Information for Poster Presenters

Please keep in mind that the purpose of presenting a poster is to outline your work for discussion. Therefore, poster presenters are required to attend their poster and be available for questions during their assigned poster session (see schedule below).

Poster Preparation Guidelines

Please prepare your poster to communicate the main points of your work to stimulate discussion with your viewers. You should be able to deliver your poster content in about three (3) minutes and then respond to questions and comments.

  •  All poster presenters are required to upload a two-slide PowerPoint of their actual poster using the Presentation Submission form no later than Wednesday, 7 September 2016.  The first slide should include your name, abstract number, and poster title; the second slide should contain your actual poster.
  • The display area is 4 feet wide by 4 feet high; you will be sharing an 8’x4′ display board with another poster presenter. Plan your poster to be a few inches smaller than the dimensions of the poster space allocated to you.
  • Each poster space will be marked with an abstract number. Please mount your poster on the poster board labeled with your assigned abstract number.
  • The abstract numbers have meaning! An example abstract number is P1-A. In this case, the “P” refers to the fact that it is a poster abstract; the “1” refers to the sequentially numbered space in the poster display area where you will find this poster; and the “A” refers to the fact that the poster will be attended and presented in person during Poster Session A.
  • Push pins will be provided to mount your poster to the poster board. You are also welcome to bring your own push pins and/or Velcro.
  • There will be a table underneath each poster board where you can leave handouts. If you would like to make your poster somewhat simple but provide greater detail on your work in a handout, you may do so. Conference organizers will not be responsible for providing copies of your handouts; you must do that on your own.

The safest way to ensure that your poster arrives on time is to carry it with you when you travel. However, if you choose to ship your poster to the hotel, please ship it to your name to your hotel room, not to the attention of the conference. We are not responsible for lost posters.

Poster Judging

Unless you opted out of judging when you submitted your abstract, each poster presentation will be judged by three (3) poster judges using the following criteria: Research Poster Judging Criteria; Innovations Poster Judging Criteria. Practice presenting your poster content in about three (3) minutes. Then, be prepared to answer questions. To improve your poster visual display and presentation consider the following recommendations:

  • Let the poster do the work – your audience should not have to interpret the message.
  • Make your poster simple and to the point. Avoid jargon.
  • Use your poster to show, not tell. Express your points as graphics (graphs, charts, illustrations, and photographs). Make sure to include captions.
  • Keep it visually clean; avoid many jagged edges; guide the viewer by using a visual logic with a hierarchical structure with section headings to emphasize the main points.
  • State your main points in large type-face headings; use smaller type-face for details.
  • Summarize your results/findings with bullet points.
  • Catch your reader’s attention with accent colors for contrast and to highlight main points.
  • Use borders or white space to separate sections and increase legibility.
  • Make all elements, even the figure legends, visible from 3 to 4 feet away.
  • Use large, bold fonts. Text color should highly contrast the background color for legibility for all attendees, including those who are colorblind.
  • Don’t get creative with your fonts. Generally sans serif fonts (e.g., Helvetica) are good for titles, but use a font with serifs for text (e.g., Times New Roman) – they help guide the viewer’s eye.

Poster Printing

Many people have their posters printed at their institution or by a print shop that can ship directly to the hotel. If you want to have your poster printed in Bethesda in order to avoid traveling with or shipping it, there are a couple of options for printing locally:

The conference organizers is contacting the above printers in an effort to negotiate a discounted rate for printing posters for our conference. If we are able to negotiate such a deal, we will list the discount information below.

Poster Session Schedule

Wednesday, 14 September 2016, 12:30 PM – Thursday, 15 September 2016, 8:00 AM: All Posters Set-Up (all posters must be set up during this time irrespective of which day you are scheduled to present)

Thursday, 15 September 2016, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM: Poster Session A (attend your posters to answer questions; poster judges will circulate during this time)

Friday, 16 September 2016, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM: Poster Session B (attend your posters to answer questions; poster judges will circulate during this time)

Friday, 16 September 2016, 4:00 – 6:30 PM: All Posters Take-Down (If you do not remove your poster from its poster board by 6:30 PM on Friday, it will be disposed of.)