Conference poster sessions are changing – authors are getting creative! Kubify and Conference Compass are partnering to promote and support this exciting change.
Authors are finding more engaging and exciting ways of sharing and presenting their work in conference poster sessions.
- Have you noticed what they are doing?
- Can you back, build on and benefit from these innovations?
Below we highlight 3 trends that we have observed:
1. #BetterPoster – eye-catching, meaningful design
Take a look at the #BetterPoster campaign kicked off by Mike Morrison’s viral video in 2019.
Mike perfectly captures the dissatisfaction that many poster authors feel with traditional poster sessions and proposes a new approach to poster design to help address some of the issues. Say goodbye to dense, text-heavy infographic posters and hello to #BetterPoster’s billboard-like design with eye-catching and clear messaging. Designed so that delegates can easily spot the posters that interest them and then spend the session time talking with those authors. Rethinking the poster as a networking aid, helping to bring together the right people and sparking conversations.
The incredible response to Mike’s video (over 1 million views) and the discussion it provoked, showed just how many researchers felt that the poster format needed a redesign to make it more beneficial to everyone.
Check the #BetterPoster hashtag on Twitter to see many examples of authors taking the initiative and using the #BetterPoster design at their conferences. Mike Morrison provides a range of templates that authors can download and use to create posters following the #BetterPoster design.
Ask yourself: Are your policies allowing, supporting and encouraging this very effective poster redesign?
2. Sharing richer, more interactive material within a poster
Individual authors are also getting creative with their posters – finding ways to add the interactivity and multimedia that they want, even within paper posters. This poster made by Nicola Harman is simply stunning!
Nicola manages to include a podcast, on-demand background information and a survey to gather feedback from delegates. Not just creative, but incredibly engaging. The extra background information is very valuable to researchers who would like to put Nicola’s research work into practice or develop it further.
But clearly this interactive paper poster required a lot of skill to make and the poster itself can only be seen onsite. In principle, moving to an ePoster approach could allow delegates to more easily add this type of multimedia and interactive material to their posters. But not all ePoster platforms support multimedia and interactivity – many just put the PDF of the paper poster online.
Ask yourself: Would your ePoster platform provide someone like Nicola with what she wants in terms of presenting her work? Does it support multimedia, interactivity and sharing of background information?
3. ROI – Extending the life and usefulness of a great poster
Authors have always put a lot of thought and effort into their conference posters, but have they got a good return on investment (ROI) for those efforts?
- Paper posters that are only on display for a few days or even a few hours don’t really deliver much value to authors.
- ePosters that are locked into conference platforms and not usable after or beyond the conference also have limited ROI for authors.
So authors are taking things into their own hands by adding a QR code to their paper poster that lets viewers go to an online site where they can download the poster or even better download a curated stack of resources (presentations, videos, podcast, papers, weblinks) created by the author.
This is where the partnership between Conference Compass and Kubify really makes a difference. On Kubify, poster authors can easily create this rich ePoster stack and conference attendees will be able to access it easily from within the conference app.
Authors can even download a QR code and include this on their paper poster. The conference app and QR code then give access to the rich set of materials the author has shared, as well as providing a discussion channel so people can communicate with the authors before, during and after the conference.
In the most exciting Kubify ePoster stacks, the authors include video presentations, background material, share teaching resources and even allow viewers to add related content to the stack.
Authors are using the Kubify platform independently to enrich their conference paper posters, but it can also be used by conference organisers. The conference then gets an online ePoster showcase. This includes the conference branding and powerful search options, oversight and control of all the ePosters being created.
And finally: the badging of all the ePosters with the conference logo and analytics showing the engagement with the ePosters before, during and after the conference. Each time one of these ePosters is shared then it helps to raise awareness of and promote the conference and/or association.
Ask yourself: Could using Kubify and Conference Compass give your authors greater ROI for their efforts and provide you with a new promotional channel for your event or association?
It’s exciting to see the wonderfully innovative ways in which authors are themselves improving the poster format. Contact us to discuss how our Conference Compass – Kubify partnership can make your poster sessions much more impactful.