Presentation Guidelines

Oral Presentations

This is a 15-minute time slot. You should plan to talk for 12 minutes and leave 3 minutes for questions. 

Poster Presentation

Poster Size and Layout

  • Each author will have a poster board with a usable area measuring 36" x 36". 

Poster Content and Design - Designing Effective Posters

  • Identify 2-3 principal messages to convey and choose a title that captures your main point.

  • Prepare a heading at the top of your poster indicating the abstract title, authors, and affiliations.

  • Lettering should be at least 1″ (2.54 cm) high.

  • The poster should have sections for the Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion/Summery, and Acknowledgements. Display your materials and methods and results in graphic form whenever possible; use charts, tables, graphs, pictures, etc. Minimize the amount of text. Bullet points are encouraged.

  • Arrange materials in columns and use ‘white space’ to help direct readers logically through your poster.

  • Prepare your poster on laminated poster paper, fabric, or cardboard, allowing for space to mount it on the poster board with push pins and/or clips.

  • Posters should be self-explanatory but not comprehensive. You will supplement and elaborate during your conversations with other attendees.

Tips for Illustrations

  • Your presentation must be readable from distances of at least 3' (90cm). Keep visuals simple and clear. 

Preparation of Digital Posters

Once you have your poster developed, it is a straightforward process to convert it into a digital poster. This is requested so your poster information is readily available to those who view it on the website.

What is a digital poster? Short, narrated PowerPoint presentation of your research.

Why do a digital poster? They allow you to be able to easily share your poster presentation online with others. Also, it expands the ability of those who cannot attend physically to be able to present their research. These will be posted on the Tools for Polyploids website.

Contents - 7 to 10 slides as follows:

  • Title, authors, and affiliations (1 slide)

  • Introduction (1 slide)

  • Materials and methods (1-2 slides)

  • Results (2-3 slides)

  • Discussion (1 slide)

  • Conclusion (1 slide)

  • Acknowledgments (1 slide)

Narration in PowerPoint

In PowerPoint, one can narrate each slide individually by using the Recording tab and selecting "Record Slide Show." You should not talk for more than 60 seconds for any given slide. The final length of your Digital Poster presentation should be 5 to 7 minutes. Converting a regular poster into a digital poster can be done by cutting and pasting the contents from one into the digital poster PowerPoint presentation. It would be best to convert any text in your traditional poster into a bullet point list for the digital poster. 

Please use the template provided here to aid in the development or conversion of your posters. 

Submitting your Digital Poster

Please submit your narrated digital poster using this form. This form requires you to submit your poster in an mp4 format for easier downloading. Please make sure your file matches the required format.