Who cares about the poster prize?
“Poster presentations are relevant,” I begin a workshop on the topic of the same name. This introduction is deliberately blunt to be thought-provoking. If something were not relevant, we wouldn’t have a workshop about it, right? When it comes to posters, however, this is not a trivial message: we often perceive the poster as a compulsory exercise. To be allowed to attend conferences, we usually have to contribute – the poster is considered the low-threshold version of the prestigious lecture.
"As an industrial chemist, will you present posters? Probably not. Why does industry attach such importance to it?"
I show a survey that appeared in Nachrichten aus der Chemie [Nachr. Chem. 2016, 64(11), 1097]. In it, chemists from the industry reveal what skills they want from graduates. Poster design is in third place with 46 percent; poster presentation is in fifth place with 41 percent. These are surprisingly high numbers for a compulsory exercise, one would think.
I look into the round: “As an industrial chemist, will you present posters? Probably not. Why does industry attach such importance to it?” After some thought, Olga speaks up. “Scientists are said to not get to the point. And if we try to squeeze a full paper onto a poster, we’ll spend the poster session alone.”
She’s right: a good poster provides concise information. The title shows visitors whether the poster is interesting for them, and a graphical abstract are the eye-catchers that are central to a good poster design. Add a few clearly explained images and conclusions in a prominent spot and the work is complete.
What applies to the design should also be applied to the presentation of the poster. “How do you feel when you go to a poster and are immediately overwhelmed by a long monologue about a tiny detail?” The nodding around shows me that this is a recurring phenomenon. A good presentation is a dialogue that is geared to the interests of your visitors.
These are precisely the reasons why the industry is interested in whether you can design and present posters. In the private sector, you have to communicate with a broader range of colleagues and partners than at a university. Ideally, you have a poster price showing you can communicate with your target audience without getting lost in details.
This article was first published in Nachrichten aus der Chemie (issue 11-2024). See here the German original.
If you´re interested in the tricks in the application process, you might be interested in our workshop Scientific posters: Design and pitching.