Poster Presentation

Poster Presentation

A Poster Presentation or Poster session is the presentation of research information by an individual or representatives of research teams at a congress or conference with an academic or professional focus. The work is usually peer reviewed. Poster sessions are particularly prominent at scientific conferences such as medical congresses for instance. Typically a separate room or area of a tradeshow floor is reserved for the poster session where researches accompany a paper poster, illustrating their research methods and outcomes. Each research project is usually presented on a conference schedule for a period ranging from 10 minutes to several hours. Very large events may feature a few thousand poster presentations over a matter of a few days. Presentations usually consist of affixing the research poster to a "portable wall" with the researcher in attendance answering questions posed by passing colleagues.^[1]

Creating a Poster Presentation

Step by Step

The space you are allowed will determine the content of the poster. Find out how much space you are allowed!
The standard format for a Poster Presentation is:
- a Title page, telling others the title of the project, the people involved and their affiliation.
- a Summary of the project.
- an Introduction of the project.
- a Theory or Methodology section that explains the basis of the technique that you are using or the procedure that you have adopted. You should also state and justify any assumptions.
- a Results section that you can use to show illustrative examples of the main results of the work.
- a Conclusion section listing the main findings of your investigation and a Further Work section that should contain your recommendations and thoughts about how the work could be progressed.
Gathering/Planning the information: You have to stand back and think about the What's, the How's and the Why's of the work. First, ask yourself the following questions:
- What is the objective of the investigation?
- Has someone done the work before?
- How have I gone about with the study?
- Why did I follow this particular route of investigation?
- What are the principles governing the technique that I am using?
- What assumptions did I make and what were my justifications?
- What problems did I encounter?
- What results did I obtain?
- Have I solved the problem?
- What have I found out?
- Are the analyses sound?
- From your list, note the common areas, topics or pieces of information, and group them together.
- Use color or number coding, or circles and lines to help you identify and categorize the information.
Deciding on the content: Your decision should be based on at least 2 factors, namely:
- What are you trying to achieve by presenting the posters?
- Who will be attending the presentation?
Design: Poster design is a personal matter and different individuals will have different views on how best to present certain information. Nevertheless, here are some rules to guide you:
- Plan, plan and plan!
- Keep the material simple.
- Use colors sparingly and with taste.
- Do not use more than 2 font types.
- Titles and headings should appear larger than other text.
- Do not use all UPPER CASE type in your posters.
- A picture is worth a thousand words... but only if it is drawn properly and used appropriately.
Check your spelling!
Maintain a consistent style.
Arrangement of poster components should appear smooth: Remember that you are using posters to tell a story about what you have done and achieved. As in report writing, the way you arrange the sections should follow the "storyline".
Review, review and review: Check your draft versions of posters for mistakes, legibility, inconsistency in style.

Practical Tips

The difference between poster and oral presentations is that you should let your poster do most of the "talking" !
Before you rush away to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, spend a few moments or even hours to plan your presentation.
Clipart should only be used if they add interest to the display and complement the subject matter. They can also be "dangerous" as you may spend more time finding images and/or cartoons than concentrating on the content.
Ask your friends, colleagues or supervisor for their honest opinions.