Presenting Conference Talks

Presenting Conference Talks: From Paper to Slides

Generate conference presentation slides from a compiled research paper. Produces both Beamer LaTeX PDF (for polished typesetting) and editable PPTX (for last-minute adjustments), with speaker notes and an optional talk script.

When to Use This Skill

Attribution: This skill's structure draws inspiration from the ARIS paper-slides skill (570 lines, supporting poster/spotlight/oral/invited with Beamer+PPTX). This is an independent implementation for the AI-Research-SKILLs ecosystem.

Talk Types and Slide Counts

Rule of thumb: ~1 slide per minute for oral, ~1.5 slides per minute for spotlight.

Slide Structure Templates

Poster-Talk (5–8 slides)

Slide 1: Title + Authors + AffiliationSlide 2: Problem — Why this matters (1 motivating figure)Slide 3: Key Insight — One-sentence thesisSlide 4: Approach Overview — Architecture diagramSlide 5: Main Result — Headline numbers (1 figure)Slide 6: Takeaway + QR code to paper/code

Spotlight (8–12 slides)

Slide 1:  Title + AuthorsSlide 2:  Problem Statement — Concrete, quantifiedSlide 3:  Motivation — Why existing solutions fall shortSlide 4:  Key Insight — Thesis statementSlide 5:  System Overview — Architecture diagramSlide 6:  Design Highlight 1 — Core mechanismSlide 7:  Design Highlight 2 — Key innovationSlide 8:  Evaluation Setup — Baselines and workloads (brief)Slide 9:  Main Results — Headline performance figureSlide 10: Ablation / Breakdown — What contributes mostSlide 11: Summary + ContributionsSlide 12: Thank You + Links

Oral (15–22 slides)

Slide 1:  Title + Authors + VenueSlide 2:  Outline (optional — "roadmap" slide)Slide 3:  Problem Context — Domain importanceSlide 4:  Problem Statement — Specific challengeSlide 5:  Motivation — Gaps in existing systemsSlide 6:  Key Insight — ThesisSlide 7:  System Overview — Architecture diagramSlide 8:  Design Component 1 — Detailed walkthroughSlide 9:  Design Component 2 — Detailed walkthroughSlide 10: Design Component 3 — Detailed walkthroughSlide 11: Design Alternatives — Why not other approachesSlide 12: Implementation — Key engineering highlightsSlide 13: Evaluation Setup — Testbed, baselines, metricsSlide 14: End-to-End Results — Main performanceSlide 15: Result Deep Dive — Breakdown or per-workloadSlide 16: Ablation Study — Component contributionsSlide 17: Scalability — Scaling behaviorSlide 18: Demo Slide (systems talks) — Screenshot or recordingSlide 19: Related Work — Positioning (brief)Slide 20: Summary — Contributions restatedSlide 21: Future Work — Open questionsSlide 22: Thank You + Paper Link + QR Code

Invited Talk (25–40 slides)

Extends the oral structure with:

• Additional context slides (field overview, historical progression)
• Multiple demo/walkthrough slides
• Deeper evaluation analysis
• Broader implications and future directions
• Q&A preparation slides (hidden, for backup)

Systems Talk Specifics

Systems conference talks have unique requirements compared to ML talks:

Demo Slide

• Include a live demo or pre-recorded screencast of the system in action
• Always have a recorded backup — live demos fail at the worst times
• Show the system under realistic load, not toy examples

Architecture Walkthrough

• Animate the architecture diagram: highlight components as you explain them
• Use Beamer \only<N> or \onslide<N> for progressive reveal
• Walk through a concrete request end-to-end through the system

Evaluation Highlights

• Select 2–3 strongest figures from the paper
• Annotate figures on slides (arrows, circles highlighting key points)
• State the takeaway before showing the figure ("Our system is 2x faster — here's the data")

Speaker Notes Guidelines

Structure per Slide

[Timing: X minutes][Key point to convey][Transition sentence to next slide]

Mike Dahlin's Layered Approach

Apply "Say what you're going to say, say it, then say what you said" at three levels:

1. Talk level: Outline slide → body → summary slide
2. Section level: Section heading → content slides → section takeaway
3. Slide level: Headline statement → supporting evidence → transition

Timing Guidelines

• Poster-talk: 30–60 sec per slide
• Spotlight: 30–45 sec per slide
• Oral: 45–90 sec per slide
• Invited: 60–120 sec per slide

Output Formats

Beamer LaTeX → PDF

Advantages: Professional typesetting, math support, version control friendly.

\documentclass[aspectratio=169]{beamer}\usetheme{metropolis}  % Clean, modern theme\usepackage{appendixnumberbeamer}
\title{Your Paper Title}\subtitle{Venue Year}\author{Author 1 \and Author 2}\institute{Institution}\date{}
\begin{document}\maketitle
\begin{frame}{Problem}  \begin{itemize}    \item Key problem statement    \item Concrete motivation with numbers  \end{itemize}  \note{Speaker note: Start with the big picture...}\end{frame}
% ... more frames ...\end{document}

python-pptx → Editable PPTX

Advantages: Easy last-minute edits, corporate template compatibility, animations.

from pptx import Presentationfrom pptx.util import Inches, Ptfrom pptx.enum.text import PP_ALIGN
prs = Presentation()prs.slide_width = Inches(13.333)  # 16:9prs.slide_height = Inches(7.5)
# Title slideslide = prs.slides.add_slide(prs.slide_layouts[0])slide.shapes.title.text = "Your Paper Title"slide.placeholders[1].text = "Author 1, Author 2\nVenue Year"
# Content slideslide = prs.slides.add_slide(prs.slide_layouts[1])slide.shapes.title.text = "Problem Statement"body = slide.placeholders[1]body.text = "Key point 1\nKey point 2"
# Add speaker notesnotes_slide = slide.notes_slidenotes_slide.notes_text_frame.text = "Speaker note: explain the motivation..."
prs.save("talk.pptx")

Color Scheme Suggestions

These are aesthetic suggestions, not official venue requirements. Adjust freely.

Workflow

Step 1: Content Extraction

- Read the compiled paper (PDF or LaTeX source)- Identify: thesis, contributions, architecture figure, key eval figures- Note the talk type and duration

Step 2: Outline Generation

- Select the appropriate slide structure template (above)- Map paper sections to slide groups- Allocate time per slide group

Step 3: Slide-by-Slide Generation

- Generate Beamer source slide by slide- Add speaker notes per slide- Include figures from paper (copy to slides/ directory)- Generate python-pptx script for PPTX version

Step 4: Review and Polish

- Check total slide count matches talk duration- Verify all figures are readable at presentation resolution- Run Beamer compilation: latexmk -pdf slides.tex- Run PPTX generation: python3 generate_slides.py- Review speaker notes for timing and transitions

Quick Checklist

• Slide count appropriate for talk type/duration
• Title slide has correct authors, affiliations, venue
• Architecture diagram included and clearly labeled
• Key eval figures annotated with takeaways
• Speaker notes include timing markers
• Transitions between sections are smooth
• Demo slide has recorded backup
• Thank-you slide includes paper link / QR code
• Font sizes ≥ 24pt for readability from back of room
• Consistent color scheme throughout

Common Issues and Solutions

References

• references/slide-templates.md [blocked] — Complete Beamer template code and python-pptx generation script
• Mike Dahlin, "Giving a Conference Talk" — https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~dahlin/professional/goodTalk.pdf