Presentation Guidelines
Poster Format and Guidelines
Posters must be prepared in English. Maximum poster size is 48 inches (120 cm) wide by 48 inches tall (120 cm). Poster boards and Velcro pads for attaching your poster to the poster board will be available. Lamination is not recommended due to the difficulty of attaching heavy posters to the poster board.
Tables will not be provided. Small-sized copies of your poster (encouraged!), other pertinent literature, or business cards may be placed in an envelope and attached to the poster board for distribution.
Poster board allocations will be provided to presenters in advance or upon registration at the conference. Posters can be set up at the beginning of the conference for its duration. Posters must be taken down by 6 pm on Thursday, August 25th. The scheduled poster session is on Wednesday, August 24th, from 3:15 PM to 5:00 PM (location to be announced). At least one author is expected to attend the poster during official poster sessions.
Guidelines for Making Posters:
Entice the viewer with clarity, simplicity, and pictures.
- Focus on three points or less. If you can get across one point clearly and quickly to your viewer, your poster is successful. Remember, you will be there to answer questions and fill in details. Make use of one-page printed summaries for viewers interested in more detailed information. Give your contact information on this page.
- Titles should be brief, informative and interesting. Lengthy poster titles discourage viewers!
- Give an executive summary or abstract of 50 words or less at the start of the poster. What is the question or problem and what have you achieved in answering it?
- Keep the story simple. Use diagrams and simple sketches to explain your ideas. Text must be brief, reporting only key aspects of each section (i.e., Introduction, Study Area, Methods, Results, Discussion). Too much detail detracts from your message — be aware of viewer fatigue.
- Use headings and colour to highlight key points. Bold font is effective for headings. Use simple typefaces such as Arial or Helvetica.
- Plan for the poster to be read in sections from left to right and top to bottom. Colour keys used consistently throughout the poster make information easier to follow. Too much clutter distracts from the intended flow.
- More than 300 words on your poster is too much to read. Simplify and synthesize. Get a colleague who does not know the details of your research to look at your poster and advise on what is not clearly presented.
- Use large fonts on all parts of the poster. Each section should be easily read while standing in one spot. See if you can read it from 1 m distance. White backgrounds work best for text.
- Because all graphs should be large, information on graphs should be limited, and labels kept short. Check the axes labels on graphs for size. Specify measurement units.
- Avoid all but the simplest tables. No one will read a table with 10 columns and 25 rows.
- Photographs should clearly convey the information you want the viewer to see.
- Avoid using a large photo as the background of your poster because it makes it hard to read the text. Most of the time the viewer cannot even make out what the background photo is with all the poster content on top.
- Avoid abbreviations and jargon.
- Compose your poster in PowerPoint, CorelDraw, Illustrator, InDesign, or Inkscape (free) so that it can be printed full size.
- Consider putting a photo of yourself on the poster to help other people recognize you.
Based on Making a Poster courtesy of Dr. C. Krebs, University of British Columbia.
Visit this excellent website on designing scientific posters
Guidelines for Oral Presentations
Presentations will be delivered in theme based plenary sessions or concurrent sessions.
Presenters will be given a maximum of 15 minutes for their presentation plus 5 minutes for questions and transition to the next speaker.
Session chairs will diligently enforce time limits for presentations so please practice your talk in advance and respect the speakers following you in the schedule.
Oral presentations must be given as PowerPoint presentations. No other audio-visual formats are acceptable (e.g., slide, video or overhead). All graphics and text must be in English.
Presenters should provide their presentation to the technician operating the conference computer the evening before their session.
Presentation files should be labelled as: AUCXX_LastName.ppt or *.pptx
An LCD projector will be provided in the conference session and all talks will be pre-loaded onto the conference computer. Presenters will not be permitted to use their own computer for presentations. MacIntosh computers will not be available.
Rules for Making Powerpoint Presentations -
Charlie Krebs, University of British Columbia
- A good slide in Powerpoint makes no more than 2 or 3 points, and these points should augment, emphasize, and explain the speaker’s words.
- For complicated subject matter, use 2 or 3 simple figures rather than one complex, cluttered and unclear figure. A series of slides that build on each other is very effective.
- Effective labels for slides are briefer and larger than those for publication. Titles should be 40-44 point font (14 mm) and text 32 point (11 mm). Bold and italic labelling should be saved for special emphasis.
- Slide titles should be relatively short – 1 line only.
- If using colour, stick to primary, bright, and clear colours.
- Do not use a photo as a background for the slide. It may be good artistically but it distracts from the points you are making.
- Word slides should contain no more than 5 short statements. The information on the slide should be simplified to the point of being skeletal. It is up to the presenter to fill in gaps. You should never have more than 30 words on a slide. 20 would be better.
- Presenters should not read word slides to the audience. The audience can read the slide faster than the presenter can speak it!
- If all the information on a slide is not valuable to the audience, leave it out.
- Take the time to adapt figures or tables for your presentation.
- A good average is one slide per minute of talk. If you have more, you are going too fast for the audience.
- If people remember your presentation, they will remember only one or two key points. Summarize these at the end of your talk.
- Never, never, never put 2 or 3 slides or photos on a Powerpoint since no one will be able to read the labels.
- Go to the back of the room and look at your Powerpoint presentation. If you need binoculars to read the slides, go back to step 1.