On 2013-08-06, at 10:26, Aaron Yi DING <Aaron.Ding@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > to clarify, imho: > > presentation != slides In my experience, slides are mainly useful: 1. To convey information which is difficult to express accurately by voice only (e.g. graphs, names of drafts, big numbers) 2. To distract the e-mail-reading audience in the room so that they look up and pay attention. An example of (2) can be found in <http://www.ietf.org/proceedings/87/slides/slides-87-dnsop-8.pdf> where I presented a one-slide problem statement that consisted entirely filled with an xkcd cartoon. Once the room is suitably filled with hilarity, it's much easier to enrage people with your stupid idea. I don't think that having slides available in advance helps significantly with (1) in an ietf context (where we are continuing a conversation from a list, and not generally introducing new material). (2) is not really pertinent for a remote audience (if they've bothered to attend at all, you can surely assume they are paying attention.) Many people use slideware as a teleprompter so that they can remember what to say at the mic. I've done that before. I'm not proud of it. The best outcome at a working group meeting is that, as a presenter, you spend most of your time listening rather than talking. If the mic line is empty, you probably should not have been on the agenda. Joe