Poster presentations
What will I do at the poster session?
People will come by and expect you to tell them about your work. In essence, you'll be giving a series of mini-talks to individuals and small groups. These are more interactive than ordinary talks, and they may turn into real technical discussion.
Regard your poster as a visual aid that will support you in these informal talks, just as overhead slides do in a formal talk. Your poster should also be self-explanatory, as some people will prefer to study the poster themselves and then ask you questions. Finally, it should attract passers-by.
You might wander off at times to get food and attend the other posters. Use your judgment here: few people will come to your poster when no one is there to present it. If you have co-authors, then you can take turns.
Do you have any tips on poster design?
There are many tips on the web. For example, this site includes visual design advice and links to some good undergraduate biology posters. Please use large fonts —for most text, preferably sans-serif fonts of 32 points and greater.
Remember that you have a paper in the proceedings as well. Thus, while you want enough visible detail to help you answer questions, it's not necessary to put every detail on the poster (e.g., don't reproduce your full bibliography). Like a good talk, a good poster conveys the essential ideas and results and convinces people to go read the full paper.
How do I produce a poster?
Probably the easiest way is to make a single huge slide in your favorite graphics or presentation program. For example, in Powerpoint, you can use "File / Page Setup..." to set the slide dimensions. Putting everything on one big slide lets you be very flexible in your layout. It also lets you specify fonts and images at their true sizes.
You may have access to a poster printer at your institution. If not, some photocopy shops can print large posters. You can prepare a file in Powerpoint, PDF, or some other format, and either bring it or email it to the shop. You may have a choice of papers; for example, indoor vinyl is attractive, durable and fairly cheap.
Check the printing cost and the maximum dimensions of the poster printer before.
What is the posters physical format?
The poster boards will fit one ISO A0 size poster, portrait orientation only, with dimensions 1189×841mm (about 46×33 inches).
The posters should be easily readable at a distance of about 2m (6 feet).
Proper mounting items will be provided at the site.
No additional facilities (such as electrical sockets, tables for laptops or handouts etc.) can be guaranteed to the poster presenters.
