The structure of a technical presentation is similar to that of any other fixed-time or fixed-space presentation:
The introduction and conclusions are general in nature: they give what is general called the big picture. With the introduction, the speaker discusses the general framework within which the presentation takes place. The body of the presentation focuses on the topic at hand, and finally, having presented all information in the given time, the speaker concludes, once again showing how the the presentation fits into the general framework. This is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. The broad-narrow-broad focus of a presentation.
We will discuss each of these three components, however, it is important to note that the speaker should have both the introduction and conclusions memorized so that he or she can focus entirely on the audience at these two critical points.
The primary characteristic features of the a technical presentation should include:
Given an outline, it should always be possible to scale the duration of a presentation, either by skipping certain slides which go into detail or by expanding on particular topics with further depth. This will allow the speaker to tailor the presentation to the allocated time while dealing with aspects beyond the speaker's control. Never-the-less, a presentation must at all times flow—the audience should never notice a discontinuity between topics or be required to interpolate significant changes in subject matter.