In-Person Poster Session Session FAQs

Poster sessions are where frontline campus innovators share their expertise with attendees through a physical poster display. The poster presenter gives a series of mini-presentations to attendees (usually 3 - 5 minutes) as they stop by the poster. The presenter has the opportunity to explain and discuss their topic, using the visuals from their poster as a reference. Poster sessions are more informal and interactive than other traditional sessions, allowing for more personal connections to be made.

Poster Sessions will be held in the Exhibit Hall during refreshment breaks and reception to drive even more traffic to this area. There will be approximately 75-80 poster sessions happening concurrently in the track “neighborhoods.”

• You may visit last year’s Poster Picture Gallery here for some great visuals of the poster area.

Start by answering these three questions:

1. What is the most important/interesting/astounding finding from my project or about my topic?
2. How can I visually share my research or important information with conference attendees? Should I use charts, graphs, photos, images?
3. What kind of information can I convey during my talk that will complement my poster?

Then be sure to sketch out a draft of your poster presentation.

There are several options:

PowerPoint: This is a popular, easy-to-use option. Set the PowerPoint slide to the dimensions of the poster. To see how this is done, follow the steps outlined here.

Other options include: Canva (there are some great templates available on the site), Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. Open Source alternatives include: OpenOffice (the free alternative to MS Office; impress is the PowerPoint alternative); Inkscape and Gimp are alternatives to Adobe products.

For charts and diagrams try Gliffy or Lovely Charts. You can find free graphics on sites such as this one.

No—not unless you want to. You may use the below poster templates or create your own.

• Poster Template #1
• Poster Template #2

The usable space for posters is 96”W X 44”H. You will be affixing it onto a fabric-covered posterboard that has a 2-inch wide aluminum frame and is firmly supported on "A-frame" legs. The display stands approximately 7 ft. high. Each poster board will contain a number for identification. Please do not cover this number.

Posters are affixed to the fabric-covered fiberboard with items such as pushpins, velcro, clips, double-sided tape, T-pins, etc. We also have scissors available.

EDUCAUSE will also provide poster presenters with a cocktail round at each display.

Note: There will be no equipment security or storage available when you are not presenting, so please keep valuable items with you at all times.

Sorry, wireless internet access will not be provided in the exhibit hall, which includes the poster area. Power will not be provided for laptops or tablets, so if you plan to use one at your poster display, be sure it is fully charged.

You do not need to provide anything other than your in-person poster, however if you have additional materials (a copy of your poster, handouts, etc.) that you would like to share with attendees, you’ll have the opportunity to upload these and they will be available for attendees in the online agenda and mobile app. We ask that you upload these by October 2. (Instructions will be emailed to presenters.) File types allowed: pdf preferred. File size should be 2GB or smaller.

Pro Tip: Do you have additional resources? Use a QR code in the corner of your poster to direct people there!

If you are providing supplemental material, please rename files to be uploaded with the session title and the resource type (examples: "NameofSession Slides" and/or "NameofSession Handout."). If you password-protect a PDF document, please make sure to enable the file to be read by a screen reader. It is our goal to make our resources easily available to those who use adaptive and assistive technology to access files over the internet.

You have been assigned to present on either Tuesday or Wednesday of the conference. Or if you are in a Community Group, you have been scheduled to present both days!

• Tuesday, October 10th: 10:15 – 11:00 a.m. AND 3:00 – 3:45 p.m. (presenting twice)
• Wednesday, October 11th: 10:15 – 11:00 a.m. AND 3:00 – 3:45 p.m. (presenting twice)
• Due to space considerations at your poster station, we recommend having no more than two presenters at the poster at one time.

Below is the schedule for both days. IMPORTANT: You will need to wear your presenter ribbon to gain access to the exhibit hall during the setup time. You can pick it up at the Speaker Ready Room (Room W181BC, Level 1) or from the EDUCAUSE staff that will be outside the Exhibit Hall main entrance.

• Setup | 7:30 - 9:00 AM (An EDUCAUSE staff member will be at the front of the poster area and can help direct you to your preassigned space.
• Display | 10:15–11:00 a.m. AND 3:00–3:45 p.m. (You must be at your poster for display times.)
• Teardown | by 4:45 p.m. (EDUCAUSE will not be responsible for any posters or materials left after this time.)

However you transport your poster, we suggest transporting it in a poster tube. If you need to ship materials, it would be best to send materials to your hotel (labeled to your attention). Please contact the hotel directly to confirm this and for shipping instructions. Do not ship to the convention center. Once onsite, we have a poster tube storage area next to the poster area in the exhibit hall. EDUCAUSE cannot be responsible for items stored.

There is a lot of energy and activity in the poster area! Feel free to be creative with your poster to help make yours stand out. You will want to prepare some introductory remarks and talking points to engage attendees as they stop by your poster. The Presenter Concierge section of our website offers tons of resources, including EDUCAUSE's Presenter Support Modules (short videos on Presentation Best Practices). We ask that you watch these five-minute videos to help take your presentation to the next level.

Yes. EDUCAUSE strives to hold meetings, conferences, and other professional events where all attendees feel welcome and barriers of any type do not exclude people from attending or participating. We ask that you take the time to review the Accessibility Information for Presenters and the below resources to help you create and deliver a presentation that all attendees can enjoy.

EDUCAUSE has a dedicated staff person whose primary role is to support presenters. The speaker liaison provides ongoing communication leading up to the event, answers questions and can provide extra assistance through Speaker Support Sessions if needed.