Instructions for presentations

Oral Presentations

The quality of the oral presentations is a prime factor in the success of the Conference. It is essential that you prepare early and well for the presentation of your paper. The requirements for good presentations are high-quality, well-organized slides, organization of the material to be presented, and sufficient practice to ensure a smooth, polished presentation. Recall nothing spoils a potentially good presentation as surely as poor slides.

Each oral presentation will be 20 minutes long. It is recommended to use 15 to 17 minutes for presentations and 3 to 5 minutes for questions, so plan your slide count to accommodate this time restraint. Limit your presentation to highlight the major themes and significant points of your paper. Lesser details usually distract the listener and are covered in your paper.

All oral presentations will use the conference's PC-based computer projection system with Microsoft PowerPoint. You are kindly requested to bring your presentation as a PowerPoint file on a CD-ROM or USB flash drive. Macintosh users: please convert your file to PC format before you leave for the conference; be aware that Mac-to-PC conversions can lead to unexpected results, especially with fonts, certain graphics, and special characters. Should you need any additional resources for your presentation, please contact the local organizers to check for availability

Please, get into the room of your session 5 to 10 minutes before its beginning and contact the session chair in order to put your files into the room's PC. Sending the presentation by e-mail to the organizers before the 15th of May could also help with this organizing issues.

Preparing the Oral Presentation

The following points should be taken into consideration when preparing your oral presentation:

  • Try to keep the content of your slides as simple as possible, e.g. bulleted lists not chunks of text.
  • Try to keep the appearance of your slides simple and as consistent as possible, e.g. by use of a recurring estyle theme'.
  • The wording should be large and as legible as possible.
  • Consideration should be given to colour blindness when choosing colours for your presentation, e.g. avoid use of red and green together on graphs.
  • The colours and background of the slides have a large impact. White letters reversed out of a black background are far more effective than black lettering on a white background. Likewise, the choice of colours should be considered, e.g. yellow lettering on blue background provides a good visual effect.
  • Simple and effective graphics will enhance the presentation. Information presented in the form of epies charts', bar charts or graphs is easier to relate to and understand than lists of information.
  • Excessive use of animations is not advised as these are distracting to the viewer and may detract from the content of the slide. If you wish to use these, please keep them as simple as possible.
  • Each slide should contain only the main points that need to be conveyed. Overcrowding of the slide with tiny text should be avoided particularly if it is only to be shown for a short space of time. These main points can be elaborated upon in the talk.
  • Where possible each slide should be restricted to one idea. A theme can always be enlarged with further slides, building from the original.
  • Handouts provided during the meeting are discouraged as distribution is both time-consuming and distracting to the audience.

For further information

Please, contact the local organizers if you have any questions regarding oral presentations. Thank you for presenting a poster, and we look forward to seeing you at AVFA'09.

Poster Presentation

Poster sessions are a valuable method for authors to present ideas and meet with interested attendees for in-depth discussions. Therefore, it is important that you display your research information clearly in order to attract people who have an interest in your work.

Location and display time

The Program Committee has scheduled one poster session. Authors must put their posters on the provided boards before the beginning of the session and to leave them there until the endo of the conference. Presenters will be provided with materials for attaching their posters to the boards.

At the beginning of the poster session, authors will be allowed 2 to 3 minutes per poster to explain the essential aspects of their work to the audience.

Preparing the Poster

We suggest authors to design their posters to be as eye-catching as possible. Remember that posters should cover the key points of your work and must be designed to attract attention, provide a brief overview of your work and initiate discussion. Poster design is a personal matter, but the basic rule to make a successful poster is to keep it simple, do not include unnecessary data and try to get your message even to the non-experts in your field.

Dimensions

The dimensions for your poster can be up to 120 cm high x 90 cm wide.

Format

Your presentation must be readable from 2 meters, so the text must be large and legible.
Titles should be capitalized with lettering at least 2 cm high.
Authors and affiliations should be in upper and lower case lettering at least 11 mm high.
Text lettering should be at least 5 mm high with a line thickness of at least 1 mm.
Do not use more than two font types as it will be quite distracting.
Remember that title and authors must be the same as stated on the submitted paper.

Content

Information should be concise, well organized and easily comprehended. Your poster should include the following sections:

  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Materials and Methods
  • Result and Discussion
  • Conclusions

Keep written text to a minimum. Remember that bullet lists and short phrases are effective.
Use figures and photographs (half a dozen or so), and make sure they are large and of really good quality.

You are encouraged to bring photocopies or other relevant material of your poster to distribute to attendees (remember to include your full contact information). Also, provide small envelopes for distributing your business cards and collecting business cards of those wanting additional information; this is a good way of inviting and encouraging interaction with your audience.

For further information

Please contact the local organizers if you have any questions regarding poster presentations. Thank you for presenting a poster, and we look forward to seeing you at AVFA2009.