Planning and Creating an Effective Poster Presentation

While the next GSA meeting is still many months down the road, it is never too soon to start thinking about your presentation. Poster presentations play an integral part of every GSA meeting, and offer a unique way to present your work and interact with colleagues. This brief overview is intended to provide some basic background information on how to more effectively plan and create a poster presentation. While it may provide some information useful to those who have already gone through the somewhat harrowing task of assembling a poster, it will prove most useful to those embarking on this endeavor for the first time. Hopefully, it will make the work a bit less daunting, and perhaps even more enjoyable.

Planning Ahead

How much material you choose to include in your presentation will be determined by how much space is allowed for each poster. At the GSA meetings, as well as many other conferences, this is 4x8 feet. Most posters these days are printed on high-quality color plotters, typically available to students through departments or campus computer labs, but also at Kinko’s or other copy stores. You should find out the size capability of the plotter you plan on using to print your final copy, because the dimensions may vary from the dimensions allowed for the conference. There is nothing wrong with a poster size smaller than conference dimensions, as long as it presents the information in an organized and un-cluttered manner. Probably one of the most important factors is not attempting to put too much information into your poster, especially text. A good rule of thumb is to plan on a graphic:text ratio of about 2:1 to 3:1.

Graphics and Figures

A good starting point for your poster is to decide on the content of your research to be included, and make a list of all the maps, photographs, plots, and tables that will most succinctly present this information to your audience. Remember, you probably know the information presented in your poster better than anyone, and while some figures make perfect sense to you, others may find them less straight forward. A good idea is to show your figures to others to make sure they clearly convey the information you want them to. Presumably, most of the figures you use will be related to a work in progress or something recently completed, such as a thesis, dissertation, or manuscript for publication. Thus, many of the figures may already be completed, or nearly so. If not, plan on spending a little more time in creating figures in order to make them useful to you down the road for other applications. Remember, a good figure really is worth a thousand words, and a poster is by definition a visual experience.

Appropriate Software

A plethora of software is available to use for constructing a poster presentation, but Microsoft Powerpoint and Adobe Illustrator are two of the more common in use. The decision is up to you, but if you have not used either of these programs before, Powerpoint probably has the less-steep learning curve of the two. In addition, Powerpoint makes it fairly easy to integrate text and plots from other Microsoft programs. However, Illustrator is a true graphics program, and offers more flexibility when it comes to arranging graphics, as well as text. Both Powerpoint and Illustrator offer the option of creating text while constructing the poster, as well as pasting text from existing documents. Ultimately, the program of choice will be a matter of what better suits the purpose and what is more intuitive for you. Getting familiar with both of these programs will come in handy for your graduate and professional career, and it will be worth the initial frustration of climbing the learning curves.

The Hierarchy of Assembly

One of the more difficult points in putting a poster presentation together is determining how the information is organized and presented. This includes things like layout, font sizes, and the number of sections. Just like a journal article, a poster should be organized into elements such as title, abstract, introduction, methods, results, conclusions, and references. The precise name you give to each of the sections may vary, but be sure that the overall poster is organized so that it is meaningful on a number of different levels. For example, while one observer may simply read the title and abstract, and peruse the figures, another may invest the time to read the individual sections, so it is important that the “flow” of the poster is obvious to all. This is usually best done by simply numbering the different section headings. Also, try and organize your poster into sections that do not require the reader to backtrack and maneuver past other viewers. Remember that all figures and tables need headings. Do not be afraid to provide detailed headings for some figures, as this may be the only text read by some people strolling past your poster.

Probably one of the hardest lessons to learn in regards to poster presentations if that of appropriate font sizes. I have found it useful to print out a page that displays text in a number of font sizes. This allows you to step back from the document to see how visible the text is from a distance. Your title should be legible from at least 25 feet, requiring a 125-150 point font. Your title heading should also clearly display your name, co-authors, and affiliations. Plan on section headings legible from about 10 to 15 feet, which requires no smaller than 36-40 point font. The body of the text should be no smaller than 18 point. Figure and table captions should be between 15-18 point. While it is difficult to print drafts of your poster without easy access to a plotter, you can always print out sections of it to examine whether or not your font size is appropriate.

The Finished Product

By the time you have completed the digital version of your poster, a file size of 40 MB or larger is not uncommon. The type of file will be determined by the software you use. Regardless of the native file format, it is a good idea to convert your poster to multiple formats, such as .JPG, .GIF, and .PDF. This will help insure more flexibility when it comes time to print your poster, whether on campus or at a Kinko’s store. CD-R, DVD-R, or USB memory devices are all adequate mediums for data transport and storage. After printing your final poster draft, have a poster or map tube handy to store it in to make sure it reaches the conference in as good a shape as possible. For the conference, it is nice to have 8x11 inch versions of your poster to hand out to people. If the poster is derived from research that is published or in press, it is also appropriate to have reprints for those who are interested.

Make your poster informative and well-organized. The benefit of presenting in a poster session is that there is considerable more time for questions and discussion than in the talks. However, you may find that if your poster is hard to follow, or if there is simply too much text, few people will invest the time to check out your work. Start working on your poster well ahead of time, and spend the time on making sure your poster clearly conveys what you want it to. Not only will you get valuable feedback on your research, you will be interacting with your colleagues in a manner perhaps more satisfying than what occurs in talks. Creating your poster will be challenging, but if you plan ahead and give yourself enough time, it will be a rewarding and enjoyable experience.