Tips for a successful poster presentation

Extract

A common goal of many pharmacy residents is to present their research in a poster at a regional or national meeting. Once the poster abstract has been written and accepted for presentation at a meeting, much work is left to be done to create a successful poster presentation.

Getting started

Poster format and appearance widely vary according to the presenter’s personal taste and institutional preference. Even though the look of each poster is different, most presenters create their posters with PowerPoint (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA). Other programs that may be used to create posters include Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign (Adobe Systems, San Jose, CA); Microsoft Publisher (Microsoft Corp.); and PosterGenius (SciGen Technologies, Chicago, IL), among others. Before you begin to work on your poster, review any specific directions provided by the organization to which you are presenting to ensure that your poster meets the requirements, such as size restrictions and required sections. For an example, see the poster presenter handbook for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.¹ Ask a colleague or supervisor if your university or health system has a poster template or institutional graphic that is preferred. Using a preformatted template will save you the time and any aggravation involved with creating your own.