By Sue Tinnish
SEAL Inc.
847.394.9857
Traditionally, medical and technical conferences have offered poster sessions. Poster sessions allow colleagues to share their expertise with large groups at conferences. You can harness the positive power of posters to create innovative meeting formats.
In a traditional conference, participants are invited to create a poster depicting their research. Poster creators share that information with others during an informal period when people walk around viewing the posters. Poster creators may also be required to give short presentations on their research every ten or fifteen minutes. Poster sessions combine text and graphics to make a visually-pleasing presentation.
Beyond medical and research conferences, poster sessions offer 14 benefits for all types of meeting and events:
1.      Participants get to pick and choose - People can wander about and stop at topics that are of interest to them. It’s self-directed learning at its best.
2.      Participants can vote with their feet - People can stop and look a poster for as little time or as much time as they like. They can engage in conversation with the creator of the poster. It’s easy to move on during a poster session without insulting the speaker.
3.      The right pace - Many presentations do not provide the audience with enough time to assimilate the statistical data or link it with other information. A poster can allow for a clearer and more reflective process of presentation, especially of statistical or visual information. In addition, the narrative of every poster, including main points and conclusions, can be highlighted and therefore absorbed at every person’s own pace as they view the poster.
4.      My question - A presentation rarely affords enough time to adequately field all questions. Audience participation is sometimes limited to question and answer periods. Usually only a few people are able to ask questions, and the presenter may not cover the concerns of the entire audience. A poster session allows for dialogue and engaging interaction.
5.      Snippets may be the best - Speakers can drone on for interminable amounts of time. What if speakers were forced to encapsulate their comments into 10 minutes? That’s in essence what poster sessions do – they force the presenter to get their main points out quickly and clearly.
6.      A different way to learn - Poster sessions promote information through visual medium not just words. Ideally poster sessions are graphically interesting and display information visually. The creator may be present to supplement the poster with conversation by answering questions from the participants.
7.      Customized learning – Poster sessions give people to the opportunity customize their agenda in a way that is most value to them.
8.      Forget the common denominator - A common problem in presentations is that speakers must provide sufficient background so the entire audience will understand the presentation. Poster sessions allow the creator to meet the participant at their level of knowledge. And as a result, they each have the opportunity to discuss the full scope of the research or results and implications.
9.      Leading-edge issues covered - What if your agenda and speakers are determined months in advance? That’s good from a planning perspective but you lose something in being able to cover the newest information. Poster sessions offer you the flexibility to program to current issues.
10.   Variety at a quick pace - Often when I am planning meetings, it seems that there is so much I would love to cover but time on the agenda just doesn’t allow. Poster sessions create the opportunity to include a wide breadth of topics without overwhelming the audience with information overload.
11.   Responsive to the group - Poster sessions afford you the opportunity to be responsive to individual needs, interests and topics.
12.   Highlight the expertise of your group Poster sessions give lots of people the opportunity to highlight their expertise and knowledge. Imagine the great new connections that can be created when people discover each other during a poster session.
13.   Poster sessions are a consideration to foreign colleagues - The poster session allows foreign colleagues another format to present. If Asian, European, African or Latin American colleagues are less comfortable with a formal presentation in English, poster sessions offer them an alternative. Likewise, for Americans participating in an international conference.
14.   Feedback loop - Posters can provide the creator with much more feedback than she or he would receive during a traditional presentation.
With these benefits in mind, you can explore a more expansive use of poster sessions:
- Posters as a source for additional resources – Supplement an existing presentation with posters. This offers people something to look at, adds color to the walls and gives people the opportunity to explore a topic in more detail if they are interested.
- Posters as a review technique – During training session, rather than lead participants through the review and repeat information that already covered, create posters that review the relevant material.  Invite participants to spend as much or as little time as they want at each visual display. This technique doesn’t force anyone to review material that they felt they knew cold.   It also allowed people to reflect and remember what they learned. Often our meeting agendas are so crammed with information, there is little time for the participants to stop and think about what they learned.
- Posters at a trade show – Rather than a traditional trade show, invited venders to prepare poster displaying their expertise in a specific area. Rather than beginning conversations about whether there is interest in doing business together, the participants will have the opportunity to learn something of value from the vendors. From that relationship, both parties can explore other avenues.
- Best Practices Showcase - Learn from peers by using a poster session to showcase best practices, great ideas, or other examples that can benefit the entire group. This type of session can be motivating to the creators of the poster and create some great suggestions for everyone.
- Virtual Poster Sessions - The fastest growing variation of the poster session is the Internet session. Creators prepare posters about their work and post them on the Web. Instead of walking around viewing others’ posters at a conference, participants of the virtual poster session view others’ posters online. Electronic forums then allow participants to ask questions of the poster authors.
Be positive on posters! Everyone benefits from poster sessions - the participants, the planners and the creators of posters.  Add a bit of innovation to a meeting through poster sessions.