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Poster Presentation Guidelines

Poster Preparation l Poster Template l On-site Presentation l Poster PDF l Three-Minute Poster Preview l Uploading Your Materials l Remote Audience Engagement

This conference will be held in a hybrid in-person/virtual format.  On-site presenters are expected to print and post their own posters.  They are also encouraged to upload the PDF of their poster and submit a short video to extend visibility to the remote audience. 

All posters are displayed in gallery view with search features by keyword, speaker, and final ID. Each poster has a dedicated page that includes the Poster PDF and/or a 3-minute poster preview, as well as an embedded chat window for interactive discussion with the remote audience. Upon navigating to a poster page, registrants will view the real-time chat discussion and can join the Slack channel to engage as desired. 

Presenters MUST either present on-site or provide either a Poster PDF or a 3-minute poster preview video in order to be published.   

Poster Preparation

Posters should be readable by viewers five feet away and should display the paper title and authors and affiliations. The message should be clear and understandable without oral explanation. The following guidelines have been prepared to help improve the effectiveness of poster communications.

Initial Sketch. Try various styles of data presentation to achieve clarity and simplicity.

Rough Layout. Enlarge your best initial sketch, keeping the dimensions in proportion to the final poster. The rough layout should be full size. Print the title and headlines. Indicate text by horizontal lines. Draw rough graphs and tables. This will give you a good idea of proportions and balance. If you are working with an artist, show the poster layout to your colleagues and ask for comments. This is still an experimental stage.

Balance. The figures and tables should cover slightly more than 50% of the poster area. If you have only a few illustrations, make them large. Do not omit the text, but keep it brief. The poster should be understandable without oral explanation.

Simplicity. Resist the temptation to overload the poster. More material may mean less communication. Prepare a 6-inch high headline strip that runs the full width of the poster. Include the title, authors and affiliations on the strip in letters not less than 1-inch high. Post a large typed copy of your abstract.

Poster Template

There is no official poster template for Optica Meetings. However, there are a number of companies that offer free templates to assist you in creating your Poster PDF. The A0 poster size formatted vertically is the most popular based on the physical dimensions of boards provided on site.

On-site Presentation

Please note that poster papers are not supplied with electricity or audiovisual equipment. Generally, an eight-foot-high x four-foot-wide approximately (244cm x 122cm) bulletin board, a sign indicating your paper number, and push-pins or adhesive tape will be provided.

Any deviations from this poster size as well as exact set-up and tear down time will appear on the main For Speakers (navigate one level up) page for your specific meeting. These details are also communicated to poster presenters with their acceptance notification. 

Poster PDF

All poster presenters (in person and remote) are encouraged to provide a one-page Poster PDF. This is the same file that would be prepared to print for posting on-site (see poster preparation and template above).

Upload the poster PDF file directly into the conference paper submission system at least one week prior to the start of the conference. While instructions were provided by email, you may also access the system directly using the same link you used to submit your paper:

Select the "Alert" pop-up box that will appear in your account.  The PDF is used to generate the thumbnails displayed in the searchable poster gallery.  

Pre-recorded Three-Minute Poster Preview Video

Poster presenters are encouraged to also provide an optional three-minute video describing their poster. The three-minute video must include a PowerPoint as accompaniment, which is limited to no more than four slides. No live presentations will be given via zoom.

If you have never used Zoom, instructions on creating an account and basic features are included in the Introduction to Zoom. In order to record your presentation, you must first download and install the Zoom client. For a virtual background and instructions on pre-recording your presentation, refer to just those two sections of the Oral Presentation Guidelines: Virtual  page.

Uploading Your Poster PDF Thumnail and Three-Minute Video

Your presentation can be uploaded by logging into the ScholarOne system using the same link that you used to submit and answer presentation preference questions.  This link will be resent to you in an email from the meeting management.  Follow the instructions below to upload your presentation.  Be sure to record your presentation one week prior to the meeting.  In order for your paper to be published, you are required to present (either in a live presentation or submitting prerecorded content).

  1. Once the recording is complete, use the submission system link to log in.  Use the username and password associated with your Optica account to sign in.   Your username is generally your email address.  If you have forgotten your password you may use the forgot password function.  *User ID and password are case-sensitive.  This means they must be entered on the login screen exactly as they appear above, using the same capitalization.
  2. Once you log in, you should have a Message Alert on your welcome screen.  Click on “Respond to Meeting invitation.” If you do not have this alert, you can access your invitations manually. On the top navigation bar, select Messages.  This should give you the option to see either emails sent to you or invitations.  Select Invitations.  If you do not see an alert box or any invitations in your Message tab, it's possible you have duplicate accounts in the system.  Please contact cstech@optica.org and ask them to check your account.  Someone should be able to merge them and get back to you shortly.
  3. Your invitation to make your presentation preference selection and upload your video should appear on your screen.  On the left-hand side of your screen under ACTION, select View or View & Respond.
  4. A message providing upload instructions will appear once you respond.  Please update your presentation preference if you have not already done so.  The box to upload your presentation will appear at the bottom of the page.  Upload your video by clicking on the “Browse” button located beside the upload box at the bottom of your screen.  When you complete recording your presentation in zoom, you will see three different files: .m4a, .m3u, and .mp4. You will only need to upload the .mp4 file as that file incorporates Audio, Camera and Content Slides (PowerPoint) all in a single file.
  5. Hit the SAVE button after you uploaded the video. Your screen will not close, but your answer will be recorded.  On the bottom right-hand side of the invitation, select Accept Invitation.  This will indicate in our system that you have completed the survey.  If you have already answered a previous invitation in the system (for example you have previously selected a presentation preference and you are now going back to upload your video), you will not see the Accept button.  This is fine and will not interfere with your upload.  Please note, you do not have to answer both questions at the same time and can log in to change your presentation preference and provide and/or to provide an upload at any point. 
  6.  If you need to update your video after the initial upload, simply log back in using the same steps and upload a new video.  If you need assistance, please contact cstech@optica.org and make sure to include your presentation ID ##final_id##. 
  7. Depending on the size of your file, the upload may take some time, so be patient.   If you need assistance in the process, or are not able to see the invitation or upload boxes, contact cstech@optica.org
Remote Audience Engagement

Poster presenters MUST be a technical registrant to access their poster through the eposter gallery and MUST join the event Slack community (from the networking tab) to access the chat channel for their posterPoster presenters MUST be a technical registrant to access their poster through the eposter gallery and join the embedded chat. Remote presenters are encouraged to be available in real-time during their indicated presentation time, while in-person presenters are encouraged to check back after the in-person session and respond to any chat asynchronously.

Poster presenters will not need a zoom link to access their poster page or engage in real-time chat discussion with attendees. If you are interested in inviting attendees to join you for a live talk and verbal discussion, you are free to set up your own virtual meeting (through Zoom, Webex, Teams, etc.) and provide a link to this in your chat window.

Image for keeping the session alive