poster presenting post

_posts/2018-12-30-poster.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: How to Present a Scientific Poster at a Mega-Conference
+author: Charles Sutton
+tags:
+- advice
+- presentation advice
+---
+
+A lot of scientific communication happens at
+poster sessions. It's a great way to learn
+about the field, and to meet new people
+with similar research interests. It's also a great
+way to be noticed in a crowded research field.
+Presenting a poster is just as important,
+and requires as much specialized skill,
+as giving a 25-minute talk.
+Way back when, before this blog became what it is, I wrote advice for [presenting research posters](http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/csutton/advice/posters.html).
+Back when I started attending research conferences,
+advice like that was probably good enough.
+
+But these days, I think we need a few more
+tricks in our poster-presenting sleeves.
+One of my favourite recent conferences,
+NeurIPS, had over 9000 attendees this year.
+Unavoidably, the room was a little bit loud, and
+it wasn't unusual for a poster to have
+twenty people around it.
+*When the conference gets this large,
+you need to present your poster differently.*
+I saw posters where
+one presenter carefully and quietly explained the poster
+to one person, both of them intently facing the poster,
+cheerfully oblivious to the fact that ten people were standing
+behind them, patiently reading the poster.
+If you are the presenter, don't do this!
+
+Instead, follow Sutton's Three Rules for Presenting
+a Popular Poster at a Mega-Conference:
+
+1. **Be aware of what's going on around you.**
+While you're talking about your poster, people will
+be both joining and leaving your audience.
+You need to keep track of this.
+First, this lets you acknowledge someone who joins,
+by making eye contact and giving a quick smile or nod
+as you speak. (I'm not too proud to admit that although
+I try to do this for everyone, I'm even more likely to
+do this when the new person is someone I know,
+or someone famous.)
+Second, having awareness lets you adapt your presentation,
+because the way you talk to 2 or 3 people is different than
+the way you talk to a crowd of 15 people. How so?
+See the next two points.
+
+1. **Use your body language.**
+Congratulations! Your work has attracted a crowd,
+and you have maintained the presence of mind to
+notice. Now what?  
+
+    Continue your short talk about the paper,
+just like you had before. You just need to make clear that
+you are talking to the whole group rather than one person.
+You do that with your body language.
+
+    Face the entire group. Make yourself big.
+Put your feet just a bit farther apart,
+your shoulders up, your arms away from your body, and
+your gestures large, so that everyone can see you.
+Look around the entire group as you speak.
+If you are doing this right, there will be a large semicircle around the poster, and you will be in a prominent
+position at one side.
+
+1. **You need to speak up.** If people can't hear you,
+they will move on to the next poster. You need to speak
+loudly enough that you can be heard 15 feet away in a
+loud room. My voice is naturally on the loud side,
+but even I had to consciously exert my full effort
+to project my voice
+while I was presenting our NeurIPS poster.  
+
+    There are techniques for doing this without straining
+your voice.
+If your profession involves speaking, as is common
+in academia, it might help to learn about this.
+"The Right to Speak" by Patsy Rosenberg is one
+book that has been recommended to me.
+
+What's that you say? It's hard to do all of that
+while talking about research at the same time?
+Yes! It is. That's why you need to practice your short presentation
+until you know it well. This leaves you with mental
+space that you can use to focus on your audience.
+(Actually, this is good advice for all talks.)
+
+The transition from "small group poster talk"
+to "large group poster talk" can be awkward, but you
+manage it. You can say something to the earlier group like,
+"I'm going to reset the presentation for these new people,
+but feel free to jump in if you think of more questions."
+Stuff like that.
+
+One time, I had just started presenting
+the poster to one person when a group seemed to come
+up out of nowhere. I just looked at my faithful
+original audience and said, "You might want to take
+a step back, because I'm about to shout." I did, and he did. I didn't restart my talk, but I added in a few background phrases here
+and there to help the larger group get context.