ASPIRE Biomedical Scientist’s Toolkit: Efficiency of information transfer – how to present a poster for interest and understanding
Thursday, October 5, 2023
11:00am
Location Light Hall 411
Christopher V. Wright, D. Phil.
Louise B. McGavock Chair
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Director, Vanderbilt University Program in Developmental Biology
Associate Director, Vanderbilt Center for Stem Cell Biology
Join Dr. Wright as he discusses important points in effective poster presentation, including:
- Making an impact – first impressions that draw people in – how to emerge in a crowd.
- How to make a really attention-grabbing, influential poster rather than a dense, difficult one with low impact.
- Importance of minimizing panel numbers, number of sentences [use of note-form presentation style].
- Importance of graphical abstract for panel 1, and front-loading take-home messages.
- How to handle “poster teaser” 1-minute presentations, usually same day or earlier in the conference than your poster session.
- How to “unpeel” sequentially, aiding comprehension for a more generalist audience. [may vary according to conference specialization]
- How not to make your last panel (conclusions/future-ongoing directions) disappear in the poster.
- What is a typical judging-panel scoring rubric? Are there clues for efficient information transfer.
- How to think: Can my poster be followed and main messages digested when/if I am not present? [or talking to someone else]
- Acknowledging the stark differences between posters and manuscripts should simplify your poster.
- Appropriate levels of eye contact.
- Could you present your poster in 90 seconds without any reliance on any printed part of the poster?