Let there be stoning!

Thanks to Bogdan Antonescu for pointing out to me the latest entry in Garr Reynold’s Presentation Zen blog. It discusses an article “Let there be stoning!” written by Jay Lehr about bringing an end to incredibly boring speakers.

If only more speakers would follow this advice:

The average conference paper is 20 minutes in length. It is not a college lecture where students are to absorb the minutest detail of a subject planned and presented as part of a 10 to 16 week curriculum. Rather, a conference paper offers an up-to-date capsule summary of a particular piece of ongoing or completed research for the purpose of bringing fellow scientists up to date on activities in their field. A speaker cannot hope to teach the audience the specifics of his work, but he can elicit a valuable appreciation of the research effort and imply the value of the contribution to the growing body of knowledge on the subject.

Lehr, J. H., 1985: Let there be stoning! Ground Water, 23 (2), 162–165.

Image from http://media.zenfs.com