Guidelines for Poster Presentations*
1. Make the Poster Readable from a Distance of at least Five Feet (approximately 160 cm)
For everyone to be able to read your work, it is very important that you use a font large enough for this purpose. A general rule of thumb would be to use a font size of at least 20.
2. Use Bullet Points to Maximize Information
The temptation with posters is to cut and paste parts of the paper, or to talk in full sentences. Unfortunately, this is an inefficient way to convey the information. Bullet points help organize and convey a lot more information in a shorter space.
3. Provide Only the Key Points
Avoid the temptation to post excessive information on a poster. Even though people interested in your poster have the opportunity to read it for extended periods of time, it does not mean they want to. Most people only have time to get the main gist of the information: what you did, why it is important, and what it means. Provide only the key points that readers will be most interested in-additional information can always be obtained in the full paper.
4. Do not prepare more than 12 pages to post
(guideline: 1 for the title page and Abstract, 3 for the Introduction, 2 for the Method, 3 for the Results, and 2-3 for the Discussion).
5. Size: There is no set of fixed dimension for each page
Presenters can choose to prepare a single large poster (3’ x 4’) or a number of pages that are smaller, but that would fit in approximately the same area.
6. Try to Interact with Your Audience
One of the great elements of the poster presentation is the opportunity to interact with other participants. Avoid the temptation to walk around the poster session or to leave your poster for extended periods of time. You should anticipate being at your poster for the entire session. Show up on time, and don’t leave early.
7. Remember:
Bring your own adhesives or materials for hanging poster (e.g., thumbtacks). Sometimes these are not provided, or there are not enough. You don’t want to rely on the generosity of your fellow presenters, so be sure to bring your own.
(*) Based on SIOP guidelines.
Guidelines for paper Presentations**
1. Please be on time
It is very helpful for session participants to meet 10 minutes BEFORE the session starts so that everyone can be introduced, the equipment can be checked, handouts can be distributed, and so on. Please come early to your own session. At the very least, your arrival relieves the chair of the anxiety of worrying whether you are there or not. It also means the session can start on time.
2. Effective management of your presentation time
For the 2-hour sessions the rule of thumb is:
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four-paper sessions: 20-25 minutes each paper;
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five-paper sessions: 15-17 minutes each paper;
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six-paper sessions: 12-15 minutes each paper;
For the 80-minute session:
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four-paper sessions: 12-15 minutes each paper;
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five-paper sessions: 10-12 minutes each paper
Please keep to this timetable as closely as possible. It is highly unfair to the other speakers if one speaker takes up more than his/her allotted time.
3. Effective presentations
We ordered laptop computers and computer projectors. To figure out how many slides you can reasonably present within your time slot, divide the number of minutes you have by two (that is, if you have 15 minutes, prepare about 7 or 8 slides). Your slides should use a minimum of 18-20 point font in order for your text to be seen from the audience.
(**) Adopted from the Academy of International Business Guidelines with changes