Information for Presenters
Oral Sessions
Unless otherwise noted, each speaker will be allotted a time of 20 minutes for oral presentations (17 minutes for presentation; 3 minutes for questions, discussion, and transition). Presentations must be prepared using PowerPoint or PDF formats, using a 16:9 screen ratio. One laptop with Windows PowerPoint (no Macs available), one LCD projector, and one screen is provided for all oral sessions. In addition, each room is equipped with a lectern, microphone, wireless computer mouse and slide advancer, and a speaker timer. Speakers may not use their own laptops for presentations.
The Speaker Ready Room
The Speaker Ready Room is located in Arabian Room in the Oasis Hotel, and open for program checking and speaker assistance as follows:
Sunday, 21 April: 9 a.m.–6 p.m.
Monday, 22 April: 7 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Tuesday, 23 April: 7–10 a.m.
Each speaker must bring their PowerPoint or PDF presentation on a USB compatible flash drive (a.k.a. thumb drive or memory stick) to the Speaker Ready Room for checking and uploading to their session’s folder according to the deadlines below. Failure to do so may result in presentations being omitted from session sequences.
Morning presentations must be uploaded by the end of the day prior to the presentation, and afternoon presentations must be uploaded by noon on the day of the presentation.
If you aren't able to make it to the Speaker Ready Room by the times listed above for your presentation time, please stop by at your earliest convenience when the SRR is open, and the staff there will assist you to get your talk uploaded in the correct location.
Poster Sessions
All poster sessions are in the Grand Ballroom. Authors are asked to have their posters in place by 9 a.m. and taken down at 5:30 p.m. Authors of posters should be present at their posters for 2 hours from 2:30–4:30 p.m. for the Sunday and Monday sessions, and from 9–11 a.m. for Tuesday’s sessions. Poster presenters have one poster display area that is 58” wide by 46” tall, please limit the size of your poster to fit within this space. This is smaller than the poster board size commonly provided at GSA meetings. Numbers on the poster boards correspond to the poster booth numbers listed in the Program. Clips to hang your poster will be provided. For student presenters, please discuss the fonts and layout of your poster with your mentor(s) so you can have the highest impact for your visitors.
Lightning Talks
If your acceptance notice said that your abstract is in a Lightning Talk session, that means that you have a poster presentation as well as a lightning talk. For the poster presentation, prepare your poster as you normally would, using the guidelines for poster presenters detailed above.
Your lightning talk takes place in a five-minute time slot, which includes three minutes for the talk and two minutes for Q&A and transitioning to the next talk.
You may have one slide to project in the session room during your lightning talk, this can be a PDF of your poster, or any other slide of your choosing. Please upload your slide (in PowerPoint or PDF format) in the Speaker Ready Room using the guidelines under "Speaker Ready Room" above.
Information for Session Chairs
Session chairs are required to attend a Session Chairs Orientation, being held in Coco Room, Oasis Convention Center. This will be held at 9–9:30 a.m. on Sunday, 21 April and 7–7:30 a.m. on Monday, 22 April and Tuesday, 23 April. Session chairs are requested to adhere to the schedule and to encourage the strict time limits provided to speakers.
Session chairs are asked to strictly adhere to the technical program schedule and to limit speakers to their allotted time. If a speaker does not appear for an assigned time slot, session chairs should call for a break or discussion period and begin the following presentation at its scheduled time.
Theme Sessions