The following is some guidance for people who are presenting at ICSE 2026 including at any of its co-located conferences or workshops. There is also some guidance for session chairs below.
Uploading your Presentation
You are asked to upload your PowerPoint (.pptx) or .pdf presentation in advance (using the link to be provided by your track chairs). We suggest you upload early. You can also re-upload if you make changes right up to a few minutes before the presentation. If needed, you may contact the on-site media desk for assistance uploading your files at the conference using a USB drive.
Uploaded PowerPoint files should be self-contained, embedding all fonts, audio, and video. All the rooms have good sound systems so sound and video in .pptx files should play as expected. If you want to verify that the presentation will play as expected, then come to the media desk support well before your talk and ask a technician to help you verify that your .pptx will work well in the room. You can also show up in your assigned room to test your talk at least 15 minutes before your session (i.e. in a break or lunch period, although in a few cases rooms are used for meetings). During the conference, uploaded presentations will be presented in sequence in the conference meeting rooms, so there should be no delay in transition between presentations.
Presenting from your own laptop via an HDMI cable should be considered only for exceptional, justifiable cases, as virtual attendees will not be able to see your presentation. Please note that connecting with an HDMI cable has risks; some dongles can be flaky for example. An example of a justifiable case would be if your presentation contains a live demo that requires specific software beyond PowerPoint or a PDF reader.
Conducting your Presentation
The start time and length of your presentation are shown in the online program.
In the main conference, most presenters have 15-minute slots. When presenting in a 15-minute slot, aim to take only 10-12 minutes. Session chairs are asked to warn you at about 11 minutes and cut you off no later than 12.5 minutes, so there are at least two minutes for questions. Any subsequent presenter should come to the front of the room no later than about 14 minutes so the transition is rapid and smooth. Subsequent presenters should not wait to be invited to the front.
If your session is a different length, then adjust proportionately. So, for example, for a 7-minute presentation, aim to talk for about 4-5 minutes, leaving 1-2 minutes for questions. You always need to stop answering questions a little before your end time, so the next speaker can be introduced and start on time.
If there are delays due to technical reasons, then the presentation with those difficulties will have to be shortened, as it is imperative that subsequent presentations start on time.
Presentations should ideally be live and in person. If you have issues with travel (visa, medical etc.), please read our page about virtual attendance.
Session chair role
The most important tasks of a session chair are:
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To contact the presenters in advance to ensure they know that you are the chair, you will be introducing them, and you can help them solve any problems
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To help presenters if they need help with uploading their paper to the AV system in advance, or actually doing the upload of their presentation
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To briefly introduce speakers and ensure they start and stop their presentation on time (see the instructions above regarding timing).
We do ask that the timing of each presentation (start and end time) be adhered to strictly due to the following reasons:
a) Some people have several presentations in different rooms and may have to enter or exit a session to present (or watch) a presentation in another room. Scheduling the papers in coherent sessions was extremely difficult, and there remain a few conflicts where people have only 15 minutes to get from one room to another.
b) Some people may have to present virtually, as mentioned above, and will expect to connect at a specific time.
Tech Assistance
In each room, there will be a student volunteer who can help with (or seek help with) any technical issues, including Zoom broadcast. There will also be some floating AV technicians.