Has anyone ever created a poster presentation?

Jules A, MSN · Nov 12, 2015

I just threw up a bit in my mouth at the memory. I personally think they are the stupidest things I have ever had to do as an adult and that hospitals actually convince nurses to do them for free blows my mind.

In any event they aren't a big deal, you can get a template and just load the information in similar to a power point presentation and have it printed and mailed to you. Keep in mind not only do you have to buy the poster but usually a board to mount it to so don't let the time get too close. Good luck with it.

Scientific poster presentation printing services

klone, MSN, RN · Nov 12, 2015

I just threw up a bit in my mouth at the memory. I personally think they are the stupidest things I have ever had to do as an adult and that hospitals actually convince nurses to do them for free blows my mind.

I'm sorry you feel that way. I feel quite honored to have been chosen.

This is not something that is done by my hospital, but a regional consortium.

Jules A, MSN · Nov 12, 2015

I'm sorry you feel that way. I feel quite honored to have been chosen.
This is not something that is done by my hospital, but a regional consortium.

Congratulations.

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · Nov 12, 2015

Go to makesigns.com and look around. It's very intuitive and they have tons of templates to choose from. I've done a bunch of them, and have been honored to have them chosen to present.

KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN · Nov 12, 2015

In my BSN school, we were required to do them gazillion of times.

Get a cardboard in Walmart, make PowerPoint with as many slides as will comfortably stay on it. It is easier to count on standard A4 page size, although it is not mandatory. Print a few and take a good look on fonts, colors, borders, etc., they have to be comfortable to read. The parts are exactly the same as in the main presentation (introduction, problem, method, results, discussion, etc). You can be a bit creative and play with different fonts, pictures, graphs, especially for the poster name; some folks do further embellishments up to humorous pictures, caricatures and appliques, although I do not think it looks professional. Find good position for each print on your cardboard so that they are following each other in logical sequence, fix them there with tape or glue or pins, and you are done!

Congranulations, and do not forget comfortable shoes, as you possibly will have to stand near your creation during "poster session" for a good hour or so.

P.S. I see that now we're got an app and services for that too! That's cool for those less experienced with mysteries of Microsoft Office:cool:

Dogen · Nov 12, 2015

First, find out what dimensions they want your poster in. Some are 36"x48", some are 36x36... some are 48x96. 36x48 is the most common. Your font should be large enough to read from 3' away so groups of people can read it at the same time, which usually translates into 24-point font for text.

Your poster doesn't need to be self-explanatory. If it were, you wouldn't need to be there. Don't be afraid to use bullet points and encourage people to ask you questions for clarification. I'm not a fan of graphics beyond important graphs and the school's logo, but when I was in nursing school they forced us to include some, so this varies.

Give it a short title that sounds interesting. "The effect of dyads, cellphones, and music on the visual perception of novel stimuli" gets fewer visitors than "Did you see the unicycling clown?" True story.

Open PowerPoint, set the dimensions of a single slide to 36" high by 48" wide (or whatever they tell you). Set the DPI to 300, but feel free to drop it down to 150 if your computer has trouble. This is essentially the print quality, and wherever you print it can reduce it further if it's too expensive. Then design your poster all on one slide, right in PowerPoint.

When you're done save it as both a PPT (PowerPoint) file and a PDF file. View the PDF to make sure the elements don't move around. Bring both the PPT and PDF on a thumb drive to wherever you're getting it printed and let them pick which one they want to print. Have them print an 8x11 sample so you can see if it looks the same as it did on your computer - colors sometimes change, so don't be surprised if it looks a little different.

I've never done a serious poster presentation as a nurse, but when I worked in psych labs I did a fair number and they're not taken lightly. I met some really famous researchers (in the world of psych, anyway) and had great conversations over my posters. I was invited to apply to a PhD program based entirely on a conversation I had about a poster on the effect of egocentric biases on how participants explained election results. Posters have a particular place in social sciences, people expect them to be preliminary data, but they hold them to the same criteria as talks. So, I mean it when I say congrats. I hope you have a good time. :)

klone, MSN, RN · Nov 12, 2015

Open PowerPoint, set the dimensions of a single slide to 36" high by 48" wide (or whatever they tell you). Set the DPI to 300, but feel free to drop it down to 150 if your computer has trouble. This is essentially the print quality, and wherever you print it can reduce it further if it's too expensive. Then design your poster all on one slide, right in PowerPoint.
When you're done save it as both a PPT (PowerPoint) file and a PDF file. View the PDF to make sure the elements don't move around. Bring both the PPT and PDF on a thumb drive to wherever you're getting it printed and let them pick which one they want to print. Have them print an 8x11 sample so you can see if it looks the same as it did on your computer - colors sometimes change, so don't be surprised if it looks a little different.

Genius! Thank you so much.

LessValuableNinja · Nov 12, 2015

It's reasonable to feel sorry they feel that way. If you're just punching the clock, it may seem unreasonable to do something that sets you apart from your peers and makes you a professional, going beyond just showing up to work.

LessValuableNinja · Nov 12, 2015

That aside, think visual. People skim words. They pay attention to graphs and pictures. I realize my profile may mute the importance of my response, but this is my fourth career. I've given enough presentations to make most eyes bleed.

llg, PhD, RN · Nov 12, 2015

In my BSN school, we were required to do them gazillion of times.
Get a cardboard in Walmart, make PowerPoint with as many slides as will comfortably stay on it.

Cardboard might be good enough for a school project ... but for a professional conference, you'll want to have a polished poster printed by a company. Essentially, what you do is make 1 PowerPoint slide and have it printed in the dimensions you want. It's not hard, but there are a few "tricks to the trade" that are necessary to know. Your educator can probably help you with that. Having it printed professionally should cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $50.00, give or take a bit depending on the company you use and your timetable. (Personally, I love makesigns.com -- and they have a very detailed online tutorial for free.)

There are several articles about how to do poster presentations at professional conferences. Do a standard literature search and you should have no trouble finding some that include pictures of posters, examples, etc.

Congratulations on being selected as a poster presenter. Don't forget to add it to your resume.

canigraduate · Nov 12, 2015

Dogen, you stole my thunder!

I used to work for a print shop and I was going to tell OP the exact same thing.

Make sure to get the specs from the symposium people and find out if they want a single panel or free-standing triptych. If they want a single panel, you will need to find out if you need a stand or if they are hanging it.

Don't use any crazy fonts, just keep it simple with Arial, or similar plain font, for headlines and Times New Roman, or similar serif font, for block text. I had one client insisit on using Comic Sans for a poster and it got kicked out due to readability requirements. They had to pay twice.

If you are going to use a colored background, make sure your text is contrasting enough that you can see it without hurting your eyes. NO brights, or your older people aren't going to be able to see the information.

The best colors to get your message across are dark, muted ones, like burgundy, navy, forest, charcoal. The best backgrounds are white, pale blue, pale green, or pale purple. You can do black, but make sure there is a light color around the text and the text is dark.

Keep it simple. The more stuff you stick on, the harder it is to get all the information and the less your readers will get out of it.

Congratulations, and have fun!!