There will be two NIER sessions at ICSE09, with
each having 9 presentations in a 90 minute slot.
Each talk will be given a maximum of 6 minutes
and 40 seconds, tightly controlled. Authors are
free to use whatever style they like for their
short time, from no slides to 40. However, we
wanted to point out an interesting (and challenging
style) that is often fun for audience and presenter
alike: Pecha Kucha.
Pecha Kucha
is a simple presentation format where each speaker shows
20 slides running for 20 seconds each, for a total of 6 minutes and 40
seconds per presentation.
We have put together some background material for any
authors wishing to try it out. And as an audience guide
for those who want to cheer presenters on. A special
thanks to the NIER co-chairs, Alex Orso and Harald Gall.
And of course, to James Clause for being willing to share
his Pecha Kucha: the video below was put together by James,
a presenter at ICSE07.
Here are a few of James' notes:
Figure out how much you can say in the time period you want to use.
Everyone speaks at a different rate so it's important to figure this out. I did
this by writing a script of what I wanted to say and then using a timer to
figure out how long it would take me to repeat the script. Then I added or
cut length as necessary. (I found that it was more accurate to use the
number of characters in the text rather than the number of words when
counting the length. I think this is because the number of characters in
a word can vary too much)
Keep the slides simple.
For me, 2 bullet points were all I could manage to fit in each slide. I also
found that animations weren't very effective because the audience didn't
have enough time to take everything in the short amount of time.
Try and find some images that can help give an intuitive understanding
of what you're presenting (i.e., the recording icon on the application icon).