Presentation guidelines

Theatre and poster presentations on the EAAP website

Please note that all theatre presentations will be placed on the EAAP website following the meeting as a service to all delegates, unless the author requests EAAP not to do so.

To facilitate the publication of the files, authors are reminded to respect the following rules. The submitted file must:

• Be provided in PDF format. Files in other formats will not be accepted;
• Be labelled with the number of the session and the name of the author (e.g. 14_Smith.pdf);
• Contain the e-mail address of the author;
• Size not exceeding 10 MB. Authors of accepted abstracts are supposed to submit a pdf file of their presentations (both theatre and poster) in the preview room at the meeting.

Instructions for Oral Presentations

All the lecture rooms will be equipped with laptops suitable for projection of PowerPoint graphics, data projectors suitable for computer display and a screen. Some rooms will have audio systems for microphones. Other formats for making presentations such as Overhead Projectors and Slide Projectors will not be available.

How to submit your presentation

Please bring your presentations on a USB memory stick or CD in MS-Power Point or Adobe PDF format and submit it in the PREVIEW ROOM at the congress venue no later than one hour prior to your session! If your presentation has been scheduled for a morning session, please come to the Preview Room on the day before or earlier. If your presentation has been scheduled for an afternoon session, please come to the Preview Room on the morning before or earlier.

In order to avoid any problems with your presentation, please make sure it fulfils the necessary requirements, and read carefully the instructions below:

PowerPoint Instructions

■please use only the following versions of Power Point: PP 97-2003 95 (*.ppt) or 2007, 2010 (.pptx) to guarantee that your presentation will be opened successfully on an on-site PC.
■We recommend you save your PowerPoint presentation using PPT or PPTX format rather than PPS or PPSX.

■Power Point presentations with macros (.pptm, .ppsm) will NOT be accepted.

■All videos or animations in the presentation must run automatically!

Pictures/Videos

■JPG images are the preferred file format for inserted images. GIF, TIF or BMP formats will be accepted as well.

■Images inserted into PowerPoint are embedded into the presentations. Images that are created at a dpi setting higher than 200 dpi are not necessary and will only increase the file size of your presentation.

■We cannot provide support for embedded videos in your presentation; please test your presentation with the on-site PC several hours before your presentation. Generally, the WMV format should work with no difficulties.

■In case that your video is not inserted in PowerPoint it is possible to have it in other formats – MPEG 2,4 , AVI (codecs: DivX, XviD, h264) or WMV. Suggested bitrate for all mpeg4 based codecs is about 1Mbps with SD PAL resolution (1024x576pix with square pixels, AR: 16/9).

■For Full HD videos, please let us know before the meeting and we will test it.

■Videos that require additional reading or projection equipment (e.g., VHS cassettes) will be not accepted.

Fonts

■Only fonts that are included in the basic installation of MS-Windows will be available (English version of Windows). Use of other fonts not included in Windows can cause wrong layout / style of your presentation.

■Suggested fonts: Arial, Calibri, Tahoma
If you insist on using different fonts, these must be embedded into your presentation by choosing the right option when saving your presentation, see details below:
– Click on “File“, then “Save As“
– Check the “Tools“ menu and select “Embed True Type Fonts“

Other information

■ Please note that all theatre presentations will be placed on the EAAP website following the meeting as a service to all delegates, unless the author requests EAAP not to do so. Poster presenters are asked to submit their posters as PDF files to the EAAP office so that it can be placed on the EAAP website (paper@eaap.org).

■Your own computer for the presentation will be accepted only in an emergency; if you use a Macintosh please come to the Preview Room room at least 3 hours before your session starts

■All speakers are requested to respect the time of their presentation.

Detailed recommendations for the preparation of power point presentations are available at the end of this page

Instructions for Poster Presentations

Poster mounting and Poster session

Posters should be posted no later than Monday 26 at 18h, on time for the beginning of the poster session that will take place on Monday 26 from 18h. Presenting authors are expected to stand by their poster during the whole poster session (18h-21h). We recommend that you mount your poster immediately after registering to the meeting. Congress staff will be available to assist you during the time of poster mounting, beginning on Sunday 25 August at 14h.

Poster Boards

Size of the panel (i.e. the maximum size of the poster):
150 cm (height) x 95cm (width)
59 inches (height) x 37 inches (width)

Adhesive tape (single or double face) is the only allowed fixing material. It will be available in the Poster Area. Pins and any other material making holes in the boards are strictly prohibited. Self-adhesive posters are allowed provided that they can be easily removed.

The poster boards will be numbered by the organizers.

The number of your poster can be found in the final programme.

Poster dismounting

Posters should be posted during the whole meeting and removed from the poster board on Thursday afternoon, no later than 17h.

Detailed recommendations for the preparation of scientific posters are available at the end of this page

Detailed guidelines for the preparation of Power Point presentations

Visuals should support your talk. They should thus relate to the words spoken, be seen clearly, be well organised and emphasise the important points. A visual that is overloaded or difficult to read or understand will only be distracting.

The aim is to get your message across, not to show the range of functions available in Power Point! Keep things simple for maximum impact!

Some rules

• Do follow the timetable given in the detailed programme (see the booklet)
• Make a title slide to introduce your talk and set the scene. Put it on when you are ready to start to get peoples’ attention. This is the only slide in your presentation that might have a logo.
• Headings should be short. Keep your other messages short as well. Do not write your text in sentences. Rather use key words and bullets to focus attention.
• Illustrations may help emphasising your messages.
• What to include? Consider what main points you wish to put across to the audience, and then devise slides to illustrate these as concisely and clearly as possible.

Too many slides?

You should have less than one slide for each minute allocated for the talk. Beware that slides that build information (e.g. by use of animation) may take you longer. Be prepared to leave slides out if time is against you. The most important slides are often at the end, i.e. the conclusions and implications. Plan your presentation so there is no risk you will need to leave out the most important slides!

Not too much information!

• Keep it simple. It is difficult for audiences in long sessions to absorb complex information from a slide (most slides are up for less than 90 seconds).
• Tables– if you have more than four rows of four columns it will be difficult to read. Tables taken straight from a journal or your paper might be impossible to read and understand in a slide. Rounding numbers may add to clarity. If the major purpose is to show a trend or make a comparison rather than showing the precise data it is better to show a graph or chart.
• Graphs and charts. Do not use too many lines in a line graph, or bars in a chart. It might be easier for the audience to quickly see what a line represents if you put a label next to each line instead of having explanatory legends outside the graph. Pie charts can be labelled in the same way. Using different colours or shades will help distinguishing lines, bars etc. (see section “Colours”). Remember that the axes should be quantified and named.
• Pictures and photos will add impact and help illustrate but can be overdone. Ask yourself if they assist the talk, or are they just pretty?

Avoid small font sizes!

Font size 24 is usually a minimum size for the text, but the size can preferably be larger, both in text and headings. Use fonts that have been used widely for many years, such as Arial, Verdana, Comic Sans, Times New Roman, Symbol. That reduces problems that might occur when the presentation is done with another computer than the one where it was produced. Another option is to save the file by using “Pack and go”.

Words written in lowercase letters (or with an initial capital) are easier to read than words all in uppercase.

Colours

• Colour can make visuals more attractive, but too many colours in a slide can distract from your message. Text and diagrams are usually seen best on a plain background.
• Make a good contrast between text and background, e.g. dark text on a light background. If you use a dark background, make the text white or yellow (and preferably bold).
• Avoid basing a distinction solely on red vs. green; those that are colour blind might miss it.
• Choose colours, contrasts and font sizes that maximise the possibility to keep room light on during your presentation. Having the room illuminated improves contact with your audience and helps keep them awake!

Test

Test your presentation in a hall to make sure it is clear for those sitting at the back of the room. As a first test, however, you can check that your slides are easy to read in PowerPoint “slide sorter view” (select zoom 100%).

Check

There is usually an opportunity for you to do a final check of your slides in the Slide Reception room when you have arrived to the congress.

These guidelines are abstracted from previous EAAP guidelines and from information provided at the EAAP workshops on scientific writing and presentations.

Further details are given in: Malmfors, B., Garnsworthy, P. and Grossman, M. 2004. Writing and Presenting Scientific Papers. Nottingham University Press, Nottingham, UK

Detailed guidelines for the preparation of scientific posters for EAAP meetings

The ABC of a poster is to be Attractive and Audience adapted, and also Brief and Clear in conveying the message. You need to make delegates interested to look at your poster, to read it, and to easily find the most important points or “take-home” messages.

Posters with too much information, too much colour and too much design have weak messages. A simple graph (in colour), a table or a photograph will attract and aid understanding, but too many will confuse.

Making the poster

• The poster board is 950 mm wide by 1500 mm long and will therefore easily fit the standard A0 size (841 mm wide by 1189 mm long). Make sure to make your poster in portrait and not in landscape orientation.
• Your poster can be made as a single-sheet poster created fully on a computer (e.g. in Power Point) and printed on a poster printer, usually on paper. If the paper is covered with plastic laminate a matt surface is preferable.
• The poster can alternatively be produced as a multi-part poster, where individual elements (text sheets, figures, photos, etc) are mounted on a unifying background paper or card and split into four or maximum six segments for easy transport. The final mounting is done at the conference site where the segments are joined with wide tape on the back. Save some sheets/illustrations to mount finally to hide parts of the joints.
• The poster content is often presented in sections under headings such as Objectives, Introduction, Methods, Results and Conclusions, but you might also use more informal headings, e.g. short statements or questions. The content can be arranged in columns or rows, or in some other structure, e.g. circular.
• Each section of the poster should contain just a few important messages, written in a few words. Bullet points are easier to read and to understand than long paragraphs of text. Remember that the most important messages of the poster, e.g. the conclusions, should be placed where you think the audience will notice them best. They might also be highlighted.
• The poster title should be placed at the top of the poster, and be the same title as in the meeting program. The title should be followed by the author names and addresses. A small photo of the poster presenter near the name(s) might help the audience know who to approach for questions and discussion.
• Text size must be large so that the poster can be read from a distance. The title should be 2.5 cm high, text about 1 cm high.
• Photocopy enlargements should be avoided as they produce poor quality
• Tables and figures should be easy to read and to understand. A written take-home message next to the table or figure might help.
• Illustrations such as photographs are useful to enhance a poster, but remember that there should be a balance between text and illustrations.
• Logos (maximum two per poster) should be discrete – this is a scientific meeting (10 cm x 10 cm maximum).
• Colours can be useful to highlight, separate, or associate information, and to “harmonise” the poster. Using too many colours might distract or give an uncoordinated effect.
• No references in the poster.

Remember

Most people passing your poster are not interested in details – those who are will read your paper. Think of how much of other people’s posters you read! It is therefore advisable to have a handout of your paper or copy of your poster to distribute.

These guidelines are abstracted from information provided at the EAAP workshops on scientific writing and presentations.

Further details are given in: Malmfors, B., Garnsworthy, P. and Grossman, M. 2004. Writing and Presenting Scientific Papers. Nottingham University Press, Nottingham, UK