Thank you for presenting your work at PAA 2021! Since the conference will be held in virtual format, “posters” will typically consist of either PowerPoint slides or a slide deck in PDF format. You are welcome to leave the poster in slide deck format, or you can combine them into a more typical large poster format; please keep in mind that attendees will be viewing your content entirely online, so visual ease will be important.
Plan Your Presentation
A good poster presentation provides a clear and succinct overview of your research. The following are a few tips in planning your poster:
- Limit the number of slides that comprise your presentation; a set of 12-15 slides is a good guideline for poster content.
- Please do not include large tables in your slides. Summarize your key results rather than presenting large, dense tables.
- Try to avoid the use of acronyms, jargon, and abbreviations. Past conference evaluations have clearly indicated that one frustration, in particular for new and international attendees, is the use of ‘insider’ language, acronyms, and abbreviations that make it difficult to comprehend a presentation.
- Consider livening up your slides/poster with graphics and pictures. Graphics can be very effective in capturing the audience’s attention and focusing them on the point you want to make.
- Please proof read and spell check. Thank you!
Video or Audio Clip
In addition to the slides/poster document you upload, you may wish to also include either a short video (maximum of 5 minutes) or an audio voiceover of your presentation. This will enable attendees to better understand and engage with your research. Video files should be in .mp4 format.
Uploading Files
All posters and related video/audio files should be uploaded by Monday, May 3rd at noon to allow attendees to start viewing presentations before the conference begins. You will upload posters and videos in the Open Water virtual platform. PDFs are the preferred format and work best with OpenWater. Each poster session will have a gallery on the platform. Because you are not required to create a log-in to upload materials, you will not be able to go back and make any edits. While the platform is open now, please do not begin the process until all of your materials are ready.
Once you are on the poster upload page, simply begin typing the title of your paper into the Poster Title field. Click on your poster and all of the fields will be automatically populated with the information as it is listed in MiraSmart. You will, however, need to fill in the Short Description or Short Abstract field.
Presentation Checklist
For your assigned poster session day/time, please:
- Arrive early. Please arrive at the online poster gallery on Open Water 5-10 minutes early, so you will be ready to engage with visitors to your poster.
- Engage with the poster visitors, discussants and judges. During your 1.5-hour session, conference attendees (including poster discussants and poster judges) will be visiting your poster and may wish to engage with you via the chat function.
- Poster sessions will conclude at the end of your scheduled time. We ask that you please leave your poster/video up, so that additional viewers can see it and leave questions/comments for you after the session time.