Poster Session Presentation Instructions
Thank you for agreeing to participate in a poster session at the MPSA Annual National Conference, April 2-5, 2009. We hope that you will find this presentation format to be both interesting and useful to your research.
Poster Sessions: Research posters will be displayed April 2 (Thursday), April 3 (Friday), and April 4 (Saturday) in the Grand Ballroom on the 4th floor. The posters are scheduled during the same time slots as panels. The authors will be present to answer questions and distribute copies of their research findings. Poster presentations provide an important complement to the association's panel sessions. Attendees have the opportunity to walk through and view the poster presentations throughout the day. Unless informed otherwise by your section chair, authors are expected to be present for their entire scheduled period near their posted research and discuss their research with interested scholars. Just as if they were on a panel, poster participants write a paper to be distributed at the poster session.
Well-conceived presentations provide easily comprehensible findings. While the author should present their findings in whatever manner they feel effective, keep in mind that your presentation should emphasize the visual aspect of a poster format. Some use colored print to highlight key aspects of the analysis or poster; this can be a particularly effective way of helping the reader focus on the elements that the author believes are most important. Similarly, some posters are presented using colored matting (paper behind and off set the page with print); one color may be used for tables, another for figures, etc. In some cases, particular graphs or tables might be better presented on larger sized pages and that would be welcome. The basic point here is that you should prepare whatever graphics best present your work in this visual medium. Simply pulling apart a completed paper and posting the pages does not constitute a poster presentation.
The posters will be organized by topic to encourage more conference attendees to visit the posters. The MPSA will provide a floor plan with the specific location of your poster, and they will also be on hand to assist you if you have any questions. The poster sessions will be in the main exhibit hall, and are now in one long row right next to the exhibitors in the back in order to make the poster session less isolated and to increase traffic.
The posters will be attached to one side of an 8' wide by 4' tall freestanding bulletin board. You should arrive fifteen minutes before your session begins and have all presentation materials prepared for quick assembly. Poster materials need to be thumb tacked to the board; the MPSA will provide supplies to do this. Please be sure to remove your poster at the end of the poster session because another group of posters will be scheduled after yours.
Format and Suggestions:
- Title, Authors and Institutional Affiliation: Prepare a six inch strip at the top that runs the length of the poster. In this strip, include the title of the research, authors, and institutional affiliations. Lettering height should be no less than three inches. The text of the paper should be visible from as far away as five feet.
- Abstract: Display a one-page typed abstract on the paper in the upper-left hand corner of the display, directly under the title strip. It must be readable from five feet away.
- Hypotheses, Graphs and Tables: If clearly stated and simply displayed, these allow the reader to understand the research without extensive written explanation. Briefly identify the research design and relevant literature as well.
- Clear Sequence: The layout of your findings should follow the sequence of the paper clearly. Numbering figures or using arrows greatly aid the reader's quick absorption of material.
- Avoid Clutter: Do not clutter the presentation with too many figures and avoid too much written material. The benefit of the poster presentations is the reliance on graphical display to spark interest in reading the entire paper. More open space is easier on the eye and its simplicity supports the clarity of presentation.
- Plan Ahead: Preview your presentation prior to going to the MPSA to make sure everything appears clear from five feet away.