Poster Presentations at Conferences - Are They Really Worth It?

By Devyn Glass, PhD candidate in Psychology at the University of Sussex

As a PhD candidate, conference attendance is a daunting rite of passage and choosing the right presentation mode can be tricky. Many opt for poster presentations as their first conference experience, but are they really worth it? Depending on the conference, you might end up with your poster stuck in a corner, usually you will be standing awkwardly in front of it, sometimes with a room empty of delegates - not the most inspiring or encouraging start to an academic career! 

At the right conference, and with some planning and effort, poster presentations can be a fruitful experience. They can be a great introduction to the conference world, help build confidence and can lead to connections or invitations to other Universities to present your work. 

Current PhD candidate Toni Brown, presenting her work at Society for the Study of Human Development conference in Portland, Oregon

Some Negative Perceptions:

• It can be awkward, and lonely!
  It is common for presenters to be standing awkwardly in front of their poster, with a few tertiary questions asked from passers by, who aren’t really interested in your work - they are just being polite! 

• They don’t have the same gravitas as a presentation.
  In some fields, full papers presented via an oral presentation are published in the conference proceedings but poster presentations are not. The importance placed on poster sessions can also vary from conference to conference. Some might be the only thing happening at that time, or they might coincide with a drinks reception, which naturally helps an increase of engagement. When conference delegates aren’t drawn with coffee and there are other symposiums occurring at the same time, attendance is likely to wane. 

• The effort that goes into making a poster can be similar to a presentation.
  For your poster to stand out, there needs to be some flair or originality. The poster itself needs to be clear, with the research paired down to its essential points. This can take some time to get right. The effort that goes into making a poster can be similar to that of a presentation, without the same gains of your findings reaching a wider audience. 

Attending a conference can be costly and posters can take time to make and require funding to print. Is it worth putting the effort into making a poster and the financial strain of the conference, for no one to take an interest in your work? Or for no one to even know that your work was there to read? The simple answer is yes - with some simple planning and strategies to help you get the most out of the experience.

The Positives and How to Achieve Them:

• You can meet other leading researchers in your field. 
  This is the big one, the end goal! However, it requires some effort to meet the right people at poster session. Large conferences can have multiple poster sessions and long conference programmes - easy for your poster title to get lost. Waiting for appropriate researchers to stumble upon your poster is not going to get you the right footfall. Instead, use it as the motivation to invite other researchers to see your poster. It can be daunting to contact a well known academic to meet at a conference, but inviting them to your poster presentation can be a easier, controlled way to network with researchers whose work is important to your own. 

• You can also meet other PhD candidates or ECRs in your field.
  Again, poster session can be an easy means of networking. Meeting others at the same level, or just above you, relieves some of the pressure to network with the big names. This can be a nice way to start while you build your confidence. Conferences can be quite a lonely experience if you don’t know anyone, but making some friends (ditching the word ‘networking' here) with others who have similar research interests and are in the same boat as you can make the whole experience much more pleasant.

• If the above two go well, you may receive invitations to other Universities.
  If you end up connecting with the right people, you may receive invitations to speak at their University, or even to apply for a Post Doc later on. You can also invite other delegates to your own University, which might spur on an exchange of University visits!

• They are a great introduction to an academic conference.
  For researchers just starting out, heading to a conference can be a daunting experience in itself, let alone if you were required to present a full paper to a large auditorium the first time you step into this world. Presenting a poster is a nice way to ease you in. You can get an eye on what to expect for when you present your full paper and you can familiarise yourself with how things work at a conference. Rather than viewing a poster presentation as a crucial means to disseminate your findings, use it as a professional development opportunity. 

• You can gain feedback on your work.
  As well as developing your industry knowledge and soft skills, poster presentations also give you the opportunity to develop your research ideas, discover potential new analyses and perspectives to your work. You can receive some safe, supportive feedback from a variety of people in related areas while your work is still in development. 

• The presentation will go on your CV.
  You can demonstrate to prospective employers that you attend similar conferences to them and that you are engaged with the wider academic research community. Anyone interested in your work can read the titles of different posters and/or oral presentations on your CV or professional website/research gate to see the progression of your work, or how you have presented different aspects of your work to different audiences. To really make this stand out on your CV, consider the titles of your posters. Think about how you can demonstrate progression of your ideas or evidence that you can consider your work from different perspectives. 

Just showing up to a conference with a poster won’t help you get the most out of the experience. Make sure you engage with the process as a whole and ensure you are prepared. Look up conference attendees, ask around to find out who might be going and invite people to your poster. To save awkward encounters, ensure you can summarise your work to researchers who are interested to different degrees (e.g. have a one sentence summary that you can extend to five, then ten, depending on how interested the recipient is). 

For those who still feel apprehensive about contacting other researchers there are means to help you get the right footfall to your poster. Try to make your poster stand out, this will make it more likely that you will grab the attention of someone on the periphery who is interested in your work. Alternatively, there are other means to get people to interact with you and your poster; allow different avenues for engagement, such as post-it notes, space to write feedback or their e-mail address. This will give you a list of other people interested in your work, and perhaps some written feedback. At subsequent conferences, you can start by contacting those on your list.