Effective Poster Presentations

1. Effective Poster Presentations George R. Hess Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources North Carolina State University Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-8002 USA

2. What is a poster? Avisualcommunication tool An effective poster will help you … … engage colleagues in conversation.

3. What is a poster? Avisualcommunication tool An effective poster will help you … … get your main point across to as many people as possible.

4. Comment on posters Take 10 minutes to look Note your impressions of the posters List likes and dislikes Your thoughts will shape discussion

5. An effective poster … delivers a clear message, is highly visual, and is easily read from 1-2 meters away.

6. Know your audience Specialists only Wide-ranging discipline Very general audience

7. Layout Headings identify key sections Balance placement of text & graphics Use white space creatively Don’t fight “reader gravity” Use a column format

8. Text Keep text elements short Use phrases and active voice Use serif font for text San-serif font OK for title & headings

9. Graphs Graphs communicate relationships Keep them simple and clean Avoid 3D graphs unless you’re showing 3D data - and then be careful

11. Summary Poster = visual communication An effective poster will help you … … engage colleagues in conversation … … get your main point across to as many people as possible.

12. An effective poster … delivers a clear message, is highly visual, and is easily read from 1-2 meters away.

14. Acknowledgements “Thanks!” to students in my poster classes, for letting me use their work as examples “Thanks!” to people who commented on poster site – they have really improved it!

15. Contact Information George Hess Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695-8002 USA george_hess@ncsu.edu www4.ncsu.edu/~grhess www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/ USA 919.515.7437