How can you make your poster stand out at the poster session, if you only have a limited amount of time? There are many tips out there on how to design the poster and how to structure all the information (a couple of resources I like are here and here), and these are the most important things you should be doing! But if you already have a poster ready and can’t afford doing a complete overhaul, here are three ways to make your poster more memorable:
1. Print your poster on fabric
Print your poster on fabric if you don’t already do so. This not only makes travel easier, but also makes it easier for people to approach you and to start a conversation, and that’s what poster sessions are all about.
2. Add a picture of yourself to the poster
Chances are that your poster will be up for a longer period of time than you will actually be there to present. If people see your picture on the poster and then see you later at a conference, there are again more likely to approach you if they have any questions.
3. Add business cards next to the poster
These days most people have a smartphone and can take a picture of your contact information. But if you do this regularly, you end up with lots of pictures that you might forget to follow up with. Make it easier for people to remember and contact you by giving them an opportunity to take your card! If you do not have cards, you can consider adding print-outs of the poster (or even the full paper) instead.
4. Add a QR code that leads to your website
This is especially helpful if your website has a URL that is difficult to remember. There are many QR code generators out there, such as this one. Remember to save the image in a large size and resize it afterwards for best quality during printing.
5. Promote your poster on social media
If you have Twitter, take a picture of yourself next to the poster and tweet about it using the hashtag of the conference, and include the location of your poster. People are more likely to like an image if it features a face and might decide to stop by for a chat even if they didn’t yet know about your work.
That’s all the tips I have tried so far while attending conferences. Please share below if these work / do not work for you and if you know any other tips that might be useful. Thanks for reading!
Bonus tip
To leave a lasting impression, glue your PhD thesis to your poster:
@vcheplygina Glue your thesis on the poster (watch out: bring extra copies, someone literally stole mine) pic.twitter.com/EphxzSKJsL
— Sebastiaan Breedveld (@SebasBreedveld) November 29, 2016
it’s great. i will try next time:)
Glad it’s helpful! Which conference are you going to?
Great tips =)
My new favorite conference tip is to take the Twitter hashtag for the conference and create an IFTTT.com applet to make a Twitter list of everyone talking about the conference on Twitter. It’s best to do as soon as you know what the conference hashtag is, but works even a day or two before. Then you’ll have a live growing list of everyone who tweeted about the conference which is useful both during the conference as well as keeping up with people after the fact. More details at: Twitter List for #DtMH2016 Participants | Dodging the Memory Hole 2016: Saving Online News.