Guidelines for Speakers, Abstract Presenters and Session Chairpersons

---

Speakers Centre

The Speakers Centre is intended to support all speakers and facilitators, chairpersons, oral abstract and poster discussion presenters. It is located in HALL A near registration area. Hours of operation are as follows: 

Saturday 17 July	14:00 – 18:30
Sunday-Thursday 18-22 July	08:00 – 18:30
Friday 23 July	08:00 – 16:00

Check-in and PowerPoint presentation upload 

IMPORTANT: All invited speakers, chair persons oral abstract and poster discussion presenters must check in at the Speakers Centre at least four hours before the start of their sessions.

It is not possible to run PowerPoint presentations directly from a laptop in the session room: all PowerPoint presentations must be uploaded at the Speakers Centre prior to the session.

Bring your presentation on a USB memory stick or CD/DVD-ROM to the Speakers Centre. Make sure you also have a paper copy of the presentation with you. At the Speakers Centre a technician will help you preview your presentation to ensure that it displays well on the session room screens. Your presentation will then be uploaded to the session room network and made available in the session room at the time of your presentation.

Chairpersons are required to collect their final session schedule and important security information and instructions at the Speakers Centre.

Technical requirements for PowerPoint presentations

The AIDS 2010 computers will run MS PowerPoint. Only MS PowerPoint (*.ppt or *.pptx) presentations with video formats will be accepted.

Click here to download technical requirements and practical guidelines on how to produce efficient PowerPoint presentations. Click here to download a PowerPoint template that can be used at the conference.

Plenary and Concurrent Sessions

Guidelines for session chairpersons

Chairpersons are instructed to close any presentations that exceed their allotted times. A timer will be available in all session rooms.

Click here to download general guidelines for session chairpersons.

Oral abstract presenters

The abstract driven sessions are chaired and will consist of up to five oral presentations of ten minutes each. A five minute question and answer period will follow immediately after each presentation. Presenters and speakers are asked to respect their time limits.

Click here for general speaker guidelines

Session room equipment

Session rooms SR 1-9 and GV 1-2 will have a similar technical setup and contain the same basic equipment:

• Stage containing a lectern and a head table
• One or two large screens displaying the PowerPoint presentation
• Notebook running MS PowerPoint on the lectern with presenter mouse
• Fixed microphone at the lectern
• Wireless speaker microphone
• Laser pointer
• Countdown timer showing remaining presentation time

Oral Poster Discussions

Moderated oral poster discussions are held in dedicated AV-equipped session rooms from Monday to Thursday between 13:00 and 14:00. Presenters are required to prepare a poster and a very brief PowerPoint presentation (maximum three slides, five minutes). The discussion posters will be displayed outside the poster discussion rooms (Mini Rooms) on the first floor for the duration of the conference. Presenters are asked to mount their poster on Sunday 18 July between 15:00 and 18:00 or Monday 19 July between 08:00 and 09:00, and remove them on Thursday 22 July between 18:30 and 19:00. The poster service staff will remove posters that are not taken down in time but the conference organizers will not assume any responsibility for the material left behind.

For guidelines on poster layout and format, please see below under Poster Exhibition Guidelines.

Oral poster discussion presenters and chairpersons must check in at the Speakers Centre at least four hours prior to the start of the session.

Click here to download guidelines for oral poster discussion presenters

Click here to download guidelines for oral poster discussion chairpersons

Oral poster discussion room equipment

The oral poster discussion rooms (MR 1-10) will have an identical technical setup and contain the same basic equipment:

• A lectern and a head table
• One screen displaying the PowerPoint presentation
• Notebook running MS PowerPoint on the lectern with presenter mouse
• Fixed microphone at the lectern
• Wireless speaker microphone
• Laser pointer
• Countdown timer showing remaining presentation time

Poster Exhibition Guidelines

Abstract posters are in the poster exhibition in HALL B, on the ground level.

The posters are displayed for one day, and the authors are responsible for hanging their own posters. Posters must be mounted between 08:00 and 09:00 on the day of presentation, and removed between 18:30 and 19:00 on the same day. The poster service staff will remove posters that are not taken down in time but the conference organizers will not assume any responsibility for the material left behind.

The poster exhibition is open for poster viewing from 09:00 to 18:30. On the day of presentation, poster exhibitors are requested to stand by their posters between 12:30 and 14:30 to answer questions.

Practical poster information 

The day of presentation was indicated in the notification email and can also be identified by looking at the first two letters in your poster number: MO= Monday, TU= Tuesday, WE= Wednesday, TH=Thursday. This number will appear in the final programme and in the abstract book. You can only present your poster on the day of presentation indicated with the notification of acceptance.

The first two letters (MO/TU/WE/TH) of your poster number are not displayed on the poster board. Example: if your day of presentation is Monday and your poster number in the programme and abstract book is MOPE0001, the number displayed on the bar on top of your board will be PE0001.

Posters should be laid out in portrait style. The poster board surface is 97 cm (38 inches) wide and 230 cm (90 inches) high - make sure the poster fits into this surface. For legibility, a recommendation is to make the poster not more than 160 cm high (60 inches). The poster number will be displayed on the poster board bar on top of each poster board. Double-sided tape to mount your poster will be prepared for you at your poster board.

Click here to download the poster template (for oral poster discussions and poster exhibition). *Template instructions courtesy of Dr. Colin Purrington - Swarthmore College - Swarthmore - Pennsylvania – USA. More tips can be found at “Advice on designing scientific posters” on Dr. Colin Purrington’s website: www.swarthmore.edu/natsci/cpurrin1

Paper poster layout guidelines and handout materials

Your poster should quickly orient the audience to the subject and purpose of your study. Here are some hints that may be helpful for the preparation of your poster:

• Your poster should have a clear message, a logical layout and be easy to comprehend in a couple of minutes.
• Make sure that the specific sections (such as the background, methods, results and conclusions) are easy to locate on the poster.
• Design the individual sections of your poster so that they can be quickly read - avoid large blocks of text. Neither should the poster contain long sentences.
• Make sure that the type/font size is large enough to be read at a distance of 1.5 meters (five feet). The smallest type should at least be 18 pts for text and 36 pts for headings. Try to keep your word count as low as possible.
• Supporting images (graphs, tables, illustrations, photographs…) can be very helpful and are often necessary to display results. Make sure that the images are easy to understand, and not overloaded with information.
• Make sure there is enough contrast between the color of the type and the poster's background.

You may want to have handouts of your poster and business cards available at your poster in case people want to contact you about your work. If you are making your poster or other materials available online, be sure to include the web address on your poster.

It is not possible to use a computer as part of your display. The conference organizers are not able to arrange for any additional equipment in the poster exhibition area, such as DVD players, projectors, tables or power outlets.

E-posters

E-poster presenters, oral poster discussion and poster exhibition presenters have been invited to upload an electronic poster. The e-posters will be published on the conference CD-ROM and on the programme-at-a-glance on the conference website. Presenters may choose to just upload their regular poster electronically, or prepare a poster specifically for online viewing – then a PowerPoint presentation with various slides is recommended. The formats allowed are pdf (preferred), .ppt or .doc files. Make sure resolution is optimized for online viewing and not printing.

Click here to download the e-poster template.