Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard & Todd Leen 1 Lecture 18 Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard, PSU Todd Leen, OGI-OHSU All material © 2002, 2006 Todd Leen Lecture 18: Poster Presentations

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard & Todd Leen 2 Lecture 18 Poster Presentations Component of some conferences and workshops. Typically held in exhibit hall with from several dozen to several hundred posters running in parallel. Commonly, a 4’x8’ bulletin board is provided for displaying poster. Commonly pushpins are provided, but if you’re not in the first poster session, you should count on supplying your own; they have a high vapor- pressure. Author typically spends portion of session (~ couple of hours) presenting poster to a “revolving audience”, answering questions, etc.

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard & Todd Leen 3 Lecture 18 Advantages Provides more time for discussion, explanation, and interaction than oral talks. Good way to meet people in your field with similar interests. More relaxed atmosphere than oral talks.

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard & Todd Leen 4 Lecture 18 Disadvantages Tiring for both presenters and viewers. Repetitive for presenter. Sometimes noisy and cramped.

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard & Todd Leen 5 Lecture 18 Guidelines for Posters Like oral presentations: Keep visuals simple and uncluttered –Restrict text to 8-12 lines per “panel”. (Monolithic poster designs may have larger panels.) –Use color and font changes to carry a message (e.g. related concepts or experimental results in the same colors), not arbitrarily. –Use LARGE fonts. The smallest type on your poster should be readable (without opera glasses or the HST) from 4 feet away. Use graphics rather than words where possible. Put keywords on poster to help you remember what you want to say (your script).

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard & Todd Leen 6 Lecture 18 Guidelines for Posters Like papers: Introduction should give overall ideas, and a hint of your results. Use citations and give a reference list. Organize to help the viewer –Put key ideas at start of sections –Say what you want the viewer to notice about an equation, graph, or table –Give a summary panel stating conclusions. What’s the take-home message? –Number panels so viewer knows how to navigate the poster in your absence.

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard & Todd Leen 7 Lecture 18 Additional Guidelines Sketch a layout of your poster centered around key graphics, equations, experimental results Serves as a pictorial outline, a story-board. Prepare two versions of your presentation: –A 3-5 min summary version. –A longer (e.g minute version).

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard & Todd Leen 8 Lecture 18 Additional Guidelines If you have a co-author, share the presentation load –you get a chance to view others’ posters –you avoid burnout. –If your co-author is currently giving the poster – bring him or her water. Keep your poster visually simple. Fatigue is a major problem for poster viewers. Visual clutter contributes adversely.

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard & Todd Leen 9 Lecture 18 Additional Guidelines Supplement with demos or videos if appropriate. Videos are great! Provide a stack of reduced-size hard copies of the poster, or your manuscript. Have fun – this is the best chance to talk science with colleagues at a conference! Go to the program chair’s suite party after the last poster session.