Poster Guidelines
SIGIR 2006 POSTER and DEMO Session Details
Poster site details
Posters will be allocated a poster board to display your poster. The dimensions of the board are Height 3'11.75" X Width 7'10". That should be big enough for any reasonable poster! Push pins will be provided. There is no need to bring a hard-back poster; an ordinary roll-up one will be easier to hang.
Demos will each have one table, two chairs, two power outlets (US 3-wire standard -- bring converters if you need them!), and an Ethernet line with DHCP. Wireless networking is also available; instructions for using the wireless network will be provided to all conference attendees. Don't count on much bandwidth from the wireless network, though! Demo presenters will also be able to hang a poster on a poster board located behind their demo table.
All posters have an assigned number, and most posters will be in numerical order. All demos will be together against one wall, again in numerical order.
When to be there
The poster session will be held at an evening reception on Monday, August 7 from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Location
East Ballroom HUB (Husky Union Building) University of Washington
Set up
Monday, August 7 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Tear down
Monday, August 7 9:00 p.m. 10:00 p.m.
Who to contact with questions
A student assistant will be available in the poster room. They should be easily identifiable by the SIGIR t-shirt that they all wear. For more complex issues, contact Dave Hendry (email dhendry@u.washington.edu).
Poster printing
If you would like to get your poster printed locally in order to avoid lugging it halfway around the world with you, the least expensive option is:
University of Washington Posters Service T-271 Health Sciences Center
http://www.uwposters.com
hscs@u.washington.edu (Deadline: 4 PM Pacific Time on August 2; see additional information below)
For shorter turnaround jobs, the nearest Kinkos location is about a 20 minute walk from the conference site: Kinko's Copy Center 810 NE 45th Street, at Interstate 5 and NE 45th
(206) 545-7218
Email: usa5134@fedexkinkos.com
Additional copying services are available, all about a 15 minute walk from the conference site:
Professional Copy n Print 4200 University Way NE, Seattle 98105 (206) 634-2689 http://qcnp.com/
RAMS COPY CENTER 4144 University Way NE Seattle, Washington 98105 (206) 632-6630 http://www.ramscopy.com/
Some tips on creating a great poster session
1. Emphasize graphics over text. The idea of a poster session is to talk, so you'll get to use plenty of words! When you're talking, you can refer to the graphics on the poster that help to tell the story. If you write a lot of words you your poster, it is quite likely that you will be the only one who will ever read them!
2. Include a simple message that can be seen at a distance. You want the right people to come see your poster, and the key to making that happening is good advertising. This might be a catchy title in a large font, a graphical flow that tells the basics of your story at a glance, or a bit of each.
3. Print the poster as a single large sheet, not as a set of ordinary-sized pages. This will give you much better control over layout, which should make it possible to tell your story more clearly. If you stick to black and white, printing large sheets can be fairly inexpensive these days. And you can avoid lugging a large poster on the plane with you by sending it to the Kinkos near the conference and having it printed there.
4. Posters are about the discussion that happens around them, so its important that someone be there throught the session to talk with people about your work. You'll probably want to recruit a backup presenter so that you'll have a chance to walk around and see some other posters while your backup stands in for you. If nobody else from your group will be there, you might still walk around a bit without losing (much of) your audience if you ask one of your neighbors to come get you if someone stops by. Or at the very least leave a note saying when you'll be back.
5. Consider bringing something you can hand to people that you particularly want to remain in touch with. Perhaps a few copies of papers you have written on similar subjects. Or a stack of business cards. Anything with your email address on it should do.
6. Before the session starts, walk around and note the location of any posters on topics that are related to yours. Then when people visit your poster, you can offer referrals to other posters that they might also be interested in seeing. If everyone does this, it should help generate more of the right kind of traffic -- people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say.
7. Have fun!
University of Washington Posters Service: Additional Information
University of Washington Posters Service T-271 Health Sciences Center
http://www.uwposters.com
hscs@u.washington.edu
We'll be very happy to have the SIGIR 2006 Conference attendees use our poster printing services.
PowerPoint files usually work well. We recommend reading the pdf tutorial called "How to Make a Poster Using PowerPoint" on our website: http://depts.washington.edu/hsasf/posters/designhelp.html
We are open 8-5 M-F. Poster orders should be submitted NO LATER THAN 4pm on Wednesday 8/2. We encourage earlier submissions. Please be aware that no file is guaranteed to work, and there will be no opportunity to check proofs if they cannot come in to our shop on Thursday!
The easiest way to order posters from a distance is to use the file upload system on our website: http://depts.washington.edu/hsasf/posters/order.html
NOTE: All fields need to be filled in (do not check "revised file" when you submit your order)
Please put "SIGIR 06" in the DEPARTMENT field; NA in the MAIL STOP field; Visa or MC okay, local checks okay, NO CASH; check box LARGE-FORMAT PRINTING; Proofs take 1/2 day to produce and need to be checked in person and corrected by Thursday mid-day, so most people will probably NOT be able to have a proof; Paper type: choose one of the standard paper types - see recommendations on website;
The price will be 15.6% above the prices on the website for any CC or check (non UW-budget) payment.
Let me know if there are other questions I can answer.
Kari Berger (206)543-9275 Client Services & Poster Production T-271 Health Sciences Center
www.uwposters.com
hscs@u.washington.edu