Research Posters, Informative Posters, Academic Posters 

Posters will be featured in a designated area and presented to interested attendees at scheduled times throughout the Conference.

Bring your poster materials (minus display board) with you to the conference (deliver to the conference bookstore) and be sure to pick up poster after conference by Sunday, Sept 1st at 3 pm. (We will not be able to keep, ship or store your poster.)

Size and shape of board: We will supply a poster board that will be 3 feet high by 4 feet wide, corrugated cardboard, white in color, with two folds which allow the board to stand on its own (see image). The outside panels are 1 foot wide and the central panel is 2 feet wide. The Poster boards will be exhibited on tables or tripods in a specific conference area, throughout the conference, and presented to attendees at scheduled times.

Organization: Focus on the introduction, methods, results and discussion, summary, and references. Make a small scale sketch of your poster to ascertain if all the points you want to stress as well as headlines, text, figures and tables, photos, etc., will fit into the dimensions allowed. The poster should start in the upper left hand corner and flow generally from left to right and from top to bottom. The title, author name(s) and affiliation should be at the top of the poster. If necessary, use letters, numbers, or arrows to indicate proper flow to the audience.

Content: Limit information in the presentation; concentrate on two or three main points. Highlight information with images and simplified graphics and diagrams. Use text cautiously. Often it is better to use outlines and bullets than paragraphs. Avoid overwhelming the audience with too many numbers, words, or complicated graphs. Make certain your message is clear and simple because people will study your poster while you are away.

Lettering: All lettering should be easily read from a distance of frour to five feet. Use a bold or semi-bold typeface for headings and labels. Lettering for subheads and figure captions should be larger than that of the main text but smaller than the main heading. Text in upper- and lower-case letters is more readable than all capitals, but capitals for headings and labels are acceptable. The title should have letters that are at least 1 inch high, with author’s names at least ¾ inch high. All other type should be a minimum of 5/8 inch high. Use sans serif type such as Arial or Lucida Sans for text. It is much easier to read than serif type such as Times Roman or Courier.

Composing poster text in MS Word: You can use Word to compose your poster. Select a large paper size (e.g. 11” x 17” or 22” x 16” or whatever) with File→Page setup→Paper→Custom size (Word allows dimensions up to 22”). Compose your text and titles using Arial (or similar) font with large font sizes: titles with 64 pt or 72 pt and the text with 24 pt or 28 pt. Insert images, pictures, etc. directly into the document. Use tables to organize information and pictures in columns. You can print your Word document fairly inexpensively using FedEx/Kinko. We recommend that you first convert the document into a PDF file (the printed output may vary at FedEx if it remains in .doc format) and have FedEx print it in color on one of their standard paper sizes. To save money, you can print your basic poster in black and white first, then print the color images, etc. separately on 8.5×11” and cut and paste.

Mounting: push pins for mounting will be provided at the conference. Since the poster board is single-use and recyclable, double-sided tape, glue or Velcro may also be used.

To summarize:
• DO use large, easy-to-read sans-serif letters.
• DO include clear figures and tables.
• DO NOT paste-up typed pages from a paper.
• DO NOT clutter the poster with details. Posters should be understandable – even in the absence of the author(s)! 

Remember that a Poster Session is more like an informal discussion. The discussion may begin with a question from an interested person. You may initiate a discussion by pointing out the particular figure that depicts the essential conclusions of your paper and allow questions and answers to flow from that point. Keep it conversational; do not lecture.