PAA first had flash sessions during the 2018 meeting in Denver, CO. They were so popular that they have become a regular part of our meeting! Because this meeting will be hybrid, we made some changes to the flash session format. Flash sessions mix short, 7-minute oral presentations with optional posters in Confex virtual gallery. Below are tips for flash sessions at PAA 2022.
Pre-Conference Tips
Prior to the conference, we suggest the following:
Let your chair know if you are planning to attend virtually or in-person and send them your presentation by email.
Please note the amount of time allocated to your presentation. Flash sessions include 7-minute, five-slide oral presentations (specifics may vary a bit according to the instructions of your Chair, who should contact you a few weeks prior to the conference). Your brief presentation and set of five slides should communicate:
- The title of your presentation and your name, affiliation, and email address.
- Your research question(s).
- The significance/rationale for your work.
- A brief overview of data/methods.
- Key findings.
Flash presentations will also have an ability to include a full poster if they decide to do so. Presenters in flash sessions must upload their posters to Confex no later than Friday, April 1 if they are planning to use a poster.. Click here for Confex upload instructions. (The link to the poster upload platform will be posted here and emailed to each poster presenter when the platform is ready for uploads.) All uploads— including PowerPoint slides— must be saved as a one-page, single PDF. A tool in the Confex poster program will allow you to choose sections of the PDF to separate to create slides. You will also be able to upload an mp4 video recording.
Technical Support. There will be links on the Confex platform to submit tech support tickets on the poster upload page. You can also send an email to
paa@confex.com that goes directly to the tech support team, or you can call the main office line at 401-334-0220. Phones are answered 9am-6pm EST, Mon-Fri. Emails/tickets are answered generally within 6-8 hours.
The content of your poster should include:
- A title slide listing the title of your presentation and your name, affiliation, and email address.
- Slides that communicate the research question(s) you are asking, the significance/rationale for your work, a conceptual framework and/or hypotheses for your study, your data/methods, the key study results, and some discussion/concluding points.
Plan for your presentation. A good 7-minute flash presentation provides a clear and succinct overview of your research.
- Prepare visual aids. The vast majority of flash presenters use 5 slides, either in PowerPoint or PDF, as visual aids for their presentation.
- Type: Please use at least 20-point type so that audience members can easily read the print on your slides.
- Please do not include large tables in your slides: Please summarize your key results rather than presenting large, dense tables.
- Bullets: Please limit yourself to 3-4 bullets per slide and 10 or fewer words per bullet.
- 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 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.
- Contact information slide: Prepare include a slide that you put up at the beginning with your presentation title, name, affiliation, and contact information.
- Please proof read and spell check: Thank you!
Practice: Please practice your presentation to ensure that it highlights key points, that your delivery is clear, and that you finish within the time allocated.
Email your slides: Please email your slides to the session chair in advance of the session in case there are any difficulties with screen sharing.
Presentation Checklist
At the session, please:
- Arrive early. Please arrive at the session 10 minutes early and connect with the other presenters and session chair so that the session may start on time.
- Give your presentation. You are ready!
- End on time. You will be warned by the chair as your time draws to a close (typically 2 minutes and stop). It is essential that you end on time to ensure that all participants have the opportunity to present their work.
- Email your slides: Please email your slides to the session chair in advance of the session since the slides will be projected by an in-room technical support staff and you will be given a clicker. Virtual presenters will be able to control their own screen.
- Virtual Presenters. If you are presenting virtually, you will do so via the Confex online platform that opens a Zoom meeting, so make sure you have the latest version of Zoom installed. Make sure that the name on your Zoom account matches the name you have in the program as Zoom techs will be looking for you to make you a co-host.
- In-Person Presenters. Your session chair will have already collected your slides and given them to the tech in the session room. You will be given a clicker to advance them. The front row of each session room will be reserved for session participants.