How to prepare for Wikis4SE @ ICSE'2009?

There are a few things you should consider to prepare to attend the workshop, related with travelling to Canada, preparing your presentation (if you are a speaker), testing your laptop with video-projector (if you want to use yours), and briefly reading all workshop papers (all participants)

Please read the information under ”Entering Canada”, since there are some important information to consider.

This contains important information about audiovisual equipment that will be available at ICSE'09 along with guidelines to help you plan your presentation.

Every amphitheatre will have a data projector, large screen, and microphones. You will need to provide your own laptop. Be warned that it can take time to set up a computer to synchronize with an unfamiliar data projector. So be sure that your computer works with our data projectors before your session, and learn how to connect your computer to our projectors quickly (e.g., without needing to reboot!).

A test data projector will be available in the Thompson room (the student volunteer office). You can go to that room at any point during regular conference hours (8:30-5:30) to make sure that your computer synchronizes with our projectors.

Also, we recommend that you not rely on making use of the Internet during your talk (e.g., to access a Web page or Web application). While there will be wireless Internet access in the room, you will be sharing it with your audience, so the bandwidth may be slow and unpredictable.

Please provide us with your bio. Make sure you contact us before your talk so that we will know that you are at the conference; and (2) meet the schedule to be prepared for your talk (it can be the first).

• Plan very carefully what you can cover in the allotted time. You will have a 15-minute slot for your presentation. You should try to limit your talk to the essentials, in 10 minutes so that you can allow 5 minutes for questions. This 15-minute time limit will be strictly enforced by us, so that we can keep enough time for interactive group discussions.

• Design your slides with a large room and audience in mind. Use large fonts so your slides are visible from far away. As a general principle, don't put too much on each slide.

• Given the time limit there's simply no way you can present all the results in your paper, so don't even try. Think of your talk as an advertisement – your goal is to entice the audience into wanting to know more about your work. Motivate the problem; describe your overall approach and your major results. If your work includes experiments, pick a representative graph or two.

• Don't put everything you want to say on your slides and then read them during your talk. You will captivate your audience by forcing them to listen to you, looking at the slides only for cues and diagrams.

• Keep your examples simple, emphasizing the main points, and give the audience enough time to digest each example.

• If using PowerPoint, make sure you choose a color scheme that will be easily readable. The most readable color schemes seem to use a white background with dark text and image colors (i.e., something other than yellow, light blue, light green, etc., for text and images). If you use a colored background (such as royal blue, which is quite popular), make sure you use light-colored text and image colors; in particular, red-on-royal-blue is often difficult to read.

• It is strongly recommended that you practice your talk several times, especially if you haven't given many conference talks in the past. Time your runs; get your friends to listen and criticize.

• If you are not a native English speaker, make an effort to speak slowly and clearly enough for a large audience to understand you. Even if you are a native speaker, you will need to speak loudly and clearly.

• Position yourself carefully with respect to the screen – be sure not to block the audience's view.

• During the question & answer session at the end of your talk, be sure that your audience knows what question you are answering – repeat a question if not everyone wass able to hear it. It's often a good idea to repeat questions regardless, to make sure you have them right and to give yourself a moment to think.

• Most of all, have fun, and remember – your talk serves as an advertisement for your work and your paper.

(adapted from the notes of ICSE'2009 Chairs)