Peter nervously asked: >I will be presenting at the upcoming NESUG.....

Good! I would have liked to see you at SUGI.

> 50 minutes long, and my >first NESUG presentation, although I've given a similar talk at NYASUG, >my topic seems boring and elemetnary compared to others.

Stop that! :-)

You need a full range of talks in stat/design. If every talk was Dale deriving likelihoods to build ZINB models, few people would get much out of the section. More people are likely to come to a talk which doesn't demand a Masters to understand the material.

>.It's also been a long time (10 years???) since I went to a NESUG or >SUGI > >Still a bit nervous. Excuse me if I babble (Hopefully, I will babble >here and not when I present ! :-)))

Just practice your talk several times first. That will also tell you that you put too many slides in your presenation! :-)

>So, who else here is going?

I can't make it. Sorry.

>Do people generally give handouts, and if so, any guesses as to how many >for the Analysis section?

I don't. I may show a URL to the paper or the slides. But the attendees may have already read the entire paper off the CD before you see them. Plus, you never know how many attendees you'll get. Sometimes it depends what talks are opposite yours. (My first talk ever at a SUG was opposite Art Carpenter's "Programming for Job Security". I had two attendees, besides the timekeeper. That was encouraging. Not.)

>How formally do people dress when they speak?

I've seen everything from an undershirt to a three-piece power suit. Pick something in the middle. A button-down shirt and khakis would be comfortable for the rest for the day. If you dress nicer than that each day at work, go for that. I'm giving a talk at WUSS on the Perl regular expression functions, and I plan to wear a Perl t-shirt for that, just to make a statement. Bill Viergever has presented in shorts and sandals.

>Any pointers from people who have done this a lot?

Relax. Practice. Relax some more. Practice some more. Take a couple more slides out of your talk. Then relax some more. :-)

Go to the presenters meeting and listen to their advice.

Go to one of the talks on giving a talk. Lois has presented on this. You can learn a lot from one such talk.

>How stat-savvy is the audience in the Analysis section?

It's a beta distribution with people near zero (no stat background at all) and also near one (the expert who invented the model you're discussing). I've had SAS-Lers who just wanted to hear me talk. I've had people like George Milliken and David Dickey. Don't worry about it. Just give the best talk you can, and let people ask questions afterward. You can't give a 50-minute talk which brings Johnny Storm up to speed on the topic, without putting Reed Richards to sleep.

Have fun, David -- David L. Cassell mathematical statistician Design Pathways 3115 NW Norwood Pl. Corvallis OR 97330

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