A poster session at NACADA National Conferences is a forum for presenters from around the world to highlight their programs and to share their successful ideas with colleagues by presenting a research study, a practical problem-solving effort, or an innovative program on their campus which significantly impacted student success and persistence. Poster presentations provide other conference participants an opportunity to quickly and easily become acquainted with your topic. An effective poster presentation highlights, with a visual display, the main points or components of your topic. During your poster session, you will have the opportunity to share your ideas with literally hundreds of conference participants!

Advantages of a Poster Session

• There is more opportunity for discussion with interested viewers.
• More persons can view a poster than could ever attend your concurrent session or round table. A concurrent session or round table can only be heard ONCE; a poster session can be discussed several times with many participants over the course of an hour.
• The informal opportunity for networking and exchanging innovative ideas, and for useful feedback and discussion, can be greater with a poster presentation than with a formal concurrent session or round table.
• Posters can be prepared ahead of time, so the presenter can relax and focus on other things while attending the conference and not be worried about that "formal presentation."

The poster session will be on Friday, October 3, 2003, in the Lone Star Ballroom beginning at 12:15 p.m., ending at 1:45 p.m.

During the poster session time, presenters are expected to remain at their individual displays to be available for questions and informal discussion of the poster content. Approximately 20 poster presentations are scheduled.

Poster session presenters may come 30minutes early to set up their presentation and eat lunch before the ballroom opens to all other conference participants.

General Hints for Poster Presentations

1. NACADA will provide each presenter with a 10ft. cloth-covered table plus a standing floor easel on which to display your material, and a tabletop sign with your presentation's title, presenters' names and institutions. You may bring a folding tabletop easel or other type of portable table top display to hold your material.
2. Foam core poster board will be provided, at no cost, if you would like to put your materials on the poster board in Dallas; saving you the trouble of traveling with the large board. Please contact K. Leigh Hamm at klhamm@htc.edu if you would like NACADA to provide the board. K. Leigh will set up a time for the presenters to pick up the poster boards on Thursday.
3. The poster you put on the standing easel should be the focal point of your presentation, with any other supporting material displayed on the table. If you plan to have handouts, please bring a minimum of 150 copies. Or bring an adequate number of business cards to give to participants who would like to contact you for copies or additional information when they return to their respective campuses.
4. The poster on your standing easel can be most effective for your presentation and most valuable for the conference participants if:
   • all lettering on the poster is legible and large enough to be read from 5-10 feet away.
   • the poster clearly and concisely states the theme of your presentation, such as a statement of your topic or problem, major findings, conclusions or strategies to be discussed, or any other pertinent information. The sequence of information on the poster should be logical and clear in order for a participant who just walks by and reads your poster to have a clear idea of your presentation and the major facets of it.
   • you use lists, phrases, bullets, charts, drawings, or photographs on your poster instead of full text blocks. This is will be more appealing to the eye for participants and full-text material can be included on the table for participants to read or review or take with them.
   • you use color on your poster for eye appeal.
5. Reminder: equipment using electrical support or other audio-visual equipment MAY NOT BE USED in a poster session.
6. You must bring any supplies you may need (tape, felt-tipped markers, tacks, etc.) as we will be unable to provide supplies to the presenters during the conference.