General

The 2008 Convention committee wishes to thank you for your interest in participating in the 2008 Convention poster session. The committee hopes to continue with the high quality of poster displayed during past conventions and intends to improve the format of the related oral presentations and judging process.

During the 2007 convention a rolling PowerPoint poster display was introduced. This year’s committee wishes to continue with this and have complete participation by the poster presenters.

Poster Displays

Posters have many advantages over oral presentations, particularly because they allow in-depth one-on-one conversations about topics of particular interest to participants. The Technical Committee is keen to improve the overall quality of the posters with regards to content style and clarity.

Location

All poster presentations will be located in Halls ‘A and B’ of the Roundup Centre, Stampede Grounds, Calgary, Alberta. The location of your poster presentation in the Exhibition Hall will be at a numbered Poster Board described in a future e-mail notification. Consult the web site after May 1st for additional details as to the location of your specific poster board.

Set-up and Take-down

Posters are to be put up by the authors on Sunday, May 11th, 2008 (12:00pm - 5:00pm).

Poster Tear Down: Tuesday, May 13th, 5:00PM-7:00PM. Please be advised that the Exhibit Hall closes @ 7:00. It is the responsibility of the presenter to remove their own poster as those that are not removed cannot be saved.

Poster Presentations and Judging

Presenters are encouraged to prepare a five minute oral presentation to be delivered at scheduled intervals during the times specifically provided for poster viewing by judges and delegates. A schedule with your mini-presentation time will be announced at a future date; also authors are encouraged to consult the convention web site after April 1st for any new information. Viewing will occur on May 12 - 13 during regular Exhibition Hall hours (Mon: 8am-7:30pm, Tuesday 8am-7pm) exact times to be confirmed). The author will be encouraged to be in attendance at their poster during the Icebreaker and the B&B since a large number of delegates are expected to be viewing the posters at these times.

Mini Oral Poster Presentation Format

Each time interval will contain a number of simultaneous Oral Poster Presentations each morning and each afternoon during the 2 days of the Technical Sessions. These oral presentations will be scheduled so as not to conflict with Oral Technical sessions which some poster presenters will be making. The final poster presentation schedule will be announced at a later date following compilation and acceptance of the poster submissions.

MINI ORAL POSTER PRESENTATIONS
10:00 AM - Break from Oral Technical Sessions
10:10 AM - 1st set of Mini Oral Poster presentations
10:17 AM - 2nd set of Mini Oral Poster presentations
10:24 AM - 3rd set of Mini Oral Poster presentations
10:31 AM - End of Mini Oral Poster presentations

The precise timing of your mini-presentation times will be communicated to you via email once the schedule is finalized.

Poster layout

Poster display board dimensions are 4 ft. (vertical) by 8 ft. (horizontal) (Landscape format) with a maximum of two available for each poster. The poster should be slightly smaller in dimension to fit comfortably in this space. Please note that hanging 8.5 by 11 inch pieces of paper in the display area is considered less than optimal in terms of clarity and quality. Materials can be affixed to the poster board with pins.

Use a title that clearly conveys the main intent of your poster. Your poster should include both the title and authors of your presentation, as no separate title will be supplied.

Make the poster easy to follow in case it is viewed when you are not present - The poster should have a clear starting and ending point. Arrows or numbers should be used to define poster progression and generally should follow left to right, top to bottom rules.

The abstract should be kept as a handout and not used as part of the poster. You can use bullet text at the start of your poster to emphasize the main points that will grab the interest of your audience.

Please indicate whether 1, 2, 3 or 4 poster boards are required not later than April 18th.

Design Hints for Posters

Good poster design equals SIMPLICITY - Make all illustrations simple and bold.
Present only enough data to support your conclusions.
The title should be readable from two to three meters away.
Use elements of different sizes along with a mixture of shapes and straight lines to attract the viewer’s attention. A large and/or bright centre of interest can draw the eye to the most important aspect of the poster.
Enlarge all illustrations enough for pertinent details to be clearly evident.
All lettering should be visible from 2 meters away. Font size should be at least 18 point.
Text material on the poster should be brief, while colours should be well thought out and applied sparingly.
Please let the organizers know of any special requirements.

(Modified by L. Bernstein after R.J. Fife, Carol Waite Connor U.S. Geological Survey, & EnCana Corporation (EnGage Poster Guidelines)

PowerPoint Rolling Screen Display

The 2008 convention committee wishes to improve poster session advertising and plans to continue with a “rolling news” type MS PowerPoint display with highlight slides from each of the poster participants. Plasma TV screens will be located in the lobbies of the Round-Up Center will continuously display the poster advertising.

A title slide followed by an area of interest index map in the case of a geological presentation with 1 or 2 technical slides and a “headshot” photograph of the presenter(s) is requested for each of the poster displays. These will be combined with a map of the Exhibit floor illustrating the location of each poster display. The intention is to make delegates more aware of the posters. Please email the above PowerPoint files to darren.singleton@ihs.com before April 18th 2008. A maximum of 5 slides should be sufficient.

Poster Scramble

To further foster interest in the poster session, a Poster Scramble Questionnaire is being planned. It would consist of several questions based on obvious elements from several poster displays. Delegate participants will have the opportunity to visit the poster displays over the two days and answer simple questions pertinent to the display. The participants can then enter the supplied questionnaire into a draw which will be held around 4:00 PM Tuesday. Multiple prizes are being arranged by the sponsorship committee.

Please provide us (darren.singleton@ihs.com) with a simple relevant question about your presentation which we could put onto the questionnaire by April 18.

Oral Presentation Cancellation

For those poster presenters interested the committee welcomes you to prepare a PowerPoint presentation as replacement for cancellations or no shows at the Oral Technical Sessions. Although there are no guarantees, an opportunity could arise to participate in the Oral Sessions. Please advise us if you are interested in being considered for a possible replacement paper.

Poster Presenter Check List

Poster Abstract submitted – January 31
Number of poster boards required – April 18
Interest in acting as a replacement Oral Technical Presenter – yes or no
PowerPoint synopsis – submit by April 18
Poster scramble question – submit by April 18
Poster session set up – Sunday, May 11, Noon to 5PM
Preparation of 5 minute oral mini-presentation - May 12 or 13
Tear down of posters by presenters – May 13 after 5:00pm-before 7:00pm