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Thursday 11 October 2012

How to be cool at the posters...

A lovely blog on rules for poster presentations here: http://bit.ly/UX3zY3
...but I have done my own amended set here....


Grooming

Well naturally, I agree with the bad breath thing:
So BO and bad breath are both non ideal for poster presenters... But of course your neuroscience will tell you that many olfactory receptors desensitise pretty rapidly and thus you CANNOT smell your own smell for all that long... Thus everyone else knows you smell EXCEPT you!
Clothes? Remember many people will only see you from the wrong side of the board so think about how you look from the knees down. May be don't wear shoes with left and right written on... Or if you do be sure to get them the right way around.


Attendance

Stake out your poster from some distance away... Maybe from the wrong side of the board. Do the knees and shoes of any "customers" look friendly or not? If not keep clear... Are are THEY wearing those shoes with left and right written on them... Could be a long discussion...

Being special

Please remember having a PhD may impress people in the local 7-Eleven but it does NOT make you an expert at a science conference... And I never want to hear a phd/grad student describe themselves as an "expert" on Wikipedia either... Yuk!

Questions anyone?

Don't ask if your viewers have questions: Obviously if they have questions, they will ask!! Asking if people have questions looks naive and desperate... Just leave us to wander about in peace and think about science, NFL, your font, our dinner or whatever!! If we have questions we will ask...



If someone does ask you a question... Just answer the question, don't subject them to 15mins on your entire poster!



Be Cool



Take a book and assume no one is interested in your poster. It's special to you but probably not special to the vast majority of delegates. Don't be offended or disheartened if people are not particularly interested. It's just life, we are all interested in different stuff!

Get there early and grab a chair... Chairs are often scarce so take a stick and people may offer you theirs.

...but give your chair up if you see someone else with a stick, they are probably not cheating!

Be relaxed and check out good places to eat from the local poster presenters!