Poster presentations

In order to increase the profile of posters, all posters will be displayed for the duration of the conference, with a half-hour poster-viewing session in the morning (without presenters - simply for delegates to get a feel for where each topic is displayed and which ones they'd be interested in chatting to the author about), as well as a one-hour sundowner poster-session in the evening.

Poster printing in Cape Town

If you don’t want the hassle of transporting your poster to South Africa, you can have it printed and encapsulated for collection in Cape Town prior to the conference.

Contact Andrew Mitchell at Digital Bureau:

Tel: +27 21 422 2676
Email: mitch@digitalbureau.co.za
Address: 58 Loop Street (within walking distance from CTICC and surrounding hotels)

You will need to email the Zipped JPEG or PSP file of your poster (contact Mitch for other formats). Keep in mind that the colour you see on your screen and the real life colour that the printer produces often differs.

Please remember not to leave this until the last week before the conference!

Information for Poster Presentations

We recommend one of two STANDARD sizes for your poster:

1. ISO A-series: A0 (841 mm wide X 1189 mm high or 33.1” wide X 46.8” high)
2. ANSI series: E (34” wide X 44” high or 864 mm wide X 1118 mm high)

PLEASE DO NOT use a size bigger than 900 mm wide X 1200 mm high!

and

PLEASE DO NOT ASK TO EXCEED THE AVAILABLE SPACE!

Posters that exceed the available width will invade the space of another poster, will present a very unprofessional appearance and you will risk having your poster removed by the organisers.

The exhibition hall will be open for you to put your poster up from 15h00 on Wednesday the 28th of November. All posters must be removed by 18h00 on Monday the 3rd of December.

Prior to the start of the conference, each presenter will be notified via email about the assigned locality for their poster and the time that they are to attend it. There will be a map showing the location of posters by number and colour posted on the website and printed in your programme book.

Poster Presentations: Style Guidelines

Remember that a poster presentation presents the ideal opportunity to meet and talk with colleagues who have a direct interest in your work. It offers a more intimate forum for information exchange than does the traditional spoken presentation. However yours will be just one of several hundred that delegates are faced with, and you need to be able to grab their attention. Good posters are extended abstracts with easily readable graphics to assist in making your main points – they are NOT an opportunity to paste up a written paper page by page! The poster should be effective in clearly expressing your research and its results without need for extended explanation. You should aim to convey your message visually rather than verbally (as in a spoken presentation) or textually (as in a written paper).

With these goals in mind, we offer the following practical guidelines:

TITLE: The title of your poster and the names of the authors should be large and clearly visible from 20 feet (6-7 m) away. This means that the font should be >1 inch (2.54 cm) in height. Affiliations and contact details (including e-mail addresses) of authors should be included.

ABSTRACT: The full text of your abstract should be included. You are welcome to edit the abstract to remove errors or add a brief summary of results not available at the time you submitted it, but large changes are likely to confuse attendees.

TEXT: Any text (Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusions) should be kept to a bare minimum, keeping in mind that the main points of your poster should be contained in the figures and illustrations and their captions. The text should be large enough to read from a reasonable distance, e.g. by someone reading over another attendee’s shoulder.

GRAPHICS: Graphics, such as tables, figures, and illustrations, should contain the majority of the content of your poster. They should be clear and concise and should convey their primary meaning with little effort from the viewer. They do not, however, need to be simple. Details may be included in the figure or table for the more knowledgeable and interested viewer, but very complex tables are a no-no.

All graphics should include a short heading or caption describing their content and meaning, and expressing the primary point of the graphic. A figure legend should be included below the main caption in smaller type, containing a more detailed description of the points of the graphic. The legend should include a description of the graphic as well as the conclusions derived from its content. This information is more readily available to the viewer than it is when only contained in the text portion of your poster.

LAYOUT AND DESIGN: The most effective way of producing posters today is using design or presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Quark Express, or Adobe Pagemaker. The entire poster can be laid out as a single file, including text, tables, figures, and photographs. Modifications to the design, font size, and overall proportions can be accomplished easily until the desired layout is achieved. The poster can then be printed using large color ink-jet printers at printing service centers, and laminated in clear plastic. If you are unable to produce a poster in this fashion, a second choice is to use thin mounting board, with text and graphics tacked or glued to the surface.

Text and graphics should be carefully arranged so that there is a comfortable 'flow' in the content of your poster. Choose rows or columns depending on the dimensions of your poster and the amount of visual material. Usually, a poster should be arranged in columns, allowing the viewer to proceed logically down and across the poster, rather than zigzagging back and forth. In general, the ‘Introduction’ should start the poster at the upper left and the ‘Conclusions’ should finish the poster off at the lower right, with graphics arranged within.

OTHER: You are strongly recommended to provide 'mini' versions of your poster – delegates suffering from information overload will gratefully accept these to be read and digested later. Such mini-versions are easy to print if your poster is produced using presentation software, and are a good way of testing the legibility of your poster. Sheets bigger than A 4 or 8 ½” X 14” do not travel well and are not recommended. You must bring your own materials to attach a folder or other lightweight container for these handouts to the poster board (see below). You can also attach your business card in the same way.

METHOD OF ATTACHMENT: You will have to stick your poster to a smooth surface. The conference organisers will provide double-sided tape / self-adhesive velcro / Prestik for authors to mount their posters, but you must bring your own supplies if you want some other form of attachment. DO NOT use glue to attach your poster or write on the poster board surface and no pins, nails, hooks, or tape that doesn’t peel off cleanly are allowed.

The poster boards do not belong to the Society and are very expensive to replace if they are defaced!

EXTRAS: Contact Meredith if you need access to an electrical outlet for your presentation. You will be given a form which you can use to order special equipment or other extras, such as an electrical outlet. The company from which you order your extras will require full payment in advance of your getting to Cape Town. You will need to bear in mind that South Africa has 220 V power and we use 15-amp plugs with 3 round pins. You will need to bring your own plug adapter.

Poster authors are welcome to bring portable systems, but SMM WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SECURITY OF UNATTENDED EQUIPMENT!

NB: Please ensure that your extras do not encroach on any other presenters’ space or you will be asked to vacate the area.