GUIDELINES FOR POSTER PRESENTERS, SPEAKERS, ABSTRACT PRESENTERS, SESSION CHAIRPERSONS AND SKILL BUILDING FACILITATORS

Speakers Center

The Speakers Center is intended to support all speakers and facilitators, chairpersons, oral abstract and poster discussion presenters.

Check-in and PowerPoint presentation upload 

IMPORTANT: All invited speakers, chair persons oral abstract and poster discussion presenters and skill building facilitators must check in at the Speakers Centre at least five hours before the start of their sessions.

It is not possible to run PowerPoint presentations directly from a laptop in the session room: all PowerPoint presentations must be uploaded at the Speakers Centre prior to the session.

Bring your presentation on a USB memory stick or CD/DVD-ROM to the Speakers Centre. Make sure you also have a paper copy of the presentation with you. At the Speakers Centre a technician will help you preview your presentation to ensure that it displays well on the session room screens. Your presentation will then be uploaded to the session room network and made available in the session room at the time of your presentation.

Chairpersons are required to collect their final session schedule and important security information and instructions at the Speakers Centre.

Technical requirements for PowerPoint presentations

The computers will run MS PowerPoint. Only MS PowerPoint (*.ppt or *.pptx) presentations with video formats will be accepted.

Plenary and Concurrent Sessions

Guidelines for session chairpersons

Chairpersons are instructed to close any presentations that exceed their allotted times. A speaker countdown timer will be available in all session rooms.

Oral abstract presenters

The abstract driven sessions are chaired and will consist of up to FIVE oral presentations of TEN minutes each. A five minute question and answer period will follow immediately after each presentation. Presenters and speakers are asked to respect their time limits.

Session room equipment

• Stage containing a head table
• One or two large screens displaying the PowerPoint presentation
• Notebook running MS PowerPoint on the lectern with presenter mouse
• Fixed microphone at the lectern
• Wireless speaker microphone
• Laser pointer
• Countdown timer showing remaining presentation time

Oral Poster Discussions

Moderated oral poster discussions are held and presenters are required to prepare a poster and a very brief PowerPoint presentation (maximum five slides, five minutes). The posters will be displayed outside the poster discussion rooms before the presentation. It should be mounted to the appropriate area during presentation and be removed 24 hours after the presentation. The poster service staff will remove posters that are not taken down in time but the conference organizers will not assume any responsibility for the material left behind.

Oral poster discussion presenters and chairpersons must check in at the Speakers Centre at least four hours prior to the start of the session.

Oral poster discussion room

• A lectern and a head table
• One screen displaying the PowerPoint presentation
• Notebook running MS PowerPoint on the lectern with presenter mouse
• Fixed microphone at the lectern
• Wireless speaker microphone
• Laser pointer
• Countdown timer showing remaining presentation time

Poster Exhibition Guidelines

Poster exhibitions are held in dedicated poster exhibition area from Monday to Thursday. The posters are displayed for one day, and the authors are responsible for hanging their own posters with some help from poster service staff. Posters must be mounted between 07:30 and 08:30 in the morning on the day of presentation, and removed between 6:30 and 7:30am on the next day. The poster service staff will remove posters that are not taken down in time but the conference organizers will not assume any responsibility for the material left behind.

The poster exhibition is open for poster viewing from 10:15 until 18:00 hrs the same day. On the day of presentation, poster exhibitors are requested to stand by their posters between 12:15 and 14:00 hrs to answer questions.

Practical poster information 

The day of presentation was indicated in the notification email and can also be identified by looking at the first two letters in your poster number: MO= Monday, TU= Tuesday, WE= Wednesday, TH=Thursday. Similarly, poster exhibitions will display the code PE right after the day. This number will appear in the final program and in the abstract book. You can only present your poster on the day of presentation indicated with the notification of acceptance.

The first two letters (MO/TU/WE/TH) of your poster number are not displayed on the poster board. Example: if your day of presentation is Monday and your poster number in the program and abstract book is MOPE268, the number displayed on the bar on top of your board will be PE268.

Poster specifications

Posters should be laid out in portrait style. The poster board surface is 200 cm (78 inches) in length and 100 cm (39 inches) in width. Make sure that the poster fits into this surface. For legibility, a recommendation is to make the poster not more than 135 cm long X 95 cm wide (53 X 37 inches). The poster number will be displayed on the poster board bar on top of each poster board. Double-sided tape to mount your poster will be prepared for you at your poster board.

Paper poster layout guidelines and handout materials

Your poster should quickly orient the audience to the subject and purpose of your study. Here are some hints that may be helpful for the preparation of your poster:

• Your poster should have a clear message, a logical layout and be easy to comprehend in a couple of minutes.
• Make sure that the specific sections (such as the background, methods, results and conclusions) are easy to locate on the poster.
• Design the individual sections of your poster so that they can be quickly read - avoid large blocks of text. Neither should the poster contain long sentences.
• Make sure that the type/font size is large enough to be read at a distance of 1.5 meters (five feet). The smallest type should at least be 18 pts for text and 36 pts for headings. Try to keep your word count as low as possible.
• Supporting images (graphs, tables, illustrations, photographs…) can be very helpful and are often necessary to display results. Make sure that the images are easy to understand, and not overloaded with information.
• Make sure there is enough contrast between the color of the type and the poster's background.

You may want to have handouts of your poster and business cards available at your poster in case people want to contact you about your work. If you are making your poster or other materials available online, be sure to include the web address on your poster.

It is not possible to use a computer as part of your display. The conference organizers are not able to arrange for any additional equipment in the poster exhibition area, such as DVD players, projectors, tables or power outlets.

Skills Building Workshops

Bring your presentation on a USB memory stick (pen drive) or CD/DVD-ROM to the Speakers Centre. Make sure you also have a paper copy of the presentation with you. At the Speakers Centre a technician will help you to preview your presentation to ensure that it displays well on the session room screens. Your presentation will then be uploaded to the session room network and will automatically be made available in the session room at the time of your presentation.

All skills building session rooms will have an identical technical setup and contain the same basic equipment:

• Computer running MS PowerPoint 2007 (operated by staff)
• One screen displaying the PowerPoint presentation
• 2 Microphones
• Laser pointer or mouse pointer