Poster preparation

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&A). 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&A 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: perlman@cis.ohio-state.edu | 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.