time?

I don't have a watch, but it seems that I might need one then.

L.

Lionello Lunesu wrote:
> On 10-3-2010 10:07, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> Lionello Lunesu wrote:
>>> On 10-3-2010 8:35, Walter Bright wrote:
>>>> Lionello Lunesu wrote:
>>>>> I'll be presenting the D Programming Language at the next monthly BLUG
>>>>> meeting. It'll mostly be for people who haven't heard of D yet.
>>>>> There'll
>>>>> be a fair chunk of D1 in there, but I'm hoping to touch some of D2's
>>>>> new
>>>>> features as well.
>>>> Awesome!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> (I'm fairly new to 'presenting stuff' in general, so all tips are
>>>>> highly
>>>>> welcomed.)
>>>> I've noticed that things seem to go better if the presenter tries to
>>>> engage the audience by asking them questions thereby inviting more of a
>>>> group discussion, as opposed to just reading the slides to them.
>>> Good tip, thanks.
>>>
>>> I'm wondering: should I do the 'scrolling HTML', in true D style? The
>>> lazy part of me says yes :))
>> I suggest not. When you'll be more experienced you'll be able to make-do
>> even with the white board, but for now focus on preparing good slides
>> and rehearsing them.
> 
> Hmm, yes.
> 
>> Walter's advice is good. Plus: make sure through rehearsing that your
>> material fits within the allotted time.
> 
> Well, I noticed that most other presentations I've attended did indeed
> go over time and not by a small amount either. So, apparently it's very
> hard to stay within a certain time? Or, once you're standing there and
> 'get in the zone' you forget about the time?


I think it's rather that when you're preparing your slides, and reading them to yourself, you do it a lot faster than when you're actually doing the presentation.

I try to use 2 minutes per slide as a rule of thumb.

-Lars