How to make a Poster for poster presentation.

Before making a poster for presentation one must know that poster presentation is equally important as the oral presentation, since the duration of the conference is limited so the organizers can not provide everyone to present their research in an oral presentation form.

What is a poster? Poster is a graphically based approach to present a research work. So try to use ‘visuals’ (graphs, photos, charts or tables etc.) in your poster as much as possible.

Design and layout specifications:

(A) size of the poster: 4’ X 3’ (most common type).

(B) orientation (portarit or landscape): Portrait position (long dimension is vertical); landscape position (long dimension is horizontal).

(C) Read: The poster should read from left to right and top to bottom 

(D) Font size: Title- 60 points; Author(s) name- 40; Author(s) affiliation- 38; Headings-40; and All other text-30. (All the font sizes may vary depending on the results; if your results are more than decrease font size).

Note: A and B will depend on the organizers so ask them for the size and orientation of the poster or you may get this information on the conference website.

Make your poster well in advance from the conference date and get it print in mini poster form (ideally on an A4 paper) so that you can check it for spelling mistakes and also get it corrected by your friends or from your supervisor.

Software to make poster: You can either use Microsoft power point; Publisher; Corel draw; Adobe page maker or PosterGenius. My favorite is Microsoft Publisher.

You can get PosterGenius http://www.postergenius.com/cms/index.php.

Poster presentation

During the conference you first contact the conference helpdesk regarding time, venue and board number for displaying your poster during conference. Reach at the exhibition site before the scheduled time. Display your poster and you should remain at the poster site for discussion of your work throughout the scheduled time of the display of poster.

Think About Your Audience

During you poster presentation there are at least three different types of people will visit your poster; this I learn from my experience.

(1) First type of person who comes by and reads the basics about your poster. They will read the title along with the headings, and then they look at your pictures, tables, and graphs. And then they will move on. Actually they are those persons who are looking for some work related to their field of study.

(2) The second type of person is either a converted first type of person (who develop some interest in your poster) or someone who has an interest in your topic or discipline. They will not talk to you much initially but just read most of the text. They may ask you some questions for clarifying any doubt.

(3) The third one is the most interesting type of person that you will encounter. They come to your poster and ask "What did you study?"  (Sometimes even without reading the title of the poster). Now you have to explain the basics of your project. What was the problem?; your strategy to tackle the problem, your materials and methodology, the results and finally the conclusion that you made based on your results.

All the best for your Poster.