TITLE: Presenting a paper: Do's and Don'ts?
QUESTION [38 upvotes]: I was wondering what would be the best way to present your paper at a conference, if your paper is selected for "short communication", lasting for about 15 minutes?
Should you concentrate on the main results or the proofs?
And what should a first-time presenter be wary of?
Thanks in advance.

REPLY [2 votes]: Some general points I find important:

focus on the main results
don't spend time with proofs (people can read those them self)
don't give any hand-outs (this just distracts people; wastes paper)
put the important points on the slides, talk about what is not on the slides
don't put too much into the slides, make the fonts big and readable
humor is useful to keep people paying attention. this might be more difficult with a math paper than for example with a paper from computer science, but there are still posibilities to use humor.
talk loud and clearly, don't turn around to look at the slides or text.
use the blackboard to answer questions and to give examples (don't put the examples in the presentation)