Last week I presented at the SIETAR-USA conference in Portland, Oregon. I opted for the poster session because I wanted to do something different than the typical break-out session. Have you presented a poster before? I assumed we’d all stand in one room next to our poster while conference attendees walked by, read our poster, and asked questions. Well, this poster session turned out to be a little different.
Session #1- we’re in the far corner.
Here’s how the poster sessions worked: three to four poster presenters were assigned to a room and given a table and an easel. I was in the 90-minute session, which meant attendees could attend three 30-minute poster talks.
I wasn’t sure if the expectation was to spend most of the 30 minutes in conversation or if I was supposed to present for most of that time, so I decided on a brief presentation of one idea and then conversation. I also decided to create a virtual poster so that participants could access it after the conference.
I focused on my idea of changing how we talk about re-entry and showed the infographic that I created for my virtual poster (see below). I also gave participants a quick overview of the free re-entry resources I linked to the virtual poster. Then, I asked participants to share who they were and what drew them to the topic of re-entry.
Session #2 – new group of ideas and experiences!
What I liked about this type of poster session was the small, focused conversations. Attendees can try out a few different topics in a short period of time. I also liked that we were sitting around a table sharing ideas.
If I were to do it again, though, I think I’d bring an activity that participants could try out and take with them to use later. I think I’d also print an actual hard-copy poster of the main ideas because I think the virtual poster might have been hard to read on my laptop, even in a small group.
If you’ve attended or presented at this type of interactive poster session, I’d love to hear what works well for you as a presenter and what you like as an attendee!
And here’s the infographic I created for the virtual poster – what do you think?
Image credit :: Tatyana Fertelmeyster and Rachit Raj Shrestha
