committee have commented to me about the high quality of the poster
technical track. I am looking forward to meeting all of you,
but to be realistic, I will probably be nervous when we do meet.
I have structured the "final" instructions for poster presenters in a
question and answer format (Q). If you have any further questions,
do not hesitate to contact me. If I get some questions that are of general
interest, then I may distribute another Q list.
For those of you who have received such a list before,
I suggest that you start reading at the end of this message
to see what is new.
I have added some poster preparation guidelines.
Name: Gary Perlman | Computer and Information Science Department
Email: [email protected] | Ohio State University, 228 Bolz Hall
Phone: 614-292-2566 | 2036 Neil Avenue Mall
Fax: 614-785-9837 or 292-9021 | Columbus, OH 43210-1277 USA
Q: When will the posters be displayed?
A: Posters will be displayed almost all the time during the conference.
Posters will be set up on Monday between 12:30 and 3:00pm,
and the posters will be open for viewing shortly thereafter.
There will be a 2.5-hour block of time dedicated to the
posters and demonstrations during Monday and Tuesday evenings.
Poster presenters will be expected to have someone available
to answer questions during those periods,
although it would be useful to be available at other times.
Q: Will the posters be published as part of the proceedings?
A: No, but abstracts of the posters will be available at the conference.
Posters will be technical "presentations" but not "publications".
Some posters might make good papers for the SIGLINK newsletter,
or other outlets.
Q: How many posters were accepted?
A: To maintain high quality, only 22 posters were accepted.
Q: How will the posters be displayed?
A: Two large meeting rooms have been reserved in the conference hotel.
The conference committee and the posters chair have taken special
care to provide ample room for people to walk through the posters.
Each poster will be provided with a tack-board, table, and chair.
tack board: 8' x 4' (2.44 m x 1.22 m)
table: 8 x 15" (2.44 m x 0.38 m)
chair: 4 legs (.004 kilolegs)
Pushpins will be provided, but electrical outlets will not.
Q: Should we bring printed papers/articles?
A: It is a good idea to bring a printed summary of your work
for people to pick up. Preprints have a tendency to disappear
in large numbers. I suggest you bring about 200, and that
you put them out in stages. Consider bringing an extended
abstract on a single page instead of a full paper.
A similar number of business cards might also be useful,
but you can put contact information on your paper.
Keep a signup sheet on your table to get the names of people
who were interested in your work. Place a box for their cards.
Q: Do you have any poster preparation guidelines?
A: A poster presentation should be self-contained and require no
explanation, although it is useful for the presenter to be
available for questions and discussion. The basic parts of a poster
are the title banner and the body. The title banner is important
because it may be what attracts people wandering through the room.
Title banners should list the poster title and the author names
and affiliations. Title banner lettering should be legible
from at least five yards/metres away, so we recommend lettering
of 1 inch / 2.5 cm. We recommend that you use almost the full width
of the poster board (leave 4 inches / 10 cm on the right for poster
identification numbers that we will be providing).
The body of the poster should be legible from 2 yards/metres away.
The layout should allow a person to read from left to right,
without having to backtrack, which can be difficult in a crowd.
Therefore, for a poster with 8 panels, we recommend a layout like:
1 3 5 7
2 4 6 8
over a layout like:
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
In any case, we recommend that you attach large numbers to each panel
to clarify the order of reading.
You should preview your poster before the meeting. Ask colleagues
unfamiliar with the work to view the poster and give you feedback.
Although in an ideal world people would focus on content, the format
of a poster is often critical for it to get approached and read.
Use high-quality print (e.g., large laser printer fonts) and consider
using color. The background of the tack boards is dull; I like to
bring light colored paper to completely cover the board before putting
up a poster. You should consider putting extra time into making
it easy to set up (and take down) your poster at the conference;
this favors large panels, but remember that you will have to travel
on a plane with your poster.
Final setup instructions will be available at the conference.
We will provide pushpins to put up your posters (do not write
or paint on the tack boards), but I recommend that you
bring your own materials; if we do run out, then you do not want
to be the person who is delayed. I always bring tape and scissors
and pens, even when I am told these will be available.