Presentation Guidelines (panels, papers, & posters)

[Panels] [Papers] [Posters] [Visual Aids]

Guidelines for thematic panels (Workshops and Colloqiua)

• Visual aids (e.g. overheads, Powerpoint slides) should be clear, large, and visible from 50 metres away. Likewise, handouts should be written in 12-point font or larger. (See our Guide to Visual Aids). We'd like to request that you please bring a few hardcopies of any powerpoint or overhead slides, for those who may have difficulty seeing even larger fonts when displayed on a screen.
• PowerPoint: At this point we anticipate having a networked PC in every presentation room. Due to lengthy change-over time for individual laptops, all PowerPoint presentations must use the PC in the presentation room. We envisage uploading all PowerPoint presentations to our server well in advance of the conference. More details to follow...
• Keep your timings strict and begin on time. Other delegates at the conference will be permitted the freedom to enter and leave your panel session after each 30-minute session if they wish, thus any failure to adhere strictly to the time limit will result in unwelcome disruptions. It is your responsibility to start each session on time and to inform panellists to prepare their talks to fit well within the 30 minute time frame.
• Be organised and prepared. Check the room where you will host your panel. Test all media (e.g. Powerpoint presentation on CD rom, overhead slides, audio cassettes, CDs, etc.) on the relevant equipment at the conference site beforehand to ensure that everything will run smoothly.
• Once the programme has been made public, the ordering of your panellist presentations cannot be changed. So, for example, if the panellist in slot #4 cancels, you may fill the empty slot by adding an additional panellist or by holding a discussion session. However you cannot place an already-scheduled panellist into that slot (say from slots #1-3, #5, or #6). This is to avoid the disappointment of conference delegates who may have come explicitly to hear a certain speaker in a certain slot as published in the conference programme.
• Inform panellists of the relevant guidelines for their paper presentation (stated below). http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ss15/presentation_guidelines#paper_guidelines

Guidelines for papers

• Visual aids (e.g. overheads, powerpoint slides) should be clear, large, and visible from 50 metres away. Likewise, handouts should be written in 12-point font or larger. (See our Guide to Visual Aids). We'd like to request that you please bring a few hardcopies of any powerpoint or overhead slides, for those who may have difficulty seeing even larger fonts when displayed on a screen.
• PowerPoint: At this point we anticipate having a networked PC in every presentation room. Due to lengthy change-over time for individual laptops, all PowerPoint presentations must use the PC in the presentation room. We envisage uploading all PowerPoint presentations to our server well in advance of the conference. More details to follow...
• Keep to your time allotment: Be aware of your moderator/session chair. They will be instructed to keep strict time, and will display cards indicating 5 minutes, 2 minutes, and ‘Stop’. Other delegates at the conference will be permitted the freedom to enter and leave sessions after each 30-minute session if they wish. It is your responsibility to prepare your talk to fit within the allotted time frame (20 minutes for normal session papers + 10 minutes for questions.).
• Be organised and prepared. Check the room where you will present your paper. Test all of your media (e.g. Powerpoint presentation on CD rom, overhead slides, audio cassettes, CDs, etc.) on the relevant equipment at the conference site beforehand to ensure that everything will run smoothly.

Guidelines for posters

Getting started

Size limits. Our poster display boards are:
- Landscape layout.
- 1.45 meters wide X 1.1 meters high.
- So, bear in mind that your poster should be SMALLER than these dimensions!

Tip: Your institution may have media/audio-visual services available to print and laminate your poster using high-quality materials. They may also have PowerPoint templates specifically for creating large format posters. Either way, you may wish to design and generate your poster in PowerPoint and go from there.

Transport: Invest in a mailing tube or portfolio case for transporting your poster.

Designing Your Poster

Layout. Divide the contents of your poster into appropriate sections, e.g.:

- Header: including title, author, institutional affiliation
- abstract
- methodology
- data
- results
- conclusions

Think visual! As much as possible, use visual aids rather than text to communicate ideas. Use graphs, charts and/or tables (color if possible) to show results. Color is an important tool for making your poster visually interesting and for presenting concepts strategically.

Font. Make sure your poster can be easily read from about 3 feet away; use 28-point font for body text (larger for titles and headings). Use clear, simple, dark fonts for all text. Avoid overuse of capitals, italics, underlining and elaborate or script fonts. Use bold or a larger size of lettering to achieve emphasis.

Color. Choose a muted background color for your poster. Ideally, use no more than one or two different fonts for the poster, and no more than three colors. A splash of color here and there, perhaps highlighting central findings or results, will make your poster stand out.

Be aware of good and bad colour combinations for people who suffer colour-blindness, which affects around 1 in 10 men and 1 in 200 women. For more details follow these links:

• Newcastle University AVS document: Colour-Blindness - Part 1 (pdf)
• Newcastle University AVS document: Colour-Blindness - Part 2 (pdf)
• Colour blindness page on BBC website

Spacing. Use white space strategically (for aesthetic and conceptual reasons). Filling all available space will make your poster over-whelming to the reader. Use bullet points!

Content. Be concise with your written material. Save elaborative points for verbal discussion and interaction with viewers. For conclusions, focus on a central finding that lends itself to informal discussion.

Presenting Your Poster

Give a brief oral overview. When someone approaches you, provide a brief, clear statement of what your project is about. Then let the audience member ask questions and read the poster and handout. You should be as prepared as if you were going to give an oral presentation, but the goal is to have a more informal back-and-forth exchange.

Be available. Stay by your poster, but give people time and space to view your materials.

Additional materials. Have a notepad handy when presenting at your poster session. It may be helpful in elaborating on your findings, or for taking names & addresses of people interested in your research. Bring handouts and copies of your paper to give to other delegates.

Get to know your audience. Find out who they are and what they're working on. You may make a valuable contact with someone who shares your research interests.

Sources

When drawing up our guidelines, we have used the following resources:

• IGALA 3 - Poster
• International Studies Association - ISA Poster Guidelines
• Guidelines for Preparing AAA Posters - American Anthropological Association Poster Guidelines
• American Political Science Association - Successful Poster Sessions: Some Guidelines
• International Studies Association (Marilyn A. Levine) - Creating Posters for Humanities and Social Sciences
• Jeff Radel - Designing Effective Posters

Guide to Visual Aids

Size. The font used for overhead slides and PowerPoint slides should be LARGE, clear, and visible from 50 metres away. 28-point font should be fine for regular text; headings should be larger. Ideally, handouts should be written in 12-point font or larger.

Style. Select an easy-to-read font. Make certain that background and text color do not conflict (e.g., avoid blue-on-red, etc.). Also be be sensitive to good and bad colour combinations for people who suffer from colour-blindness. More details are in the poster section above.

Content. Keep the amount of text per slide to a minimum, so that delegates can listen to your words whilst viewing the slide. Let the slide text complement your words, rather than duplicate them precisely.

Speed. Keep the number of slides low enough that you do not have to rush through them while delegates are still reading and processing them.

Testing. As the adage goes, the proof is in the pudding (US) / the proof of the pudding is in the eating (UK). So, test out your slides beforehand to ensure that your presentation will go smoothly.

Bring hardcopies. We'd like to request that you please bring a few hardcopies of any powerpoint or overhead slides, for those who may have difficulty seeing even larger fonts when displayed on a screen.