Got a talking point for VB2024?... Why not turn it into a poster?

Poster sessions are a great way to engage with your peers, share ideas, get feedback, build connections and learn, all in an informal setting.

Source: Scientifica

What's a poster session?

In a poster session presenters stand next to posters that outline their topic in brief. Delegates can browse the posters and stop to talk to the presenters when they have questions or want more information – each presenter being ready to elaborate on their poster with a brief (less than 5 minutes) explanation.

What's in it for the presenters?

For presenters, a poster presentation is a great way to communicate your research or concept in a very concise format, and a great way to build connections. A poster presentation includes two elements: a poster and a very brief (less than 5 minutes) verbal explanation of the poster topic.

These are opportunities for you to talk to a small audience (maybe even one person at a time) about (almost!) anything you like – the poster is just a conversation opener and can be anything relevant in the context of the conference that you think fellow delegates would find interesting.

A poster presentation is ideal if:

You’re new to presenting and want a taster without having to face an entire roomful of people.
You have stage fright but really want to talk to your peers about your project.
You have an open-source project for which you're seeking like-minded contributors.
You have some research you want to share but it’s not far enough along for a whole presentation.
You have a simple tool or idea you want to share.
You have a gnarly engineering issue or specific question and want to brainstorm the crowd.

What's in it for the delegates?

For delegates, poster sessions are a great way to find out about new projects, topics, research, and meet with researchers in a quick and efficient way – building new contacts along the way.

Tell me more about being a presenter

It's really quick and simple:

You design a poster (A0 format, we will provide some tips and guidelines as to how to design the content and layout), we print the poster and put it up for you.
You hang around next to your poster and engage in conversation with people.

You should have ready both an elevator pitch (just a couple of sentences) to describe what the poster is about and a very brief presentation of the main ideas (think 3-4 minutes). The idea is that you can convey your ideas in a condensed form and repeat it as different folk come along – those who are interested will ask for details and you can go deeper if time permits or else exchange contact details and discuss more in depth at your leisure.

The poster should both act as a support for your presentation and be able to stand alone and convey the relevant information even if you aren't there (or are busy talking to someone else).

What will the set-up be?

You provide us with a PDF, we print it as an A0 poster and hang it in the poster presentation area.

The setup is informal, so no microphones, no stage, no other equipment provided.

How long will I have to "present"?

The posters will be displayed in the conference lobby (the area in which tea and coffee will be served) from the start of the conference day. We will set aside a dedicated hour at the end of the day (after the last presentation of the day) which will be advertised on the programme as time intended for delegates to visit the posters. To maximise interactions, presenters might also want to check in with their poster during the conference breaks.

I’m interested, what do I need to do?

To submit a proposal for a poster session you will need to send us:

A title for your poster
A brief outline (e.g. 6 bullet points) of what you will be talking about

Note: to present a poster session you must be registered for VB2024.

Please email [email protected] with your proposals.

If selected, you will need to send us the poster itself no later than 20 September.

VB Conference