• Choose a focus for your presentation to discuss an aspect of your research in depth. This would help to promote more focused debate and feedback from the audience. Speakers are allowed to present for 10 minutes and 10 minutes for Q&A.
• Rule of thumb: each slide takes about 1-2 minutes depending on your speaking style.
• The slides for a presentation should convey ideas, not details, use bullet points and avoid long paragraphs.
• A large font size, clear font (e.g. Arial) and warmer colours should be chosen that are easier to read for those with dyslexia or other reading/learning difficulties.
• The font size and font colour should be in contrast to the background, to help people with visual impairments. Do limit blocks of text and paragraphs, stick to bullet points and images, videos, and audio.
• PowerPoint is optional - you do not need to use PowerPoint. You can use alternatives such as Prezi; or even ditch the technology, and just speak or read. We are open to presentations in a range of formats.
• Please practice your presentation before the day.
• Please keep within the time limit. Aim to finish with a few minutes to spare.

This year, the PGR conference will include an opportunity to present a virtual poster asynchronously. See examples of a virtual poster presentations on the Demonstration Padlet. 

A comprehensive guide to creating and presenting virtual posters can be found here. 

POSTER CONTENT  

The ideal poster is designed to tell the story of your research project:  

• What question(s) did you ask, how did you strive to answer your question(s), and what did you conclude from your studies?  
• Where are you now? Is this the end of your work, or a step in a longer journey?  
• What have you learned through your research?  
• What is the key idea you would like your audience to remember about your project?  
• Consider your audience members, who may not be experts in your field, in order to invite conversation and attract attention.  

POSTER DESIGN  

• Create a title that is short and will draw interest.  
• Include your name and names of any collaborators.  
• Be concise. A word count of about 300 to 800 words is most effective.  
• Use text that is clear and to the point.  
• Use bullets, numbering, and headlines to make it easy to read.  
• Add graphs, charts, and photos with colours and fonts that are pleasing to the eye.
• Create a consistent and clean layout. Your story should “flow” logically.  
• Include acknowledgments of your advisor(s) and any external institutions. 

POSTER SPECIFICATIONS  

• Dimensions: Final poster dimensions can be up to a maximum of A0 size (33 x 46 in; 841 x 1188 mm). Although the posters will not be printed, these dimensions impact the scale of your materials. 
• File format: your final completed poster will be saved as a .pdf file  
• The poster file size may not exceed 10MB. If needed, use an online tool such as Smallpdf to compress the file.  

OPTIONAL RECORDED THREE-MINUTE VIDEO 

• No live poster presentations will be given, so we highly encourage submitting a three-minute video along with your Poster. You can then further interact with conference attendee on the Padlet by answering their asynchronous questions and responding to feedback. 
• Upload the video file to YouTube (with the visibility set to “unlisted” so that your video does not appear in search results or on your channel if you so wish). 
• For more help see: Uploading Videos to YouTube and Setting your Video as Unlisted 

POSTER SUBMISSION 

Your complete Poster Presentation will include the following:  

• .pdf file upload of your poster  
• A link to an online YouTube video of your 3 - 5-minute presentation of your poster

Note:

You must upload an abstract first to be accepted before we ask you to submit your poster for us.

• Abstracts highlight major points of your research and explain why your work is important; what your purpose is, how you are conducting your project, what you are learning, and what you think you may find. Note that the presentation could be based on your literature review, theoretical framework and/or methodology if you are still at an early stage of the process.
• Abstracts must include sufficient information for reviewers to judge the nature and significance of the topic, the adequacy of investigative strategies, the nature of results, and conclusions.
• The abstract should summarise the substantive results of the work and should not merely list topics to be discussed.
• Abstracts should be no more than 300 words (excluding references)
• If your abstract includes scientific notation, other alphabets, bold, italics, or other special characters/symbols, do make sure they appear correctly.
• List all additional co-authors, whether they are or are not presenting, if applicable.
• List additional faculty mentors, if applicable.
• Late submissions will not be considered.

There are many web resources for preparing and delivering academic presentations. The links are listed below:

1. How to give a fabulous academic presentation: five tips to follow: http://getalifephd.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/how-to-give-fabulous-academic.html
2. How to win at academic presentations: top tips on what to say and how to say it: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2015/02/20/how-to-win-at-academic-presentations/
3. Accessible presentation guide: https://www.sigaccess.org/welcome-to-sigaccess/resources/accessible-presentation-guide/
4. Capturing the abstract: what are conference abstracts and what are they for?: https://conferenceinference.wordpress.com/2020/05/04/capturing-the-abstract-what-are-conference-abstracts-and-what-are-they-for-james-burford-emily-f-henderson/