S CODET A SIA 2010 EFFECTIVE POSTER PREP A R ATION & PRESENT ATION SITARAM DIXIT Corporate Manager – Fragrances, S. H. Kelkar & Company Pvt. Ltd. INTRODUCTION People attend a professional conference for a variety of reasons. It can be to listen and understand newer ideas and concepts discussed at the podium, to share ideas on an informal basis, or simply to get together and catch up on the lives of old friends, and colleagues. It also presents an opportunity to make contact with new colleagues who might share our professional interests, often leading to fruitful new directions. Another important goal of a seminar or conference is also to present our work to the industry at large either through a poster or oral presentation. WHY POSTERS The best reason for doing posters should be its contents. If you have to present complicated methods or test results then, it is wise to present the idea in a poster form, where colleagues are able to take their time with the information and ask questions at greater length to the author. Likewise, if one is presenting something a bit arcane and difficult to fathom (SCODET ASIA topics are normally not!), then a poster presentation is ideal as it enables the author to spend time with colleagues more interested in the specific field, rather than speaking to a lecture room full of folks who neither follow the presenter nor their work. In any case, posters and paper presentations are interchangeable, if ever the need be. Experienced members of the faculty reasonably advice and encourage students to offer a poster presentation, rather than an oral or podium presentation. First time inexperienced students can sometimes become significantly nervous or catatonic during a podium presentation. Posters cause less trepidation and alleviate avoidable stress. Most professional conferences are full with oral papers and even if one is comfortable in giving a talk, organizers actively encourage student authors to do posters instead to accommodate a lot more presenters than possible in the limited time available. Speakers for oral paper sessions normally have about 20 minutes to present their viewpoint. Allowing time for the session chairperson to introduce the speaker, and for the audience to ask a few questions afterward, the speaker will be lucky to squeeze in 15 minutes for the actual talk. In the course of a two – three day conference, numerous papers and posters are there to present, and a presenter must take utmost effort to make one’s material stand out in the crowd. This paper written on the request of students, participating in their first professional conference (SCODET ASIA 2007) , will provide some helpful tips & guidelines on the effective ways to present scientific information through posters. In perspective, other colleagues might also find the information useful. The guideline assumes that the audience comprises of professionals from different disciplines and hopes to help students improve their poster presentation skills in this milieu. S OAPS , D ETERGENTS & T OILETRIES R EVIEW / N OVEMBER 2009
S CODET A SIA 2010 The various tips provided in this paper come from the author’s, situational likes and dislikes, personal experience, and study on this subject. Poster presentation tips given are only suggestions and not sacrosanct rules, as this author believes that being innovative and different, occasionally breaking traditions, without being outlandish is right and need of the hour. In any case, there is no single recipe for success as in all creative efforts, content, the way of display, style, format, colour, readability, attractiveness, and showmanship are important. POSTERS Posters are neither, simple journal papers pasted on to boards nor mounted visuals. They are well- designed effective presentation tools that convey your thoughts to the viewer. The basic purpose of posters is to present it to an audience walking through the exhibit with the presenter usually standing next to the poster, and permit the visitor to engage in a one-on-one discussion with the presenter if need be. Posters can also be stand alone presentations for passersby to watch, read and understand all by themselves. Posters have to communicate your work first by orienting the audience who are not comfortable and seated, but standing with distractions due noise and movement of people all around. Given the distractions in an exhibition place, a journal article if tacked onto the board will fail to create any effect because the audience does not have enough time to concentrate and read it and many will not even bother to glance on to the journal article tacked onto a board. Now how to make an effective poster is the question. The answer is not simple as expectations by the audience will differ significantly based on the discipline and the subject matter discussed. What an audience of a life science poster session expect will differ significantly from what the audience of an engineering or technology poster session will expect. This paper presents some general guidelines that could apply to most situations. PLANNING CONTENTS The most important point one has to remember while planning the content of posters is that it should highlight only one single idea or viewpoint, without any ambiguity. In a typical scientific study, one would have tested a number of closely related hypotheses. However when posters are designed the presentation should only lead and revolve around a singular stance. In case the study concludes on a couple of different issues, it is preferable to split the study into two separate poster presentations for better emphasis. One should define the central message clearly and spend sufficient time thinking about it before putting it in words. Complete clarity in this respect is essential for effectively assembling the thoughts onto the poster and for subsequent discussions with visitors viewing the posters. All presentations should have a summary stated in very simple words without any jargon and in not more than 25 words. The poster should be extremely concise, as no one wants to read ten pages of text with a lot more posters waiting to see. An effective poster has minimal text in active voice but at the same time complete, enough for the reader to understand the subject. Discuss verbally with colleagues, friends and relatives, and if they understand the outlined contents, then you are right on track. S OAPS , D ETERGENTS & T OILETRIES R EVIEW / N OVEMBER 2009
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