Chairperson guidelines for poster sessions

Chairing a poster session at a scientific conference is a challenging task as it implies direct questioning and dialogue on synthesised points of a scientific work. The job of the chairperson is to make the session informative, interesting and entertaining by facilitating excellent communication between the speakers and the audience. The following are guidelines for chairpersons to help make this happen.

Poster session organisation

Poster sessions are organised into two parts:

  1. 1-minute espressi talks (poster introduction)
  2. Author in attendance time at the poster board

The ideal approach for a poster session would be that the Chairperson gathers and guides the audience from poster to poster, and invites the authors to present their posters for 1–2 minutes and stimulate discussions afterwards.

However, due to the number of posters, the size of the audience, and also limited space in front of a poster board, such an approach will in most cases not be feasible.

Thus, the PSC recommends that time for short 1-minute espressi talks (introductions to poster presentations) be reserved for each session. For most sessions enough oral slots have been allocated to accommodate these during the oral session block. For the other sessions, time at the start of the poster session can be reserved, in the same room that is allocated for oral presentations (see chairperson guidelines for oral sessions).


Poster session times: The time of the poster session/author in attendance time of your specific session is published in the conference programme.

A. 1-minute espressi talks (poster introductions)

Preparation for poster presentations: Invite poster presenters to present 1–2 slides about their poster in advance.

Poster authors will together with their letter of schedule be asked to prepare 1–2 slides about their poster. However, direct invitation by the session convener(s)/chair(s) 1 or 2 weeks before the conference may be helpful (a tool to address all authors of your session is available in the online system).

You may of course prefer to introduce the posters of the session you are chairing yourself. This will involve asking all poster presenters to provide 2–3 sentences on the main message of their poster or a slide you could use. Again, the tool in the online system will help you to address all authors without having to collect all email addresses.

Otherwise many of the "rules" prepared for the chairperson guidelines for oral sessions apply accordingly for the poster introduction slot:

  • Upload of presentations: If possible, all poster presenters should also upload their slide on the laptop in the lecture room before the start of the oral session.
  • Introduce the poster presenter
  • Mention the poster board number, and where to find it (if not done by the author).
  • Ensure that the speaker is audible, i.e. check and correct the position of the microphone, especially for speakers with a low voice.
  • Communicate how much time is left to the speaker; for example stand up after 1 minute and time is over after 01:30h; the Limitimer available in the room may be used.
  • Question and answer: Do not allow questions and discussions during the poster introduction time, but invite the audience to discuss all questions and suggestions with the author in front of the poster in the poster area.

B. Author in Attendance time

Authors of posters are requested to attend to their poster during the time their poster presentation is scheduled. The chairperson should try to attend to as many posters as possible. This task could be split if more than one chairperson is nominated.

Rule 1: Prepare yourself

Prepare yourself for the session by reading the abstracts of the contributions beforehand. Thus, you will always be aware of what to expect and be in a good position to instigate a discussion with the poster presenter. Science does progress more through interactions, criticism, and questioning than just by an assembly-line type of delivering papers.

Rule 2: Get to the venue early

Get to the venue early and make sure you know in which area posters of your session are located and which are the poster board numbers that are allocated to posters of your session.

Rule 3: Find out in advance whether all poster presenters are present

You can check with the Copernicus staff at the registration desk whether they have registered, or go through the poster area and check whether the posters have already been put up at the designated poster boards.

Appendix

Annex A: How to designate a Chairperson

Normally (one of) the convenor(s) who prepared the session is also chairing (part of) the session. Should this not be possible, speakers/authors may be nominated by the appropriate convener(s) or asked by the meeting organiser to act as chairperson of a particular sub-session. In order for the meeting organiser to maintain the quality of the scientific programme, it is essential that the chairpersons are aware of the tasks and how to lead a session and discussion.

If your session is large, i.e. consists of more than 8–10 posters, then it may be advisable to nominate more than one chairperson for the poster session.