A poster session at NACADA Annual 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. 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.

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! A concurrent session 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.
• 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."

Date/Time/Room Setting of Poster Sessions

The poster session will be on Friday, October 3, 2008, beginning at 7:15 a.m., ending at 8:30 a.m. During this time, a continental breakfast is provided for all conference attendees. One breakfast line will open at 6:45 a.m. so you can enjoy breakfast before the other attendees arrive. 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 35 poster presentations are scheduled.

Poster session presenters may come 30 minutes early to the Riverside Room to set up their presentation and eat breakfast before the other conference participants.

General Hints for Poster Presentations

1. A tri-fold, foam core poster board (the black tri-fold measures 32" high, width is 40", folds being 10"X20"X10". The board is 1/8" thick) will be provided, at no cost, if you would like to put your materials on the poster board in Chicago; saving you the trouble of traveling with the large board. Please contact Joan Wishau at jwishau@depaul.edu if you would like NACADA to provide the board. Joan will set up a time and place for the presenters to pick up the poster boards on Wednesday, October 1st.
2. NACADA will provide each presenter with one 6 ft. table and a tabletop sign with your presentation's title, presenters' names and institutions. If you are not using a tri-fold poster board, you may want to bring a folding tabletop easel or other type of portable table top display to hold your material.
3. 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 additional information when they return home. An efficient alternative to carrying handouts to Chicago is to post the handouts to the conference web site so each attendee can print their own copies.
4. The poster can be most effective for your presentation and most valuable for the conference participants if:
• all lettering on the display board 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 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 . The Riverside Room is not equipped for internet access. You may choose to bring a battery powered laptop if you choose with internet pages downloaded.
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.