What is it about?
Conferences are a major part of professional practice. However, underneath the eye-candy of speakers, busy programmes and exotic venues, is a need to access the information on offer and interact effectively with colleagues. Posters are now the predominant medium of conference presentation, yet we argue that poster sessions lack efficacy in supporting conference activities, research dissemination and professional practice.
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Why is it important?
Poster presentation is the most predominant form of sharing information at conferences. It accounts for > 2 billion dollars every year & is undertaken on a global basis. Technology has given us access to work that lies beyond our select conference gatherings. In reconsidering poster presentation in terms of efficacy & the potential benefit of information to society, then rethinking the medium will help more people get the most from our time, efforts & resources. This article has been selected as the Editors Choice paper for the printed edition & has an editorial commentary. It has also been made Open Access by the journal.
Perspectives
My own experiences are in-line with those reported by many researchers. Regardless of how good our posters are, or how useful their information is, if they are not seen by more than a handful of passing delegates, then they are likely to have little impact. Conferences can host literally hundreds of posters at one time, and this is more than we can access or absorb during the time available. Also, our conference activities do not attract the same credit or acknowledgement as our journal publications. In fact, if published at all for others to see, posters are rarely granted more than a short abstract or title mention. We continue to put our work out there, but unless we rethink our approach to sharing information with a wider community, then posters will remain a relatively un-tapped source of potentially useful information.
Nicholas Rowe
university of lapland
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Rethinking poster presentations at large-scale scientific meetings - is it time for the format to evolve?, FEBS Journal, August 2015, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/febs.13383.
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