Poster Session Guidelines

Poster sessions are a valuable opportunity for authors to present research and meet with interested attendees for in-depth technical discussions. Good planning can make your presentation clear, effective and rewarding. The goals in designing a poster should be:

• To attract attention,

• To provide a clear overview of your work,

• To provide enough content to explain the research without an oral explanation, and

• To provide enough content to initiate discussion and questions without overwhelming the audience.

The poster session is scheduled on Wed, March 29 from 1:30 – 3:30 pm in Room 1D at NC State’s McKimmon Conference and Training Center. Several poster presentations will be taking place at once in the room. Poster presenters are encouraged to set up early, starting at 8:30 am, but should ensure setup is completed no later than 1:30 pm.

What NCDOT Provides

NCDOT provides a display board that is four feet tall (4 ft. or 122 cm.) and eight feet wide (8 ft. or 244 cm.). Posters are pinned to either side of a display board as well as on the walls around the room. Tacks and pins are provided for authors to use to attach posters. Each poster display area is numbered for easy identification by both authors and attendees.

No electrical outlets or cords will be provided. If your presentation requires a laptop computer or tablet, please come with your device charged! Please note, tables will not be available at the display boards, so any device you use will need to be handheld.

What Authors Should Bring

• A single sheet poster made of heavyweight poster paper or similar material, a maximum of 4 ft. x 8 ft. in size. A minimum size of 3 ft. x 4 ft. is recommended to ensure readability.

• T-pins or tacks as back-up to the NCDOT-provided pins and tacks. No tape or other fastener supplies are permitted on the display boards or walls.

• Authors may bring additional written material of a non-commercial nature that supplements the content presented on the poster.

Poster Session Rules

• Computers, tablets and other mobile devices without audio may be used to run demonstrations and display additional information or illustrations. Other audiovisual equipment is not allowed. Please note, tables will not be available at the display boards, so any device you use will need to be handheld.

• Commercial advertising of products or services is not permitted.

• Wi-Fi Internet is available at the conference center, but authors should be prepared in case the reception is poor due to overuse.

• There are no provisions for making posters at the conference center, nor for receiving, storing or returning posters to authors.

• Poster display boards are rented and cannot be written on or defaced.

Poster Design Guidelines

• Prepare poster on a SINGLE sheet of heavy-duty paper or similarly flexible material. The poster should be a maximum of 4 ft. X 8 ft. in size. A minimum size of 3 ft. X 4 ft. is recommended. Do not tack individual pages of a PowerPoint presentation or a text manuscript onto a poster board.

• Keep content SIMPLE. A poster is a visual communication tool, not a manuscript. The viewer should be able to easily identify the primary concepts of the project without wading through a lot of text or complex formulas. Identify 3 or 4 main points or concepts to communicate.

• Present text in bullets or small chunks broken up by subheadings. Use at least 28–36 point bold sans serif font (e.g., Arial or Helvetica) for headers and 18–24 point font for text.

• Present information in columns. Arrange content in a logical sequence, from left top to bottom right. Three columns is a good target to shoot for.

• Offer a balanced mix of text and graphics. Too many words will result in people glossing over or simply bypassing your poster. A good rule of thumb is 50% text, 50% graphics and photos.

• Avoid acronyms and jargon. Simple language is best.

• Avoid dark-colored backgrounds. Use light colored backgrounds with black or very dark colored text. Graphics should similarly provide a stark contrast to be readable.

• Use simple graphics. Charts, drawings and illustrations should be limited to a 2-3 color palette at a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Visuals should be large enough to be comfortably read from 3 feet away.

• Provide author name(s), organization logos and/or other acknowledgements to give credit to those who have done the work.

• Prepare a brief (up to 5 minutes) oral presentation for delivering to small audiences gathered around the poster.

Adapted from TRB Annual Meeting Poster Session Guidelines