EIU Department of Psychology

Presenting Your Poster

General Information

• During the Poster Session there will be busy times (e.g., between classes) and very slow times. You will need to adjust your behaviors accordingly:
• Your poster should be in place on the bulletin board at least a ½ hour prior to the start of the Poster Session.
• Someone from your group should be by your poster during the entire Poster Session, unless your instructor specifically tells you otherwise, and you’ve arranged to only be by your poster specific times.
• Bring as little as possible to the Poster Session. You will be standing in the first floor hallway of Physical Sciences Bldg., so there is little room for stuff.
  • Coats, backpacks, etc. will be checked in room 1180 – we will have actual check tickets for you, and someone will be there the duration of the Poster Session monitoring your stuff.
  • However, the Psychology Department will not assume responsibility for any lost or stolen items.
• Everyone in your group should wear his or her name tag.
  • These will be pre-printed and available to you at the Poster Session.
• You may be asked to talk to other presenters and evaluate their poster presentation.
  • Forms will be handed out for you to do fill out after talking to these other presenters.

What will happen at the poster session is that strangers (faculty, students, others) will walk up to your poster, give it a glance, and do one of three things:

1. Walk away
2. Talk to you
3. Read it

Walkers

• If they walk away, you feel rejected. No one can adequately prepare for that; but tell yourself that it isn’t ‘you’.
• People that have different interests and the topic of your poster may not be of interest to everyone.

Talkers

• Some attendees will approach you and talk to you without reading your poster. They will almost all say approximately the same thing: “Tell me the quick version of what you did.”
• So, you need to be prepared to give a quick, 30 to 60 seconds overview of your study. Use common, non-statistical, non-technical language as much as possible. Present the gist of the study: the problem or gap in research you addressed, what you did, how you did it, what you found, what you conclude.

Readers

• Let them read it.
• You will wonder what to do with yourself while this is happening. Just stand to the side and keep your peripheral vision on them.
• Some will turn to talk to you after they are done.
• Some will start to walk away; if that happens, you can ask if they would like for you to give a brief overview before they have moved on.
• Sometimes, some will appear to “get stuck;” if you think that has happened, ask if they would like for you to give them a quick overview of the study.