International Technical Rescue Symposium Poster Session Guidelines

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Benjamin Turner
5 years ago
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International Technical Rescue Symposium Poster Session Guidelines This document outlines the key details about a new format for sharing technical rescue material at the International Technical

1 International Technical Rescue Symposium Poster Session Guidelines This document outlines the key details about a new format for sharing technical rescue material at the International Technical Rescue Symposium. You can navigate to any section by clicking on the FAQ list below. Frequently Asked Questions What is a poster session?... 1 Why should I make a poster?... 2 What are the drawbacks of making a poster?... 2 What are the poster parameters for ITRS?... 3 How do I create a poster?... 3 Where can I see good examples of posters?... 4 Do you have poster templates to download?... 4 How do I print a poster?... 4 How do I get a poster with me to ITRS?... 4 Will there be poster awards like talk awards at ITRS?... 5 Any last tips?... 5 Who should I contact if I need help?... 5 What is a poster session? A poster session is an opportunity to share your technical rescue material in a more personal, conversational setting. The photo here (from agu.org) shows a poster session at a scientific conference where presenters stood by their poster for a few hours and other conference attendees had the chance to listen to a short research overview and talk directly to the presenters. Alternatively, attendees can see posters at breaks between talks, with or without the presenter there, and learn about the research. 1

2 Why should I make a poster? Posters are a wonderful way to connect with conference attendees one-to-one. Often, when you give a talk, you only get the chance to talk to a few individuals during Question and Answers at the end of the talk, or if folks remember your talk at the end of the day (hospitality suite) or during breaks. Posters, on the other hand, allow you to interact with many more attendees directly, and you can get great feedback on your work and your next research steps. Many presenters find a poster less stressful than standing in front of an audience of a hundred plus people! At a poster, it is unlikely that you will talk to more than 5-10 people at a time, making it a much more informal and constructive setting. In fact, some conferences offer refreshments at the poster session, in the spirit of scholarly dialogue! Finally, posters can be a lot more fun to create than a talk, especially if you like to make visually appealing things. See below for some more information on how to create a poster. What are the drawbacks of making a poster? The biggest drawback of making a poster is that it must be finished before you leave for the conference, and you have to transport it to (and probably from) the conference in some kind of protective tube. Alternatively, you can print the poster on-site at the conference, if the conference is in a large city and you re able to get to/from Kinko s or an equivalent store. There s always a chance the file you bring to print won t work on the computers at your destination, etc., so it s always a good idea to print ahead of time if you can. Watch out for rain, though, and for poster tubes that leak. Speaking of poster tubes, you ll probably have to buy one, or bum one off a local art supply store. Check sizes carefully and make sure your poster will fit in the tube when rolled up. Larger diameter tubes make it easier to unroll and flatten your poster to tack up, but smaller diameter tubes can be sturdier. Additionally, it can be costly to print large format posters. Places like Kinko s/fedex generally have a 3-ft and 4-ft plotter, but check with your local copy shop first about what sizes they can accommodate before designing your poster. For instance, the local Kinko s near where I live quotes these prices (see table at right though I live in an expensive area!). Color printing can be more expensive than black and white, so feel free to do black and white if that works for your poster design. Matte Type Price paper is almost always cheaper than glossy, though Color $7.50/sq ft apparently my local Fed Ex/Kinkos can gloss laminate Matte $7.50/sq ft after you print (total cost of $10.50/sq ft). Usually poster Glossy $13/sq ft printing pricing is done by the square foot, so you can also make a poster slightly smaller than the maximum size Gloss laminate +$3/sq ft to save some dollars. 2

3 What are the poster parameters for ITRS? 3 ft x 5 ft (36 inches tall by 60 inches wide). DO NOT BRING A POSTER BIGGER THAN THIS OR YOU WON T BE ABLE TO DISPLAY IT. Feel free to bring a smaller poster or a few sheets to tack up if that is easier for you. How do I create a poster? The first step is to open a program you re familiar with examples of applications that can create posters are Powerpoint, Word, Keynote, Pages, Adobe Illustrator, Open Office, Inkscape. There are also other programs you can use to create posters that are free; check online. Next, set your page size to be 3ft tall x 5 feet wide. Find Page Setup in your program of choice and set the height and width to this size or smaller. (You can also download one of the templates of the right size). Put whatever you want on your poster that helps the audience understand what your research study is about. Remember, sometimes you will be at your poster, and other times you won t be. So, try to design the poster so that it can be understood whether or not you re there to explain it. Also, consider including lots of photos and images to explain, rather than words. It s very hard to stand at a poster and read for 20 minutes; attendees usually prefer to look at graphs, photos, and diagrams and/or talk to the presenter instead. Try to pick fonts that are easy to read (Arial or Garamond), and make them large enough that someone 6 feet away from your poster can read them (at least size 22 point font for main text and 60+ for titles and names, if not bigger). Choose contrasting colors for the text and images and the background (white backgrounds are great!). Sometimes presenters prefer other background colors, but keep in mind some of your audience might have color blindness. Please don't use a photo as a background for your poster; these tend to be very difficult to read, even up close. Occasionally, as you re making your poster, print out just one page, and tape it up across the room (or set the size to 100% and then walk across the room from your computer). Is the poster legible? Are the fonts big enough? Is the font clear enough? Does the title grab you from across the room and draw you in? Doing this from time to time while creating your poster will help to ensure that you re making something that is easy to read and understand, and that is also attractive to attendees who are wandering around the poster session. Finally, think about ways that you can do something interactive at your poster, even if you re not there. For instance, think about putting a poll on the poster (as in, Have you ever seen or heard of a tripod falling over? ) Have two columns or rows for Yes and No, and leave some sticker dots at your poster so people can vote throughout the meeting. Also, you can print small versions of your poster and provide them to be added to the ITRS presentation booklet, or on the USB stick, for attendees to take home with them. 3

4 Where can I see good examples of posters? Your best bet for viewing example posters is to do a google image search for scientific posters, although some scientific posters are actually very wordy and difficult to understand. There s also at least one blog ( that analyses existing posters seen at conferences and improves them step by step. Might be a bit much to jump into right away, but if you really get into how poster design influences audience understanding, you ll love reading this blog! Do you have poster templates to download? Yes! We have templates in Powerpoint, Keynote, Word, Pages, Open Office, Inkscape, and Adobe Illustrator. You can use any program you like, but feel free to download one of these to get started. These templates are the correct size and should print properly at Kinkos/FedEx, Alphagraphics, etc. How do I print a poster? The first step is to call your local copy shop (like a FedEx or Kinkos). It can be expensive (see What are the drawbacks of making a poster? ), and they usually can t do it on a rush order at the last minute. So, call ahead and make sure they can print your poster. Ask if they have a poster plotter/printer that is 3 feet wide. My local FedEx/Kinkos has a 5ft wide plotter, so hopefully your copy shop will be able to accommodate a lot of different sizes up to 5ft wide as well. Matte paper is fine, unless you like that glossy look. Sometimes glossy posters hold their color better - if you decide to display it at your house or elsewhere after the conference. If your plan is just to present it at ITRS, matte paper is definitely fine. Some people are now doing cloth posters: These can also be expensive, but they travel much, much better than paper, and you can reuse them like any cloth. How do I get a poster with me to ITRS? The easiest way is to use a poster tube of some kind. Mailing tubes are around $10. One is 4ft and one is 3ft long. Unless your poster is just under 3ft wide, the 4ft tube is probably better. You can very likely find poster tubes at a local art supply store, if you don t want to order one online. It s easy to bring a poster if you re driving. If you re flying on a plane, the poster tube generally does NOT count as an extra carry-on, but sometimes you have to talk to a flight attendant who can stash it with the coats and jackets, as they don t always fit in the overhead bins (and in fact, they can get crushed there). It is not recommended to fold your poster (unless it s made of cloth), because it doesn t look quite right when you unfold at the conference. 4

5 Will there be poster awards like presentation awards at ITRS? No. This is a great opportunity to show the work you have done. If it gets enough attention, you may have an opportunity to put together a full presentation for the next year at ITRS. Any last tips? Bring a set of business cards and leave them at your poster even if you re not there so that attendees can grab your contact info and follow up with you at, or after, the conference. It s also worth bringing mini-copies of your poster (on normal 8.5x11 sheets of paper) so that people can take a copy away with them. Alternatively, posters could be printed in small format in the ITRS binder or provided on USB sticks for all attendees. Who should I contact if I need help? Jeff Bowles at program@itrsonline.org 5

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