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How to Design a Winning Poster Presentation: Quick Guide with Examples & Templates

How are research posters like High School science fair projects? Quite similar, in fact.

Both are visual representations of a research project shared with peers, colleagues and academic faculty. But there’s a big difference: it’s all in professionalism and attention to detail. You can be sure that the students that thrived in science fairs are now creating fantastic research posters, but what is that extra element most people miss when designing a poster presentation?

This guide will teach tips and tricks for creating poster presentations for conferences, symposia, and more. Learn in-depth poster structure and design techniques to help create academic posters that have a lasting impact.

Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

• What is a Research Poster?

Why are Poster Presentations important?

Overall dimensions and orientation, separation into columns and sections, scientific, academic, or something else, a handout with supplemental and contact information, cohesiveness, design and readability, storytelling.

• Font Characteristics
• Color Pairing
• Data Visualization Dimensions
• Alignment, Margins, and White Space

Scientific/Academic Conference Poster Presentation

Digital research poster presentations, slidemodel poster presentation templates, how to make a research poster presentation step-by-step, considerations for printing poster presentations, how to present a research poster presentation, final words, what is a research poster .

Research posters are visual overviews of the most relevant information extracted from a research paper or analysis.   They are essential communication formats for sharing findings with peers and interested people in the field. Research posters can also effectively present material for other areas besides the sciences and STEM—for example, business and law.

You’ll be creating research posters regularly as an academic researcher, scientist, or grad student. You’ll have to present them at numerous functions and events. For example:

• Conference presentations
• Informational events
• Community centers

The research poster presentation is a comprehensive way to share data, information, and research results. Before the pandemic, the majority of research events were in person. During lockdown and beyond, virtual conferences and summits became the norm. Many researchers now create poster presentations that work in printed and digital formats.

Let’s look at why it’s crucial to spend time creating poster presentations for your research projects, research, analysis, and study papers.

Research posters represent you and your sponsor’s research 

Research papers and accompanying poster presentations are potent tools for representation and communication in your field of study. Well-performing poster presentations help scientists, researchers, and analysts grow their careers through grants and sponsorships.

When presenting a poster presentation for a sponsored research project, you’re representing the company that sponsored you. Your professionalism, demeanor, and capacity for creating impactful poster presentations call attention to other interested sponsors, spreading your impact in the field.

Research posters demonstrate expertise and growth

Presenting research posters at conferences, summits, and graduate grading events shows your expertise and knowledge in your field of study. The way your poster presentation looks and delivers, plus your performance while presenting the work, is judged by your viewers regardless of whether it’s an officially judged panel.

Recurring visitors to research conferences and symposia will see you and your poster presentations evolve. Improve your impact by creating a great poster presentation every time by paying attention to detail in the poster design and in your oral presentation. Practice your public speaking skills alongside the design techniques for even more impact.

Poster presentations create and maintain collaborations

Every time you participate in a research poster conference, you create meaningful connections with people in your field, industry or community. Not only do research posters showcase information about current data in different areas, but they also bring people together with similar interests. Countless collaboration projects between different research teams started after discussing poster details during coffee breaks.

An effective research poster template deepens your peer’s understanding of a topic by highlighting research, data, and conclusions. This information can help other researchers and analysts with their work. As a research poster presenter, you’re given the opportunity for both teaching and learning while sharing ideas with peers and colleagues.

Anatomy of a Winning Poster Presentation

Do you want your research poster to perform well?  Following the standard layout and adding a few personal touches will help attendees know how to read your poster and get the most out of your information. 

The overall size of your research poster ultimately depends on the dimensions of the provided space at the conference or research poster gallery. The poster orientation can be horizontal or vertical, with horizontal being the most common.  In general, research posters measure 48 x 36 inches or are an A0 paper size.

A virtual poster can be the same proportions as the printed research poster, but you have more leeway regarding the dimensions. Virtual research posters should fit on a screen with no need to scroll, with 1080p resolution as a standard these days. A horizontal presentation size is ideal for that.

A research poster presentation has a standard layout of 2–5 columns with 2–3 sections each. Typical structures say to separate the content into four sections; 1. A horizontal header 2. Introduction column, 3. Research/Work/Data column, and 4. Conclusion column. Each unit includes topics that relate to your poster’s objective.  Here’s a generalized outline for a poster presentation:

• Condensed Abstract 
• Objectives/Purpose
• Methodology
• Recommendations
• Implications
• Acknowledgments
• Contact Information 

The overview content you include in the units depends on your poster presentations’ theme, topic, industry, or field of research. A scientific or academic poster will include sections like hypothesis, methodology, and materials. A marketing analysis poster will include performance metrics and competitor analysis results.

There’s no way a poster can hold all the information included in your research paper or analysis report. The poster is an overview that invites the audience to want to find out more. That’s where supplement material comes in. Create a printed PDF handout or card with a QR code (created using a QR code generator ). Send the audience to the best online location for reading or downloading the complete paper.

What Makes a Poster Presentation Good and Effective? 

For your poster presentation to be effective and well-received, it needs to cover all the bases and be inviting to find out more. Stick to the standard layout suggestions and give it a unique look and feel. We’ve put together some of the most critical research poster-creation tips in the list below. Your poster presentation will perform as long as you check all the boxes.

The information you choose to include in the sections of your poster presentation needs to be cohesive. Train your editing eye and do a few revisions before presenting. The best way to look at it is to think of The Big Picture. Don’t get stuck on the details; your attendees won’t always know the background behind your research topic or why it’s important.

Be cohesive in how you word the titles, the length of the sections, the highlighting of the most important data, and how your oral presentation complements the printed—or virtual—poster.

The most important characteristic of your poster presentation is its readability and clarity. You need a poster presentation with a balanced design that’s easy to read at a distance of 1.5 meters or 4 feet. The font size and spacing must be clear and neat. All the content must suggest a visual flow for the viewer to follow.

That said, you don’t need to be a designer to add something special to your poster presentation. Once you have the standard—and recognized—columns and sections, add your special touch. These can be anything from colorful boxes for the section titles to an interesting but subtle background, images that catch the eye, and charts that inspire a more extended look. 

Storytelling is a presenting technique involving writing techniques to make information flow. Firstly, storytelling helps give your poster presentation a great introduction and an impactful conclusion. 

Think of storytelling as the invitation to listen or read more, as the glue that connects sections, making them flow from one to another. Storytelling is using stories in the oral presentation, for example, what your lab partner said when you discovered something interesting. If it makes your audience smile and nod, you’ve hit the mark. Storytelling is like giving a research presentation a dose of your personality, and it can help turning your data into opening stories .

Design Tips For Creating an Effective Research Poster Presentation

The section above briefly mentioned how important design is to your poster presentation’s effectiveness. We’ll look deeper into what you need to know when designing a poster presentation.

1. Font Characteristics

The typeface and size you choose are of great importance. Not only does the text need to be readable from two meters away, but it also needs to look and sit well on the poster. Stay away from calligraphic script typefaces, novelty typefaces, or typefaces with uniquely shaped letters.

Stick to the classics like a sans serif Helvetica, Lato, Open Sans, or Verdana. Avoid serif typefaces as they can be difficult to read from far away. Here are some standard text sizes to have on hand.

• Title: 85 pt
• Authors: 65 pt
• Headings: 36 pt
• Body Text: 24 pt
• Captions: 18 pt

If you feel too prone to use serif typefaces, work with a font pairing tool that helps you find a suitable solution – and intend those serif fonts for heading sections only. As a rule, never use more than 3 different typefaces in your design. To make it more dynamic, you can work with the same font using light, bold, and italic weights to put emphasis on the required areas.

2. Color Pairing

Using colors in your poster presentation design is a great way to grab the viewer’s attention. A color’s purpose is to help the viewer follow the data flow in your presentation, not distract. Don’t let the color take more importance than the information on your poster.

Choose one main color for the title and headlines and a similar color for the data visualizations. If you want to use more than one color, don’t create too much contrast between them. Try different tonalities of the same color and keep things balanced visually. Your color palette should have at most one main color and two accent colors.

Black text over a white background is standard practice for printed poster presentations, but for virtual presentations, try a very light gray instead of white and a very dark gray instead of black. Additionally, use variations of light color backgrounds and dark color text. Make sure it’s easy to read from two meters away or on a screen, depending on the context. We recommend ditching full white or full black tone usage as it hurts eyesight in the long term due to its intense contrast difference with the light ambiance.

3. Data Visualization Dimensions

Just like the text, your charts, graphs, and data visualizations must be easy to read and understand. Generally, if a person is interested in your research and has already read some of the text from two meters away, they’ll come closer to look at the charts and graphs. 

Fit data visualizations inside columns or let them span over two columns. Remove any unnecessary borders, lines, or labels to make them easier to read at a glance. Use a flat design without shadows or 3D characteristics. The text in legends and captions should stay within the chart size and not overflow into the margins. Use a unified text size of 18px for all your data visualizations.

4. Alignment, Margins, and White Space

Finally, the last design tip for creating an impressive and memorable poster presentation is to be mindful of the layout’s alignment, margins, and white space. Create text boxes to help keep everything aligned. They allow you to resize, adapt, and align the content along a margin or grid.

Take advantage of the white space created by borders and margins between sections. Don’t crowd them with a busy background or unattractive color.

Calculate margins considering a print format. It is a good practice in case the poster presentation ends up becoming in physical format, as you won’t need to downscale your entire design (affecting text readability in the process) to preserve information.

There are different tools that you can use to make a poster presentation. Presenters who are familiar with Microsoft Office prefer to use PowerPoint. You can learn how to make a poster in PowerPoint here.

Poster Presentation Examples

Before you start creating a poster presentation, look at some examples of real research posters. Get inspired and get creative.

Research poster presentations printed and mounted on a board look like the one in the image below. The presenter stands to the side, ready to share the information with visitors as they walk up to the panels.

With more and more conferences staying virtual or hybrid, the digital poster presentation is here to stay. Take a look at examples from a poster session at the OHSU School of Medicine .

Use SlideModel templates to help you create a winning poster presentation with PowerPoint and Google Slides. These poster PPT templates will get you off on the right foot. Mix and match tables and data visualizations from other poster slide templates to create your ideal layout according to the standard guidelines.

If you need a quick method to create a presentation deck to talk about your research poster at conferences, check out our Slides AI presentation maker. A tool in which you add the topic, curate the outline, select a design, and let AI do the work for you.

1. One-pager Scientific Poster Template for PowerPoint

A PowerPoint template tailored to make your poster presentations an easy-to-craft process. Meet our One-Pager Scientific Poster Slide Template, entirely editable to your preferences and with ample room to accommodate graphs, data charts, and much more.

Use This Template

2. Eisenhower Matrix Slides Template for PowerPoint

An Eisenhower Matrix is a powerful tool to represent priorities, classifying work according to urgency and importance. Presenters can use this 2×2 matrix in poster presentations to expose the effort required for the research process, as it also helps to communicate strategy planning.

3. OSMG Framework PowerPoint Template

Finally, we recommend presenters check our OSMG Framework PowerPoint template, as it is an ideal tool for representing a business plan: its goals, strategies, and measures for success. Expose complex processes in a simplified manner by adding this template to your poster presentation.

Remember these three words when making your research poster presentation: develop, design, and present. These are the three main actions toward a successful poster presentation. 

The section below will take you on a step-by-step journey to create your next poster presentation.

Step 1: Define the purpose and audience of your poster presentation

Before making a poster presentation design, you’ll need to plan first. Here are some questions to answer at this point:

• Are they in your field? 
• Do they know about your research topic? 
• What can they get from your research?
• Will you print it?
• Is it for a virtual conference?

Step 2: Make an outline

With a clear purpose and strategy, it’s time to collect the most important information from your research paper, analysis, or documentation. Make a content dump and then select the most interesting information. Use the content to draft an outline.

Outlines help formulate the overall structure better than going straight into designing the poster. Mimic the standard poster structure in your outline using section headlines as separators. Go further and separate the content into the columns they’ll be placed in.

Step 3: Write the content

Write or rewrite the content for the sections in your poster presentation. Use the text in your research paper as a base, but summarize it to be more succinct in what you share. 

Don’t forget to write a catchy title that presents the problem and your findings in a clear way. Likewise, craft the headlines for the sections in a similar tone as the title, creating consistency in the message. Include subtle transitions between sections to help follow the flow of information in order.

Avoid copying/pasting entire sections of the research paper on which the poster is based. Opt for the storytelling approach, so the delivered message results are interesting for your audience. 

Step 4: Put it all together visually

This entire guide on how to design a research poster presentation is the perfect resource to help you with this step. Follow all the tips and guidelines and have an unforgettable poster presentation.

Moving on, here’s how to design a research poster presentation with PowerPoint Templates . Open a new project and size it to the standard 48 x 36 inches. Using the outline, map out the sections on the empty canvas. Add a text box for each title, headline, and body text. Piece by piece, add the content into their corresponding text box.

Transform the text information visually, make bullet points, and place the content in tables and timelines. Make your text visual to avoid chunky text blocks that no one will have time to read. Make sure all text sizes are coherent for all headings, body texts, image captions, etc. Double-check for spacing and text box formatting.

Next, add or create data visualizations, images, or diagrams. Align everything into columns and sections, making sure there’s no overflow. Add captions and legends to the visualizations, and check the color contrast with colleagues and friends. Ask for feedback and progress to the last step.

Step 5: Last touches

Time to check the final touches on your poster presentation design. Here’s a checklist to help finalize your research poster before sending it to printers or the virtual summit rep.

• Check the resolution of all visual elements in your poster design. Zoom to 100 or 200% to see if the images pixelate. Avoid this problem by using vector design elements and high-resolution images.
• Ensure that charts and graphs are easy to read and don’t look crowded.
• Analyze the visual hierarchy. Is there a visual flow through the title, introduction, data, and conclusion?
• Take a step back and check if it’s legible from a distance. Is there enough white space for the content to breathe?
• Does the design look inviting and interesting?

An often neglected topic arises when we need to print our designs for any exhibition purpose. Since A0 is a hard-to-manage format for most printers, these poster presentations result in heftier charges for the user. Instead, you can opt to work your design in two A1 sheets, which also becomes more manageable for transportation. Create seamless borders for the section on which the poster sheets should meet, or work with a white background.

Paper weight options should be over 200 gsm to avoid unwanted damage during the printing process due to heavy ink usage. If possible, laminate your print or stick it to photographic paper – this shall protect your work from spills.

Finally, always run a test print. Gray tints may not be printed as clearly as you see them on screen (this is due to the RGB to CMYK conversion process). Other differences can be appreciated when working with ink jet plotters vs. laser printers. Give yourself enough room to maneuver last-minute design changes.

Presenting a research poster is a big step in the poster presentation cycle. Your poster presentation might or might not be judged by faculty or peers. But knowing what judges look for will help you prepare for the design and oral presentation, regardless of whether you receive a grade for your work or if it’s business related. Likewise, the same principles apply when presenting at an in-person or virtual summit.

The opening statement

Part of presenting a research poster is welcoming the viewer to your small personal area in the sea of poster presentations. You’ll need an opening statement to pitch your research poster and get the viewers’ attention.

Draft a 2 to 3-sentence pitch that covers the most important points:

• What the research is
• Why was it conducted
• What the results say

From that opening statement, you’re ready to continue with the oral presentation for the benefit of your attendees.

The oral presentation

During the oral presentation, share the information on the poster while conversing with the interested public. Practice many times before the event. Structure the oral presentation as conversation points, and use the poster’s visual flow as support. Make eye contact with your audience as you speak, but don’t make them uncomfortable.

Pro Tip: In a conference or summit, if people show up to your poster area after you’ve started presenting it to another group, finish and then address the new visitors.

QA Sessions 

When you’ve finished the oral presentation, offer the audience a chance to ask questions. You can tell them before starting the presentation that you’ll be holding a QA session at the end. Doing so will prevent interruptions as you’re speaking.

If presenting to one or two people, be flexible and answer questions as you review all the sections on your poster.

Supplemental Material

If your audience is interested in learning more, you can offer another content type, further imprinting the information in their minds. Some ideas include; printed copies of your research paper, links to a website, a digital experience of your poster, a thesis PDF, or data spreadsheets.

Your audience will want to contact you for further conversations; include contact details in your supplemental material. If you don’t offer anything else, at least have business cards.

Even though conferences have changed, the research poster’s importance hasn’t diminished. Now, instead of simply creating a printed poster presentation, you can also make it for digital platforms. The final output will depend on the conference and its requirements.

This guide covered all the essential information you need to know for creating impactful poster presentations, from design, structure and layout tips to oral presentation techniques to engage your audience better . 

Before your next poster session, bookmark and review this guide to help you design a winning poster presentation every time. 

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Creating a Poster

What exactly is a poster presentation.

A poster presentation combines text and graphics to present your project in a way that is visually interesting and accessible. It allows you to display your work to a large group of other scholars and to talk to and receive feedback from interested viewers.

Poster sessions have been very common in the sciences for some time, and they have recently become more popular as forums for the presentation of research in other disciplines like the social sciences, service learning, the humanities, and the arts.

Poster presentation formats differ from discipline to discipline, but in every case, a poster should clearly articulate what you did, how you did it, why you did it, and what it contributes to your field and the larger field of human knowledge.

What goals should I keep in mind as I construct my poster?

• Clarity of content. You will need to decide on a small number of key points that you want your viewers to take away from your presentation, and you will need to articulate those ideas clearly and concisely.
• Visual interest and accessibility. You want viewers to notice and take interest in your poster so that they will pause to learn more about your project, and you will need the poster’s design to present your research in a way that is easy for those viewers to make sense of it.

Who will be viewing my poster?

The answer to this question depends upon the context in which you will be presenting your poster. If you are presenting at a conference in your field, your audience will likely contain mostly people who will be familiar with the basic concepts you’re working with, field-specific terminology, and the main debates facing your field and informing your research. This type of audience will probably most interested in clear, specific accounts of the what and the how of your project.

If you are presenting in a setting where some audience members may not be as familiar with your area of study, you will need to explain more about the specific debates that are current in your field and to define any technical terms you use. This audience will be less interested in the specific details and more interested in the what and why of your project—that is, your broader motivations for the project and its impact on their own lives.

How do I narrow my project and choose what to put on my poster?

Probably less than you would like! One of the biggest pitfalls of poster presentations is filling your poster with so much text that it overwhelms your viewers and makes it difficult for them to tell which points are the most important. Viewers should be able to skim the poster from several feet away and easily make out the most significant points.

The point of a poster is not to list every detail of your project. Rather, it should explain the value of your research project. To do this effectively, you will need to determine your take-home message. What is the single most important thing you want your audience to understand, believe, accept, or do after they see your poster?

Once you have an idea about what that take-home message is, support it by adding some details about what you did as part of your research, how you did it, why you did it, and what it contributes to your field and the larger field of human knowledge.

What kind of information should I include about what I did?

This is the raw material of your research: your research questions, a succinct statement of your project’s main argument (what you are trying to prove), and the evidence that supports that argument. In the sciences, the what of a project is often divided into its hypothesis and its data or results. In other disciplines, the what is made up of a claim or thesis statement and the evidence used to back it up.

Remember that your viewers won’t be able to process too much detailed evidence; it’s your job to narrow down this evidence so that you’re providing the big picture. Choose a few key pieces of evidence that most clearly illustrate your take-home message. Often a chart, graph, table, photo, or other figure can help you distill this information and communicate it quickly and easily.

What kind of information should I include about how I did it?

Include information about the process you followed as you conducted your project. Viewers will not have time to wade through too many technical details, so only your general approach is needed. Interested viewers can ask you for details.

What kind of information should I include about why I did it?

Give your audience an idea about your motivation for this project. What real-world problems or questions prompted you to undertake this project? What field-specific issues or debates influenced your thinking? What information is essential for your audience to be able to understand your project and its significance? In some disciplines, this information appears in the background or rationale section of a paper.

What kind of information should I include about its contribution ?

Help your audience to see what your project means for you and for them. How do your findings impact scholars in your field and members of the broader intellectual community? In the sciences, this information appears in the discussion section of a paper.

How will the wording of my ideas on my poster be different from my research paper?

In general, you will need to simplify your wording. Long, complex sentences are difficult for viewers to absorb and may cause them to move on to the next poster. Poster verbiage must be concise, precise, and straightforward. And it must avoid jargon. Here is an example:

Wording in a paper: This project sought to establish the ideal specifications for clinically useful wheelchair pressure mapping systems, and to use these specifications to influence the design of an innovative wheelchair pressure mapping system.

Wording on a poster:

Aims of study

• Define the ideal wheelchair pressure mapping system
• Design a new system to meet these specifications

Once I have decided what to include, how do I actually design my poster?

The effectiveness of your poster depends on how quickly and easily your audience can read and interpret it, so it’s best to make your poster visually striking. You only have a few seconds to grab attention as people wander past your poster; make the most of those seconds!

How are posters usually laid out?

In general, people expect information to flow left-to-right and top-to-bottom. Viewers are best able to absorb information from a poster with several columns that progress from left to right.

Even within these columns, however, there are certain places where viewers’ eyes naturally fall first and where they expect to find information.

Imagine your poster with an upside-down triangle centered from the top to the bottom. It is in this general area that people tend to look first and is often used for the title, results, and conclusions. Secondary and supporting information tend to fall to the sides, with the lower right having the more minor information such as acknowledgements (including funding), and personal contact information.

• Main Focus Area Location of research fundamentals: Title, Authors, Institution, Abstract, Results, Conclusion
• Secondary Emphasis Location of important info: Intro, Results or Findings, Summary
• Supporting Area Location of supporting info: Methods, Discussion
• Final Info Area Location of supplemental info: References, Acknowledgments

How much space should I devote to each section?

This will depend on the specifics of your project. In general, remember that how much space you devote to each idea suggests how important that section is. Make sure that you allot the most space to your most important points.

How much white space should I leave on my poster?

White space is helpful to your viewers; it delineates different sections, leads the eye from one point to the next, and keeps the poster from being visually overwhelming. In general, leave 10—30% of your poster as white space.

Should I use graphics?

Absolutely! Visual aids are one of the most effective ways to make your poster visually striking, and they are often a great way to communicate complex information straightforwardly and succinctly. If your project deals with lots of empirical data, your best bet will be a chart, graph, or table summarizing that data and illustrating how that data confirms your hypothesis.

If you don’t have empirical data, you may be able to incorporate photographs, illustrations, annotations, or other items that will pique your viewers’ interest, communicate your motivation, demonstrate why your project is particularly interesting or unique.

Don’t incorporate visual aids just for the sake of having a pretty picture on your poster. The visual aids should contribute to your overall message and convey some piece of information that your viewers wouldn’t otherwise get just from reading your poster’s text.

How can I make my poster easy to read?

There are a number of tricks you can use to aid readability and emphasize crucial ideas. In general:

• Use a large font. Don’t make the text smaller in order to fit more onto the poster. Make sure that 95% of the text on your poster can be read from 4 feet away. If viewers can’t make out the text from a distance, they’re likely to walk away.
• Choose a sans-serif font like Helvetica or Verdana, not a serif font, like Times New Roman. Sans-serif fonts are easier to read because they don’t have extraneous hooks on every letter. Here is an example of a sans-serif and a serif font:
• Once you have chosen a font, be consistent in its usage. Use just one font.
• Don’t single-space your text. Use 1.5- or double-spacing to make the text easier to read.

For main points:

• Use bold, italicized, or colored fonts, or enclose text in boxes. Save this kind of emphasis for only a few key words, phrases, or sentences. Too much emphasized text makes it harder, not easier, to locate important points.
• AVOID USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, WHICH CAN BE HARD TO READ.
• Make your main points easy to find by setting them off with bullets or numbers.

What is my role as the presenter of my poster?

When you are standing in front of your poster, you—and what you choose to say—are as important as the actual poster. Be ready to talk about your project, answer viewers’ questions, provide additional details about your project, and so on.

How should I prepare for my presentation?

Once your poster is finished, you should re-familiarize yourself with the larger project you’re presenting. Remind yourself about those details you ended up having to leave out of the poster, so that you will be able to bring them up in discussions with viewers. Then, practice, practice, practice!

Show your poster to advisors, professors, friends, and classmates before the day of the symposium to get a feel for how viewers might respond. Prepare a four- to five-minute overview of the project, where you walk these pre-viewers through the poster, drawing their attention to the most critical points and filling in interesting details as needed. Make note of the kinds of questions these pre-viewers have, and be ready to answer those questions. You might even consider making a supplemental handout that provides additional information or answers predictable questions.

How long should I let audience members look at the poster before engaging them in discussion?

Don’t feel as if you have to start talking to viewers the minute they stop in front of your poster. Give them a few moments to read and process the information. Once viewers have had time to acquaint themselves with your project, offer to guide them through the poster. Say something like “Hello. Thanks for stopping to view my poster. Would you like a guided tour of my project?” This kind of greeting often works better than simply asking “Do you have any questions?” because after only a few moments, viewers might not have had time to come up with questions, even though they are interested in hearing more about your project.

Should I read from my poster?

No! Make sure you are familiar enough with your poster that you can talk about it without looking at it. Use the poster as a visual aid, pointing to it when you need to draw viewers’ attention to a chart, photograph, or particularly interesting point.

Sample Posters

Click on the links below to open a PDF of each sample poster.

“Quantitative Analysis of Artifacts in Volumetric DSA: The Relative Contributions of Beam Hardening and Scatter to Vessel Dropout Behind Highly Attenuating Structures”  James R. Hermus, Timothy P. Szczykutowicz, Charles M. Strother, and Charles Mistretta

Departments of Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering, and Radiology: University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Self-Care Interventions for the Management of Mouth Sores in Hematology Patients Receiving Chemotherapy” Stephanie L. Dinse and Catherine Cherwin

School of Nursing: University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Enhancing the Fluorescence of Wisconsin Infrared Phytofluor: Wi-Phy for Potential Use in Infrared Imaging”  Jerad J. Simmons and Katrina T. Forest

Department of Bacteriology: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Academic and Professional Writing

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Analysis Papers

Reading Poetry

A Short Guide to Close Reading for Literary Analysis

Using Literary Quotations

Play Reviews

Writing a Rhetorical Précis to Analyze Nonfiction Texts

Incorporating Interview Data

Grant Proposals

Planning and Writing a Grant Proposal: The Basics

Additional Resources for Grants and Proposal Writing

Job Materials and Application Essays

Writing Personal Statements for Ph.D. Programs

• Before you begin: useful tips for writing your essay
• Guided brainstorming exercises
• Get more help with your essay
• Frequently Asked Questions

Resume Writing Tips

CV Writing Tips

Cover Letters

Business Letters

Proposals and Dissertations

Resources for Proposal Writers

Resources for Dissertators

Research Papers

Planning and Writing Research Papers

Quoting and Paraphrasing

Writing Annotated Bibliographies

Creating Poster Presentations

Writing an Abstract for Your Research Paper

Thank-You Notes

Advice for Students Writing Thank-You Notes to Donors

Reading for a Review

Critical Reviews

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Poster Presentations

Poster presentations may not seem as prestigious as oral presentations, but they are a great opportunity to interact with other scientists in your field in a reasonably structured way. Just like oral presentations, they force you to crystallize your thoughts about your research and, in this way, focus on its essence. After the conference, you can usually hang your poster in the hallway of your laboratory. Thus, you promote your work to passersby and have a support at hand if you must unexpectedly present your research to visitors.

Being accepted for a poster session at a conference means you must first create the poster itself, then prepare to interact with visitors during the session. At some conferences, you may also have a chance to promote your poster through an extremely brief oral presentation.

Creating your poster

Typically, the scientists who attend a poster session are wandering through a room full of posters, full of people, and full of noise. Unless they have decided in advance which posters or presenters to seek out, they will stop at whatever catches their eyes or ears, listening in on explanations given to other people and perhaps asking an occasional question of their own. They may not be able to see each poster clearly — for example, they may be viewing it from a meter's distance, from a sharp angle of incidence, or over someone else's shoulder. In such situations, they will not want to read much text on the poster — not any more than attendees at a presentation will want to read much text on a slide.

Accordingly, you should design your poster more like a set of slides than like a paper, using all the recommendations given for slides earlier in this series (see Creating Presentation Slides ). Strive to get your messages across in a stand-alone way: State each message as a short sentence, then illustrate it as visually as possible. In fact, one simple way to prepare a poster is to create a set of slides, print them full-size on A4 or US-letter-size paper, and pin the sheets next to one another like a comic strip.

Scientists often feel obliged to include a large amount of factual information on their posters: their affiliation (with postal address, e-mail address, telephone number, etc.), bibliographical references, funding sources, and the like. Although visitors may well want to take all or part of this information home, few of them actually want to read it on a poster, let alone write it on a notepad while standing in front of a poster. Such information is therefore best placed in a one-page handout that is available at the poster's location — perhaps with a reduced version of the poster on the other side. If these details are included on the poster itself, they should be out of the way, such as in the top-right corner or at the very bottom, so they do not interrupt the logical flow of content on the poster.

Presenting your poster

Promoting your poster.

Even without a formal opportunity to promote your poster, and especially when your poster session is later in the conference, you may have many informal moments to introduce your work through chance encounters during coffee breaks or social events. Instead of giving people business cards, you might prepare and distribute small, bookmark-like handouts with your name, affiliation, e-mail, and an invitation to come and see your poster.

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How to: Poster Presentations: What is a research poster?

What is a research poster?

• Parts of a Research Poster
• Template and Examples
• Talking About Your Poster

A research poster is a summary of your research.

It is typically built with

• with some blocks of text
• combined with graphs, tables & images

It draws an audience in to ask questions and engage with your work and your findings.

A research poster is often an ACTUAL poster .

Sometimes, it is digital and appears on a screen...like a single-slide PowerPoint.

The researcher (that’s you!) is often nearby to present the content on your poster and answer questions from attendees.

Honors College Research Poster Workshop

February 28, 2024

• Video Recording of Workshop
• Research Poster Workshop Slide Deck
• Next: Parts of a Research Poster >>
• Last Updated: Feb 29, 2024 9:57 AM
• URL: https://research.library.gsu.edu/posterpresentations

How to Make a Good Poster Presentation

• First Online: 02 February 2019

Cite this chapter

• Baris Kocaoglu 8 ,
• Paulo Henrique Araujo 9 &
• Carola Francisca van Eck 10  

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Poster presentations are a key component of any scientific conference. They are an excellent platform for a researcher to present their study to a large audience. Therefore, it is important to prepare the presentation in a way that catches the eye of the people attending the meeting while presenting the key data in an easy to interpret format. This will encourage the audience to engage in an academic discussion, which is vital for the researcher to obtain feedback on their study. This chapter aims to help orthopedic researchers in preparation and presentation of a scientific poster. After reading this chapter, the reader should know the various different types of poster presentation, be familiar with the technical aspect of how to make their own poster, and understand what to do at the scientific meeting to get the most out of presenting their research in poster format.

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Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Acibadem University Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey

Baris Kocaoglu

Santa Luzia Hospital, Clínica COB, Brasília, Brazil

Paulo Henrique Araujo

Department of Orthopedic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Rooney Sports Complex, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Carola Francisca van Eck

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Correspondence to Carola Francisca van Eck .

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Volker Musahl

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Kocaoglu, B., Araujo, P.H., van Eck, C.F. (2019). How to Make a Good Poster Presentation. In: Musahl, V., et al. Basic Methods Handbook for Clinical Orthopaedic Research. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-58254-1_23

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How to Create a Research Poster

• Poster Basics
• Design Tips
• Logos & Images

What is a Research Poster?

Posters are widely used in the academic community, and most conferences include poster presentations in their program.  Research posters summarize information or research concisely and attractively to help publicize it and generate discussion. 

The poster is usually a mixture of a brief text mixed with tables, graphs, pictures, and other presentation formats. At a conference, the researcher stands by the poster display while other participants can come and view the presentation and interact with the author.

What Makes a Good Poster?

• Important information should be readable from about 10 feet away
• Title is short and draws interest
• Word count of about 300 to 800 words
• Text is clear and to the point
• Use of bullets, numbering, and headlines make it easy to read
• Effective use of graphics, color and fonts
• Consistent and clean layout
• Includes acknowledgments, your name and institutional affiliation

A Sample of a Well Designed Poster

View this poster example in a web browser .  

Image credit: Poster Session Tips by [email protected], via Penn State

Where do I begin?

Answer these three questions:.

• What is the most important/interesting/astounding finding from my research project?
• How can I visually share my research with conference attendees? Should I use charts, graphs, photos, images?
• What kind of information can I convey during my talk that will complement my poster?

What software can I use to make a poster?

A popular, easy-to-use option. It is part of Microsoft Office package and is available on the library computers in rooms LC337 and LC336. ( Advice for creating a poster with PowerPoint ).

Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign

Feature-rich professional software that is good for posters including lots of high-resolution images, but they are more complex and expensive.  NYU Faculty, Staff, and Students can access and download the Adobe Creative Suite .

Open Source Alternatives 

• OpenOffice is the free alternative to MS Office (Impress is its PowerPoint alternative).
• Inkscape and Gimp are alternatives to Adobe products.
• For charts and diagrams try Gliffy or Lovely Charts .
• A complete list of free graphics software .

A Sample of a Poorly Designed Poster

View this bad poster example in a browser.

Image Credit: Critique by Better Posters

• Next: Design Tips >>
• Last Updated: Jul 11, 2023 5:09 PM
• URL: https://guides.nyu.edu/posters

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Poster Presentation

Characteristics of a poster presentation.

• Poster presenters should dress professionally and understand all parts of their poster.
• Most poster presentations take place in a large room with dozens to hundreds of individual poster presentations occurring simultaneously.  
• A typical presentation lasts 5-15 minutes.
• Typical audience size for an individual poster presentation will be 1-5 people.
• It is acceptable for the audience to ask questions during a presentation.
• The presenter should use the poster’s figures and tables to communicate with the audience.

Excellent Presentations are Simple

The presenter is the scientist or engineer who conducted the research.   The presenter is an expert in that particular field and should be confident (but not arrogant) when presenting the research to their audience.   The presenter should understand everything that is in their poster (e.g., issue, topic, figures, tables, references).   The presenter should relax, speak clearly, start with the introduction, move through the methods, results and end with the discussion section.   The presenter should engage in conservation with the audience and answer their questions during the poster presentation.   The presenter should not read word-for-word from a script, but rather they should follow a general progression through their poster ( Fig. 17 ) that allows for active and organic discussion between them and the audience.    

Figure 17. Poster Presentation

Tips for Giving a Poster Presentation

• Practice your presentation several times before the poster event. Dress professionally. Your audience will be focused on your poster for 5-15 minutes so you do not have much time to capture their attention and tell your story.   Engaging figures, maps, and graphs will help capture their attention.  
• Focus most of your presentation on your figures and tables. Your audience will focus on figures, graphs, tables, and maps.   They rarely read the poster text.   If they read any text at all, it will likely be the abstract and figure captions so a presenter really should focus on figures and tables when they prepare for their poster presentation.  
• Speak clearly and know your topic.   Remember you are the expert, so you need to understand all parts of your poster.  
• Presenters should start their presentation ( Fig. 17 ) by introducing themself and moving onto the Title and Introduction sections.   Describe the issue and use figures to help explain the story.   Use maps to show the study area, use photographs of the organism or pollutant or issue, use graphs and tables to show patterns (e.g., population increased over past 5 years) and focus on important points.   Flow from one figure to the next, ending with the Discussion and Conclusion sections.   The presenter should point to the poster when they are talking about a specific figure, and use words and their hands to help explain each part of the poster.
• Allow your audience to participate, allow them to ask questions throughout your presentation ( Fig. 18 ).   Always be respectful of your audience.   Always try to answer their questions.   If you do not know the answer, the best thing to say is “I do not know the answer, but I can point to another study here in my references section where other scientists are working on this very question.” Engage your audience and show them where to find additional work (e.g., journal articles, names of scientists) about the topic.  
• Avoid using words like “stuff” and “things” and other general phrases like “this work was great”.   Give specific details because this demonstrates to the audience that you understand your topic.   Use the vocabulary words that you learned and explain these to the audience.   For example, rather than saying “This work was great for orangutans,” you could say, “This work was great because it was the first time that we observed orangutan feeding behavior in the wild and it allowed us to determine that female orangutans need 5,500 calories per day during their breeding season. Those females that obtained 5,500 calories per day were twice as likely to give birth.”
• Be prepared for a lively and dynamic event ( Fig. 19 ).   Poster events typically consist of dozens or hundreds of individual poster presentations occurring simultaneously in the same room.   These events are typically very loud and energetic.   Food and beverages are typically provided at the event.  
• Be flexible.   The audience will walk around to view as many posters as possible, stopping occasionally to view a poster and talk to a poster presenter about their research.   Some people may talk with the presenter for a few seconds, others may spend 15-20 minutes talking with a poster presenter.   Presenter-audience interactions will be rather informal and dynamic.  
• Read or download the poster guide and map prior to attending the poster event.   A poster program guide and poster map will typically be published ahead of the event so that the audience knows where to find each poster and the presenter knows where to set up their poster.  
• Wear comfortable shoes.   Posters are typically displayed on an easel and the presenter stands by their poster during the entire event, which can several hours.

Figure 18. Two-Way Communication is Key to a Successful Poster Event

All scientific posters follow a similar organization in terms of parts (i.e., Abstract, Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, Discussion, References) and layout (i.e., title and name at the top, 3-4 columns for content).   However, each scientific poster can be unique in terms of its font, color scheme, types of figures (e.g., chart, diagram, graph, map, photograph) and use of tables.   It is entirely up to the scientists to decide how they want to design their poster to best communicate their research with the audience.   Gallery 1 shows eight different scientific posters that were presented at a scientific conference.   As you look through Gallery 1 you can see that the posters are all similar in the way that they are organized but that each poster is unique in they way it is designed (e.g., color scheme, number and placement of figures, use of fonts).   While each is different, they all succeed in their goal of visually communicating the importance of their scientific research to an audience ( Gallery 1) .    

Figure 19. Poster Event

Gallery 1. Examples of Completed Scientific Posters

Scientific Posters: A Learner's Guide Copyright © 2020 by Ella Weaver; Kylienne A. Shaul; Henry Griffy; and Brian H. Lower is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Poster Presentations - Designing Effective Posters

Poster presentations - designing effective posters: home.

The poster presentation is a dynamic communication tool evolving over the past four decades, as a means to accommodate the increasing number of researchers, especially graduate students, seeking a means for scholarly presentations of their research. Since then the poster session at many conferences is a major component of meetings of professional associations and societies in many disciplines used to highlight research results and discuss their significance in an informal and interactive setting. Often posters have their own special location and times for presentation; have their abstracts and presenter contact information list in program booklets or proceedings. Recently, dynamic links to the poster itself are provided for full-poster online viewing. The poster presentation is a highly-used communication tool for students (undergraduate and graduate) to display and discuss their research experiences in class and laboratory settings. This guide provides a variety of resources assisting individuals or teams in designing an effective poster and presenting it in a professional, informal, and rewarding setting, whether it is an upper-division undergraduate class or at a local, national or international meeting of a professional association or society. [email protected]

Designing Effective Posters

A. introduction, b. background readings.

• C. Design Tips

E. General Remarks

Disclaimer & Permissions

If you are involved in planning a poster session for a conference, symposium, or meeting, consider posting this site to your own program’s Web site to assist those considering submitting a poster. So, please feel free to create a link from your own pages to this site and suggest this site to others,  especially  those planning or organizing a poster session.

Fred Stoss University at Buffalo Libraries

" It takes intelligence, even brilliance, to condense and focus information into a clear, simple presentation that will be read and remembered. Ignorance and arrogance are shown in a crowded, complicated, hard-to-read poster ."   Mary Helen Briscoe

Colin Purrington provides a remarkable guide, " Designing Conference Posters ." This is the single-best resource for helpful hints in designing effective poster presentations.

The rate at which scientific and technical information grows continues to increase. National and international conferences provide a mechanism to facilitate the rapid communication of scientific ideas in the form of poster presentations. The poster presentation is NOT the pasting of a scholarly article on poster board or foam-core and standing by to defend the results reproduced in miniature on the "poster." However, it is far too often that one attends a conference poster session and finds this format to dominate the method of poster presentations. The poster presentation should represent a “...well-designed, eye-catching, and engaging... display of research or scientific information.” The poster should convey the results of research activities as to promote the scientific achievements of the poster's presenter. There is, unfortunately, a lack of presentation standards or authors' and presenters' lack of adhering to such standards, even when loosely defined. This guide provides an inventory of print and Internet resources that provide guidance and instruction for the presentation of scientific and technical information in the form of a poster presentation. This guide includes information resources in the forms of journal articles, books, book chapters, and Internet sites that focus on the planning, design, construction, and presentation of a scientific poster. If you find a resource you feel would be useful to include on this site, please send your comments to  Fred Stoss .

The origins of this site come from an in-class lecture for a general physiology course taught at the University at Buffalo,  Using Posters in Case Studies: The Scientific Poster as a Teaching Tool.  This case study prepared by Charles R. Fourtner, Mary Bisson and Christopher A. Loretz from the Department of Biological Sciences, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, describes the rationale and mechanics of introducing undergraduate biology majors to actively engage in a project to conduct bona fide library research and to then "express themselves in their own discipline." These researchers/educators "adapted the scientific poster as a mode of learning and instruction for our departmental majors" through a General Physiology course. The specific goals of this teaching strategy are to instruct the students:

• in researching the primary literature and topical reviews on a specified subject
• in the evaluation of the methodologies, technologies, and experiments serving as the basis of the research they have read
• in determining the pertinent data and analyses leading to the conclusions reached by experts in the field
• in concise and logical preparation of data for presentation in a poster format
• in the oral defense of the material they have presented on their posters
• in the importance of group discussions and interactions as they develop their formal presentation

Some resources on the shelves (locations in UB Libraries indicated):

• Block, S.M. Do's and Don'ts of Poster Presentation. Biophysical Journal. 1996. 71 (6): 3527-3529. (Online)
• Briscoe, M.H. Preparing Scientific Illustrations: A Guide to Better Posters, Presentations, and Publications, (2nd ed.). New York: Springer; 1996. Posters; p 131-149. (SEL REF Q222.B75 1996)
• Brown, B. S. Poster Design--Six Points to Ponder. Biochemical Education.1997. July; 25 (3): 136-137. (Online)
• Davis, M. Scientific Papers and Presentations. San Diego, Academic Press: 1997. Poster presentations; p 174-185. (SEL T11 D324 1997)
• Davis, M. Scientific papers and presentations (Rev. ed.).
• Burlington, MA: Academic Press: 2005. Poster presentations; p 181-204. (SEL T11 D324 2005)
• Day, R.A. How to Write & Publish a Scientific Paper (4th ed.). Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press; 1994. How to prepare a poster; p 148-151. (SEL T11.D33 1994)
• Gosling, P.J. Scientist's Guide to Poster Presentations. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press; 1999. 139 pp. (SEL REF Q179.94 G67 1999)
• Hailman, J.P. & Strier, K.B. Planning, Proposing and Presenting Science effectively: A Guide for Graduate students and Researchers in the Behavioral Sciences and Biology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 1997. How to present research: posters at scientific meetings, p 112-115. (SEL QH315.H25 1997)
• Hartman, K.J. Designing Effective Poster Presentations. Fisheries. 1996 . 21 (7): 22. (SEL Per SH1 .F815). New York :Guilford Press
• Kline, Rex B. “Poster Presentation,” Becoming a Behavioral Science Researcher :A Guide to Producing Research that Matters. New York :Guilford Press. (LML BF76.5.K54 2009)
• Knisely, K. A Student Handbook for Writing in Biology (3rd ed.). Gordonsville, VA: W.H. Freeman: 2009. “Poster presentations,” p. 137-146. (SEL QH 304. K59 2009).
• Koning, R.E. Standards for Effective Presentations. In: Salisbury, FB, editor. Units, symbols, and terminology for plant physiology: a reference for presentation of research results in the plant sciences. New York: Oxford University Press; 1996. p 188-201. (SEL REF QK710.5 U55 1996)
• Pechenik, J.A. A Short Guide to Writing about Biology, 3rd ed. New York: Longman; 1997. Writing a poster presentation; p 258-265. (SEL QH304.P43 1997)
• Salisbury, F.B. editor. Units, Symbols, and Terminology for Plant Physiology: A Reference for Presentation of Research Results in the Plant Sciences. New York: Oxford University Press; 1996. Some suggestions about scientific writing; p 163-187. (SEL REF QK710.5 U55 1996)
• Schowen, K.B. Communicating in Other Formats: Posters, Letters to the Editor, and Press Releases -- Tips for Effective Poster Presentations. In: Dodd, JS, editor. The ACS style guide: a manual for authors and editors, (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Chemical Society; 1997. p 27-47. (SEL REF QD8.5.A25 1997)
• Scientifically Speaking: Tips for Preparing and Delivering Scientific Talks and Using Visual Aids. 2005. The Oceanography Society. tos.org/pdfs/sci_speaking.pdf Silyn-Roberts, H. Writing for science and engineering: Papers, presentations and reports. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann; 2000. A conference poster; p 151-166. (SEL T11 .S529 2000)

C. Designing Tips

• University at Buffalo PPT Poster Template . This is the site from which University at Buffalo faculty, students and staff may download a template for a 44" x 36" Research or Informational Poster.
• BIO 801, Scientific Literature and Writing: Poster Presentations . A good guide with very useful illustrations show poster elements and designs.
• Creating Effective Poster Presentations: An Effective Poster
• The Scientists Guide to Poster Design by Katie Everson .This is a new site with many useful tips about posters and poster design. Look for additions in the future.
• How to Make a Great Poster . Design suggestions regarding layout, formatting, and color selection are shared on this American Society of Plant Biologists education site.
• Introduction: Poster Sessions . This university writing guide is a great place to start when faced with a poster assignment. Straight-forward instructions and guidance along with examples and additional resources steer tenderfeet and veterans in effective design.
• Scientifically Speaking . This is a site for effective presentation skills from a sci-tech perspective. It includes a section on designing posters and provides an example of a “good poster” and a “bad poster.”
• Google Images . Google Image search can help locate appropriate graphic images or photographs or other illustrations for your poster presentations. Just enter the topic, concept, or object for which you are seeking an image and review the results. An advanced search is also possible. BE SURE TO PROPERLY CITE THE SOURCES FROM WHICH YOU USE IMAGES & TEXT: Citing an image or copying text "with quotation mark" is not plagiarizing, but you must provide attribution for using tem.
• Preparing Professional Scientific. This poster minicourse provides a bullet list for start-to-finish poster design guidance.
• Society for Technical Communication . A tremendous resource for the science or engineering or health science student interested in pursuing career options as a technical writer, illustrator, editor, or communications specialist.
• Ten Simple Rules for a Good Poster Presentation. In: PLos Computational Biology Full-text article, Erren TC, Bourne PE (2007) Ten Simple Rules for a Good Poster Presentation. PLoS Comput Biol 3(5): e102. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030102

F. Examples

• EPA: Community Involvement Conference & Training: Posters and Exhibits, 2007. (scroll down the page)

G. Classes & Tutorials

• Impactful Scientific Posters-The Basics . The American Chemical Society has a VERY good video tutorial about designing a poster for presentation
• Designing an Academic Poster (Prezi)
• Poster Presentations: Tips, Tricks, and Planning
• Making an Academic Research Poster Using PowerPoint
• Make Poster - Design a Poster like a Pro in PowerPoint 2010 Part 1
• Make Poster - Design a Poster like a Pro in PowerPoint 2010 - Part 2

If you know of sites, especially from professional associations and societies providing examples of posters send me the URL - [email protected]

Subject Librarian

FredStoss  is the subject librarian for  Poster Presentations - Designing Effective Posters.  He provides workshops or lectures on effective poster design for 40- to 90-minute and is available for research consultations, instruction, curricular support & purchase requests. Contact [email protected] , phone: 716 645-1337.

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How to Prepare for a Poster Session

• Introduction to Poster Sessions
• Components of a Poster Presentation
• Designing Your Poster
• Printing Your Poster
• Archiving Your Poster
• Additional Resources

Components of a Poster Session

Presentation.

Prior to the poster session, you should prepare and practice a 1-2 minute "elevator pitch" or "lightning talk" about your research project. In preparing for your presentation, think about how much information can reasonably be conveyed in 1-2 minutes. Since your poster already contains a lot of information, your presentation should aim to complement and highlight the information on the poster, not repeat it. Present information that provides context for the information on your poster, while following the organizational structure of the poster. 

One simple approach is to think about a unique experience or insight that adds a human element to your research. What makes your project interesting? How did you become involved in this work to begin with? A brief anecdote may be useful, and can serve as a way to catch people's attention and get them interested in learning more about your research.

In preparing your presentation, it's important to think about your anticipated audience. Are you presenting at a conference likely to be attended by specialists in your field, or are you presenting at a multidisciplinary event that will be attended by people with different backgrounds and levels of expertise? In either case, a good rule of thumb is to minimize your use of jargon or overly technical language, and this is particularly important for events that will draw a more general audience. Try practicing your presentation for a friend who doesn't have any background in your area of research. If they find your presentation difficult to follow, this is a good indicator that you should work on simplifying your language to make the information more accessible. 

Finally, think about what sorts of questions people may have for you. If you are able to practice in front of someone, encourage them to ask you questions about your research. And don't worry if you don't know the answer to someone's question. Thank them for your question, and offer to the follow up with them later after you've had some time to think it over. 

While your presentation is arguably the most important element of a poster presentation, the poster itself is generally what catches people's attention. This portion of the guide discusses the role that your poster plays in presenting your research. For information about formatting and designing your poster, see the Designing Your Poster page . 

The role of the poster is to provide a visual outline of your research project. It should not aim to represent the project in full detail. It may be helpful to think of your poster as a highlight reel of your research project. It is important to strike a balance between including enough information so that the poster is informative, while avoiding including too much information as this can make your poster difficult for people to take in, or create information overload. Aim to strike a balance between text and visuals. The question of what types of visuals are appropriate will depend on the details of your project, but some possibilities are data visualizations (e.g. charts or graphs) or photographs. 

The best approach may be to think of your poster as a visual aid for your presentation. So in preparing your poster, consider what you can cover in your presentation, and how this might be enhanced by visual material that you can include on the poster. What might it be useful to refer to on your poster in the course of giving your presentation? Visuals are especially useful when they can convey information that is difficult to express with text alone. 

The final component of a successful poster presentation is a handout. While handouts are generally not required, they can be beneficial for a number of reasons. First, they provide you with more space with which you can convey additional information, information that may be important to convey, but not quite important enough to include on your poster. Handouts also serve as a way to help attendees remember you (so be sure to include your name and contact information!). 

In most cases you should limit your handout to a single sheet of paper which can contain information on both sides. On one side, consider including an image fo the poster. This will help attendees associate the handout with their interactions with you during the session. Color printing can be expensive, so it's alright to use a black and white image of the poster so long as it's clear and legible. You can always include a URL to a full color image of the poster online. In addition to supplementary information, you can use the handout to list URLs for your website, or any place online where people can learn more about your research. 

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• Last Updated: Feb 6, 2024 10:59 AM
• URL: https://libguides.wvu.edu/poster

Giving presentations

• Preparing your presentation
• Delivering your presentation
• Introduction

Producing your poster

Handout, flyers and feedback, presenting your poster, useful links for giving presentations.

• Presentations (online) A Study Advice guide to giving online presentations
• Study Advice Helping students to achieve study success with guides, video tutorials, seminars and one-to-one advice sessions.
• Presentation skills A Prezi on what to consider when planning and delivering a presentation from the University of East Anglia.
• Group work LibGuide Expert guidance on successful group work at university.
• Presentation skills for quivering wrecks by Bob Etherington Ebook (available to University of Reading members only). Aimed at business presenters, but good advice for all.

Poster presentations are growing in popularity as a form of university assessment, and they are also a common means of presenting at academic conferences. Preparing a poster involves careful thought about how you will communicate your research in an accessible and engaging visual form. You need to put yourself in the audience's position and consider how they will read the poster and how they will see the information. Think of yourself as a 'tour guide' when talking to people about your poster. It is often best to highlight key patterns and trends in your research rather than overwhelming your audience with detail; they can always ask questions if they want further information. The guidance on this page will help you produce and present effective posters.  

If you have a poster that you expect to present more than once, it may be worth designing it on Powerpoint, and getting it printed and laminated. (Most print shops offer this service.) However, this can be expensive. If you are only going to present the information once, it will be easier to produce the information in 'snippets' that you can cut out and arrange, either on a large backing sheet, or directly on a display board. Either way, you will need to think carefully about selecting the appropriate information, and arranging it so that the reader will be able to follow what you have done.

A poster presentation is not a whole essay or report stuck on a board. Plan your information as you would for an oral presentation – stick to the main points, succinctly made. Include an introduction which gives the background, and a summarising conclusion. Edit ruthlessly! 

When you are designing your poster, place the title prominently and make sure the boxes that contain your information are placed in a logical visual pattern for your readers to follow. Include a box with credits for all the people involved in the research the poster describes.

Keeping plenty of white space around each box will make your information easier to read. Use a clear font like Arial or Verdana, and make it big enough to be read at a distance of between 1-2 metres. Bullet points can help the reader to identify important points.

If you're more used to presenting information in writing, it may be difficult to work out how to do it visually and make it attractive and interesting, as well as accessible and readable. Ask yourself which types of visual communication you find easiest to read and are attracted to - and think about why that is. Then follow those principles for your own poster.  

For sources of copyright-cleared images, see the Library's list of image databases (link below).

If you are preparing a poster to represent the University of Reading externally, look at the guidance from the University's Design and Print Service (link below).

• Research and conference posters (Design & Print Studio, UoR) Guidance on preparing posters when representing the University of Reading.
• Image and sound resources List of free image and sound resources from the University Library.

• a small version of the poster as a flyer
• a slip or card with the poster title, your name and email address if you don't want to give away your results
• contact details in case readers want to know more

One of the reasons for giving poster presentations is to get feedback on your research, so think about ways that people might give you this.

• You might have a feedback form that you ask people to fill in on the day
• Or ask them to email you with any comments
• One of the simplest ways to collect feedback is to have sticky notes available and a feedback sheet to stick them on.

As with oral presentations, it will help to rehearse what you want to say, and think about the kind of questions people might ask and how you will respond. People are more likely to interject to ask questions individually and discuss your research with you. You can get a lot of valuable feedback from talking to people about your poster.

When presenting a poster, think of yourself like a tour guide, guiding people around the highlights of your research. It will be less structured than a formal presentation, and more like a conversation that you are leading. However, all the key advice about good presentations still applies:

• Face the audience not the poster 
• Speak slowly and clearly - don't rush
• Tailor your content to the needs and interests of your audience
• Highlight key overall trends in your research, as opposed to describing all the data in detail
• Allow time for questions
• It is fine to admit you don't know something - don't try to cover up or bluff
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• Last Updated: Sep 25, 2023 10:01 AM
• URL: https://libguides.reading.ac.uk/presentations

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Poster Design Guide

Required Poster Dimensions: 32 inches wide x 40 inches tall

Planning and managing your content.

• Examples & Tutorials

Designing Your Poster

• Title: 100-144 points
• Section Headings: 72-84 points
• Main Content: 18-24 points, double spaced
• Acknowledgements and References: 10-16 points, single spaced

External Examples & Tutorials

What is a poster presentation? 10 rules that you should follow for a good poster presentation

by Daniel Zaldumbide | Dec 19, 2018 | Poster Tips | 0 comments

In this post, we are going to talk about what is a  poster presentation  and the 10 basic rules we must follow to make a good  poster presentation.

What is a poster presentation?

A poster presentation is something that helps you advertise any project you want to. It combines text and graphics to present the project in a different way. It is visually interesting and accessible. A  poster presentation  allows you to display your work to a large group of scholars, so you can talk about it and receive feedback from all the interested viewers.

10 rules for a good poster presentation

Down below, we are going to list and talk about the  10 most important rules  we must follow to make a good poster presentation.

Rule 1: Define the Purpose of your Poster Presentation

The purpose of a poster presentation will vary depending on the work. Every project has a different status, nature or intent. Some  posters designs  are intended to be used once and again. For instance, those  posters  which make that the audience of a conference is aware of a shared resource. Other  scientific posters  will be probably used just once at a conference and then they will be relegated to a wall in a laboratory.

Before you start preparing your poster presentation, ask yourself these questions: What do you want people to do when they look at your  poster ? Engaging in a debate about its content? Learning about the topic and encourage them to go and try to do something similar by themselves? Do you want them to collaborate? All the above? None of the above? Anything else? The  poster design  and its style should be made according to your needs.

Rule 2: Sell your work in a short time

There will be hundreds or thousands of posters at some conferences so you will need to push for people’s attention. The first impression of your poster is of utmost importance. One of the approaches is to raise your work as addressing a decisive question. Then you will address that question the best you can. Once you have raised the question, which may also be the motivation for the study, the focus of your poster should be on giving an answer to your question clearly and concisely.

Rule 3: The title of your Poster Presentation is important

The title is always a nice way to sell your project. It is probably the only thing that the people at the conference see before they reach your poster . The title of your work should be an invitation for them to come and visit it. The title has the capability to raise a decisive question, define the scope of the study , or hint at a new finding.

There is something extremely important to take into account, and it is that the title should be short and comprehensible to a wide and diverse audience. Your  poster title must be like a newspaper headline—short, sharp, and compelling.

Rule 4: Poster acceptance means nothing

Do not take the acceptance of a  poster  as an endorsement of your work. Conferences need that their attendants are financially solvent. Many of the attendants who are there on grants cannot attend a conference unless they are there presenting their projects. There is a small number of speaking slots compared with the number of attendants. How can we solve the dilemma? Introducing  posters — so this way, everyone can present their projects. In other words, your  poster  has not been endorsed, just accepted. To get the endorsement from your partners, you must do good science and present it well on  a good   poster .

Rule 5: Many of the rules for writing a good poster apply to posters, too

Identify your public and provide them with the appropriate scope and depth of content . If the conference includes a non-specialist audience, you must cater them properly. Just as the abstract of a paper needs to be a succinct summary of the motivation, and the hypothesis needs to be tested, so does your poster.

Rule 6: Good poster have unique features not pertinent to papers

The amount of material presented in a paper is so much more than what is presented on a poster. A good poster requires you to synthesize the work, without losing the message or the logical flow. Posters need to be viewed from a distance, but you can take many advantages of their presence. Posters can be used to provide supplementary information or used as a distribution medium for copies of associated papers. Posters allow you to be more analytical.

Usually, only the titles or, at best, the abstracts of posters can be considered published, which means widely distributed. Probably, most of them may never be seen again. There is an opportunity to say more than what you would say in the traditional literature, which for all intents and purposes will be part of the immutable record. Take advantage of these unique features.

Rule 7: Layout and formal are critical

As a  poster maker , your canvas is a white space. You must guide the passerby’s eyes from one succinct frame to another in a logical way from the beginning to the end. Unlike the literature, which is linear by virtue of one page following another, the reader of a poster is free to wander over the pages as if they are tacked to  the poster board  in a random order.

You are the poster maker, so guide the reader with arrows, numbering, or whatever else you want that makes sense in getting them to move from one logical step to another. Try to do this guiding in an unusual and eye-catching way. Look for appropriate poster layouts in the posters of others and adopt some of their approaches. Finally, never use less than a size 24-point font, and make sure the main points can be read at eye level.

Rule 8: Content is important, but keep it concise

Everything on the poster should help convey the message . The text must conform to the norms of sound scientific reporting: clarity, the precision of expression, and economy of words. The last one is particularly important for posters because of their inherent space limitations. Use of the first-rate pictorial material to illustrate a poster can sometimes transform what would otherwise be a bewildering mass of complex data into a coherent and convincing story.

One carefully produced chart or graph often says more than hundreds of words. Use graphics for “clear portrayal of complexity”, not to impress (and possibly bewilder) viewers with complex artistry. Allow a figure to be viewed in both a superficial and a detailed way. For instance, a large table might have bolds waths of color indicating relative contributions from different categories, and the smaller text in the table would provide gritty details for those who want them.

Likewise, a graph could provide a bold trend line (with its interpretation clearly and concisely stated) and have many detailed points with error bars. Have a clear and obvious set of conclusions—after the abstract, this is where the passerby’s eyes will wander. Only then will they go to the results, followed by the methods.

Rule 9: Posters should have your personality

A poster is a different channel from a paper, which is conventionally dry and impersonal. You must think of your poster as an extension of your personality. Use it to draw the passerby, to take a closer look or to talk to you. Scientific collaboration often starts for other reasons further than the shared scientific interest , such as a personal interest. A photo of you on the  poster not only helps people to find you at the conference but also to illustrate a hobby or an interest that could help to start a conversation.

Rule 10: The impact of a poster presentation happens both during and after the poster session

All the efforts made to get a good poster could be in vain if you do not take care of every detail the day of the presentation. That is really important so that the poster can achieve the maximum impact. This requires the right interaction between the presenter and the audience .

You must work to be engaging and get a crowd. Once a viewer is engaged, the rest of the viewers will be engaged too. Don’t interrupt the visitors, let them read. You need to be ready with the second rule. Work all the audience at once, do not leave visitors waiting for your attention, and remember to make eye contact with people .

Then, make it easy for the attendants to contact you afterward. It is very important that you have copies of relevant papers on hand as well as copies of the poster on standard-sized paper . For more mature work, you must have the poster online and make the URL available as a handout. You also must have your e-mail and other demographics clearly displayed and follow up with people who come to the poster by having a signup sheet.

The visitors are more likely to remember you than the content of your poster. Make yourself easy to remember. As the host of the work presented on the poster, you should be attentive, open, curious, and self-confident , but never arrogant or aggressive.

Leave the visitors time and space — they can “travel” through your poster at their own discretion and pace. If a visitor asks a question, talk simply and openly about the work. This is probably your opportunity to get feedback on the work before it goes to publication. It is better to be tripped up in front of your  poster  than by a reviewer of the manuscript.

Good posters  and their  presentations  can improve your reputation, both within and outside your working group and institution, and they may also contribute to a certain scientific freedom.  Poster prizes  count when your partners look at your resume.

We hope that our post about the presentation of a poster has liked you and that it will help you to prepare some good presentations in the future. If you need more information, do not hesitate to contact us . We will be happy to help you at all times.

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What is a Poster Session? Definition, Guide & Examples

Published on 31 Mar 2022

What is a Poster Session?

Poster sessions are an integral (and fun!) part of academic conferences or annual meetings, and an important opportunity for researchers at all career stages to present and discuss their work with other researchers in their field.

Poster sessions typically take place in a large room where poster boards are set up and numbered and each presenter can hang a poster illustrating their methods and results. You can also have virtual poster sessions  where posters are presented using a virtual conference platform . 

Preparing a good poster takes some time and work, but it is well worth the effort in order to give your research a chance to shine!

How do poster sessions work?

During the poster session, conference attendees can wander around the poster hall to browse the posters. The presenters are expected to stay by their poster for the duration of the session so that other participants can come and listen to them talk about their work and ask them questions.

How long is the poster session?

A poster session usually lasts 1-2 hours, but can be longer or shorter depending on the size of the conference. Sometimes poster sessions are scheduled during a cocktail hour, which can actually be helpful to provide a bit of “Dutch courage” and facilitate more casual discussions.

What are the benefits of a poster session?

Presenting your research at a poster session is a great opportunity, especially for early-career researchers who are less likely to be invited to give a longer oral presentation at a big conference. These sessions are the best place to show off your impressive research results and for networking as well. You may even end up meeting a future employer and being offered your next job!

Need to organize a virtual poster session?

Guide to Your First Poster Session

1. read the guidelines.

The first step in any submission process is always to carefully read the instructions. Conferences may have different guidelines and formatting requirements, and it is very important that you follow them. If you don’t, your submission may be automatically rejected. 

Pay particular attention to word counts during the submission process, and size/formatting requirements of the poster itself (imagine showing up with a poster that doesn’t fit on the board), as well as the length of the poster session. 

For a longer poster session, you should prepare a 5 minute oral summary of your work, while for a shorter session you should probably cut that down to 1 or 2 minutes so that you don’t take up too much of anyone’s time. If someone visiting your poster is interested in hearing more, they will ask you questions.

Most conferences will require your abstract to include sections describing the methods, results, and discussion, while others may be more flexible and allow posters that describe methods that are still in development or studies that are planned for the future. Make sure that you know what is expected of you so that you have the best chance of having your abstract accepted and winning a coveted poster prize.

2. Write Your Abstract

Next, you will need to write an abstract that summarizes your work in a few hundred words. To do this you will need to choose what portion of your research project you want to present.

While it may be tempting to try to impress by explaining everything, it is unrealistic to try to present all of your work in so few words. Set yourself up for success by picking one study or experiment that tells a short, cohesive, and interesting story.

Your abstract should first describe the background and rationale behind your work, and then summarize the methodology used, the main results and conclusions, and then briefly discuss the implications and relevance of your findings.

You will also need to come up with a good title for your abstract. Remember that your abstract will be published in an abstract booklet that all attendees of the conference will use to find specific posters and presenters during the conference. Having a catchy title and a well-written abstract will help increase interest in your work and ensure that plenty of people will visit your poster during the poster session.

For most large conferences, submitted abstracts are peer-reviewed before you are invited to present your poster. Once you receive confirmation that your abstract has been accepted, then you can start preparing your poster.

Check out this article for more detailed instructions on how to write a good abstract for a conference.

3. Create Your Poster

Once your abstract has been accepted for a conference presentation, you will need to start preparing your poster design using a program such as Powerpoint, Photoshop, or Adobe Illustrator.

Your poster should be well-organized, with each section following clearly from the previous one, creating a visual path that tells a coherent story and ensuring readability. Someone who is looking at your poster should not have to jump from one side of the poster to the other in order to understand your work. Use color to group text, graphs, and images that belong together and numbers or arrows to indicate what comes next.

Like the abstract, your poster should have sections summarizing the background and rationale, methodology, results, and the implications of your work. This time, however, the story should be told mainly through figures rather than through text.

A little bit of text goes a long way on a poster - in fact, the fewer words the better. Posters with less text are more inviting and will draw more people. Don’t forget that you will be there to explain your work, so there is no reason to try to include everything in the text. You can even shorten your text by summarizing sections with bullet points and highlight the key messages.

Your poster should also include your contact information as well as the logos of the institution you work for and any organizations that funded your work. Some universities and research centers provide poster templates that use a specific color scheme and already include necessary logos. Check whether your institution has such a template and use it if they do - it will save you a lot of time!

Once you have finished creating your poster, you will need to get it printed. Again, it is very important that you read the instructions and conference guidelines very carefully and print your poster in the correct size and orientation.

Some institutions have dedicated printing facilities, but you can also visit a copy shop that has a large-format printer. If you are feeling creative, you might even choose to be a little bit different and print your poster on fabric so that you can reuse it as a unique table cloth or picnic blanket in the future. I have even seen fabric posters that use a special template that can be cut and sewn into a t-shirt! Unique posters tend to draw a lot of attention at conferences.

4. Prepare for the Session

Once you have created your poster, it’s time to prepare to present it! Poster sessions are much less formal than conference talks or lectures, so no need to stress about giving a perfectly practiced speech. Go into the poster session with the aim of having fruitful conversations with your fellow researchers.

You should be able to summarize your work in just a couple of minutes for anyone who visits your poster and then be prepared to answer any follow-up questions. Try to keep your summary short, since most attendees would like to visit several posters during the session and may be too polite to walk away if you keep them too long. You will have more interesting discussions if you allow visitors to ask you to elaborate on the parts of your research that they find most interesting.

Presenting your research can be stressful, especially the first time, but remember that no one knows your work better than yourself.

All of these tips are relevant to both in-person as well as virtual poster sessions, and you can find more detailed presenting tips here .

Poster Presentation Examples

Below you will find a few examples of posters with different formats.

This poster follows a typical scientific poster format. It has large figures, uses bullet points to minimize the amount of text, and uses a unified colour scheme. The simple layout makes it easy for the viewer to follow.

Source: UC Davis academic posters

Source: UC Davis academic posters - https://urc.ucdavis.edu/photo-galleries/uc-davis-academic-posters

This poster also follows the standard academic poster format, but it uses graphic design elements to add some flair and make it stand out from the rest. Adding color and custom graphics is a great way to draw attention to your poster without taking anything away from the quality of the work that it illustrates.

Source: Osvaldo Branquinho on Behance  

Source: Osvaldo Branquinho on Behance - https://www.behance.net/gallery/2284120/Scientific-Poster

If you are a social media user, you may have heard of the Better Poster campaign. This movement was started by a PhD candidate in Michigan in 2019 to try to transform the traditional poster into something more modern and efficient. The new format emphasizes just a few key points and adds a mobile-readable QR code that links to associated publications. While it may look strange if you are used to seeing traditional posters, this new format has become quite popular and it is now not unusual to see it at conferences. You can also watch the campaign video explaining the rationale behind this format - it’s actually quite interesting!

Source: Inside Higher Ed  

Source: Inside Higher Ed - https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/06/24/theres-movement-better-scientific-posters-are-they-really-better

These are some guidelines and ideas that will hopefully help you to create an attractive poster and have a successful poster session. While there are some general rules, poster sessions are also an opportunity to get creative (while still adhering to the conference guidelines of course) in order to draw more attention to your poster, generate interest and excitement in your research, and ensure lots of fruitful discussions!

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Presentations: posters

Effective poster presentations.

An effective poster presentation and a good oral presentation share many qualities: it's important to know your audience and their needs, be confident of your purpose, and to convey your key message with impact. Poster presentations challenge you to communicate your research in a different way to oral presentations or written assignments.

Before you start, make sure you read the marking and assessment guidelines and follow them.

Here are some key things that make an effective poster:

• Attractive visual impact to entice people to read it
• A compelling title, interesting and intriguing enough to compel your audience’s attention
• A clear message that differentiates your research poster from others
• Good use of images and diagrams – a picture paints a thousand words in a restricted space
• An obvious reading order
• Audience interaction – is there something you want your audience to do, or think about, as a result of reading your poster?

This guide will cover planning and designing your poster presentation. We will also consider how poster presentations are assessed.

10 Tips for a Persuasive Presentation

Powerful presentation is persuasion. here's how to elevate your impact..

Posted May 11, 2024 | Reviewed by Ray Parker

• Presentations aim to effect change. It's essential to be clear about what change you want to see.
• Powerful presenters embrace and extend empathy to seek first to understand their audience.
• Substance and style both matter to create an audience-informed communication experience.
• Persuasive presentations are relevant, reasoned, real, and resonant.

How many of us realize that giving a presentation or making a speech is all about persuasion , influence, and emotional intelligence ? Impactful presenters understand the power of empathy to understand and engage their audience, the efficiency and kindness of having a clear objective and message, and the importance of substance and style—all as a way to connect in a way that engages and inspires.

Much has been written on the power and behavioral science of persuasion, not least by expert Robert Cialdini. His bestselling book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion explains seven research-based universal principles of influence .

From my experience as a leadership coach working with thousands of people worldwide, I have compiled a list of ten essentials to elevate our presentation.

1. Maintain an "other" focus. What do you know about your audience and how can you find out more? Ask yourself what kind of a speaker will appeal to your audience, what arguments are likely to resonate with them, and what feelings you want to inspire so the audience will positively respond to your ask. If your audience is predominantly data-driven, you may want to use more evidence-based arguments. If the audience is mixed, a combination of data, authority, and storytelling may be more appropriate. Extend Daniel Goleman’s three types of empathy to gather intelligence , understand your audience, and tailor your intervention to connect more profoundly.

2. Determine a specific objective: Presentations aim to effect change in some way. What change do you want to see in your audience? Every presentation aims to change the audience in some way. For instance, gaining their approval for a certain investment, soliciting their buy-in for a change, or creating a sense of enthusiasm for an idea or initiative. The purpose of a presentation is to bring about change so make sure you are clear on what kind of change you want to bring about.

3. Design a grabber: Our attention spans have shrunk as we have more and more competing demands on our attention . If you want to get someone’s attention you need to grab it at the outset and try and hold on. You can do this in a number of different ways. Throw out a question that demands a response from the audience. Give a surprising fact or statistic, or quote from a well-known figure. Tell a story or an anecdote. A good grabber captures the attention of everyone there, and makes them focus on what you have to say.

4. Crystalize your message and construct your arguments : Your message is the heart of your speech. Craft a brief phrase that clearly defines your proposal in 10-12 words. For example, “This post is about crafting presentations that inspire and engage others to elevate their presentations.” Make it memorable by choosing inspiring words, symbols, catchy expressions, something that will remain in the audience's mind. As Brené Brown says: “Clear is kind,” and a clear message provides a path to develop your ideas.

When you have a clear and concise message, it helps you formulate your arguments. Think of developing your arguments using the rule of three —three compelling arguments to convince but not overwhelm your audience.

5. Prepare a call to action: Remember, we want to change our audience in some way, so we need to make our ask in a clear and concrete manner.

Consider your call to action in terms of what you want your audience to think/feel/do:

• Think—“I want you to think about how you can improve your presentations.”
• Feel—“I want you to feel enthusiastic and motivated so that you can elevate your power to persuade.”
• Do—“I want you to try out some of these tips and tools for yourself.”

6. Craft a memorable closing: Close the speech in an elegant and memorable way. We need people to remember what we've told them, so prepare it well. This is not the time to improvise. Try to connect your closing to your opening grabber, which makes the presentation more memorable. Good preparation means preparing everything to the very end—finish well.

7. Plan your delivery: A dynamic speaker draws listeners in by using vocal variety (tone, intonation, speed, volume, pace, pauses, silence) and body language (posture, gestures, expression, and movement) to highlight important points and hold the audience’s attention. Be intentional: How will you use your voice and your body to emphasize a thought or idea? Think about it: If you increased the time you spent on style or delivery by 20 percent, what would it mean for the impact you make?

8. Think about how you will engage your audience : You want the audience to feel considered throughout. Include pauses so they can process what’s being said; connect with individuals throughout the room and make deliberate eye contact while speaking, especially when delivering key points. Read and respond to the audience by changing how you deliver as you go based on the audience’s nonverbal communication .

9. Rehearse and Practice: Practice is one of the most crucial elements of presenting—and probably the most neglected one. If this is new to you start by reading your presentation in front of a mirror to get comfortable speaking your presentation. Next, video yourself and watch out for nervous or distracting habits to eliminate them and identify any areas where you can improve your delivery. If you are feeling brave, practice in front of an audience and ask for feedback.

10. Prepare your success rituals and mantra: Public speaking and/or stage fright can feel debilitating for some. Have your calm-down ritual prepared and ready to go before you start your presentation. This might be a certain gesture, a power pose, breathwork, or a mantra. Try this tip: Identify three adjectives to describe how you would like to show up during this presentation. This sets an intention and helps focus our cognitive and emotional resources on success.

Powerful presenters embrace and extend empathy to seek first to understand their audience. They use this intelligence to carefully make choices about substance and style to create an audience-informed communication experience that feels relevant, reasoned, real, and resonant and creates a pathway for change.

Palena Neale, Ph.D. , is a women’s leadership coach, lecturer, and founder of unabridged, a boutique leadership development practice.

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