Adapting Your Materials for Presentation

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1. Oral Presentations
2. Poster Presentations

Oral Presentations (using PowerPoint slide format)

• Conference Instructions (Academic)
  Read conference instructions carefully and adhere to them. Call the host group if you have questions. Conferences usually send presentation instructions when they send notice that your abstract has been accepted.
  
  
• Transporting Presentation Data
  Take storage backup, and consider taking two different types of storage. Check with host conference to see which types they can accommodate. Backup protects you against several all too real potential disasters: One storage device may suddenly become corrupt. Or you may be scheduled to present in a specific room and give your disk to the media tech to load. At the last minute, you are moved to another room, and the media tech has gone to a different location and has taken all the presentations. With a backup, you will lose no time setting up in the new room. Popular storage formats include:
  • CD and DVD: stable and almost universal computer formats.
  • Data stick or flash drive: Stable and usable with computers containing USB ports. Choose the slim rectangular data sticks for presentations. Some other designs have an oval extension for ease of handling, but these do not fit in the USB ports of all computers.
  • Floppy disk: floppy disks are no longer recommended. They degrade rapidly, hold limited amounts of data, and most new computers do not come with compatible disk drives.
  • Zip disk: were designed to be more stable than floppy disks and able to hold more data, but not all computers (new or old) have a Zip drive.
    
    
• Naming Your File
  Use your name, not the conference name.
  • Technical support at conferences often places icons on screens in advance of presentations.
  • Many presenters use the conference name and year as their file name. This leads to everyone clicking icons and opening presentations until they find theirs. Using your name prevents someone else opening your presentation, and yours will be fresh to your audience when you present.
  • If you prefer not to use your name, use a unique identifier.
    
    
• Projection equipment
  This is usually set up for you. Be sure the equipment in use accepts your type of data storage device.
  
  
• Good lighting
  Good lighting means appropriate lighting in the room and on the screen. You will not always be able to control the lighting, so carefully select your template in advance.
  • Use a template with sharp contrast between type and background.
  • Close blinds if windows are behind you from viewpoint of the viewers, as backlighting can cause you to appear in silhouette.

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Poster Presentations

• Conference Instructions
  Read conference instructions carefully and adhere to them. Call the host group if you have questions.
  
  
• Transporting Presentation
  Individual letter or legal-sized sheets are easy to transport in your luggage if you have a sturdy file folder or box. Larger single-sheet posters, whether professionally printed or created by you when you paste smaller pages to a large backing sheet, need poster carrier protection. Poster carriers are available from most printing and print design services for around $20  
  
  
• Funding
  If you have T32 or other funding, you must acknowledge your funding source specifics in writing on your poster. CITES will assist you at no charge to you regardless of whether you or your advisor have funding for your poster. If you choose to have your poster professionally printed and you have no other funding, you must pay out-of-pocket.
  • The UNC Copy Centers provide poster printing services, with prices for standard posters ranging from $30 to $100. Non-standard sized posters cost $6 per square foot. The UNC Cancer Center prints posters at $22 per linear foot, and the Health Sciences Library will print posters for those who are registered at their Media Design Studio and have attended an orientation session. Their cost for registered participants is $25 for the first five feet, and $2 for each additional foot.
    
    
• Designing
  CITES has templates you can use, or you can select any PowerPoint template and make your poster on individual sheets. If you want advice on an appropriate template, we can guide you.
  
  
• Scheduling
  CITES requires a three week turnaround time for us to work with you to design your poster.
  
  • All UNC-based poster printing services as well as local quick copy businesses require several days turnaround for printing your poster once your design and content are complete and available to them in printable format. You should plan on four full business days for printing when you are setting deadlines for your poster creation, and verify a turnaround schedule with your printer of choice in advance of providing them your work.
    
    
• Attaching poster sheets
  Check conference specifications. Backing boards and attaching devises allowed differ from conference to conference. Typical options include:
  • Cork or foam: You will need to adhere your poster with map pins or tacks available at most stores. 2-pron clip pins are the easiest to use on large posters. They are most commonly sold at office supply stores.
  • Fabric backing: Requires Velcro, which can be purchased in strips, small circles and squares, and on rolls that can be cut to your preferred size. Velcro is usually available at variety stores, office supply stores, sewing centers and some drug stores; however, not all outlets carry all varieties.

Whatever poster you use, CITES can help you.

Submit your request here.

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