flynn0013

Today in, “Things I should not have to say.” A poster session is a place for exchange of scientific and technical information between professional adults. It is not a place for you to hit on people for a hook up or booty call. Beth Ann McLaughlin asked : Women of STEM, Quick question At any given science poster presentation, what percent of the time do you have a man at your poster who just won't go away and makes you uncomfortable? Results? 16% of women said every conference, 14% said 50-99% of them, 19% said 25-49% of them, and 51% of respondents said less than 25% of them. Now, sure I could niggle about the poll is structured might inflate perceptions of how common this is (there’s an option for 100%, but not 0%, so the most common situation could be women not getting bothered), but even if every one of that 51% was really never, that still means that half of women poster presenters had a bad experience. And that’s unacceptable. And reading the replies to that poll is not fun. ...

A couple of weeks ago, I featured a poster that had no visitors . This, followed by having to defend poster sessions the next week got me wondering. Just how many people put in the time and effort to give a poster and talk to nobody? I ran a Twitter poll . I even ran it during the Neuroscience meeting , one of the biggest venues for poster presentations in the world. I was surprised. Almost half of respondents have put in a good faith effort and got shut out, with no one talking to them. This might explain why people have such differing reactions to poster sessions. I have given 38 posters at conferences. I have never lacked an audience. And I don’t think that’s because I’m particularly charming or do the hottest science or make the most visually interesting posters. (Of those 38, I’ve made maybe two or three posters I’ve been very happy with). I think I’m just another presenter in the session. My experience has been consistently positive, but now I know I’m in the lucky half. I can...

Justin Kiggins wrote : The zone of PIs chatting with each other between the posters was always super intimidating to me. Science writer Bethany Brookshire agrees . It was super intimidating to me. The only thing that gives me courage now is a press badge. ☺️ I know exactly what my colleagues are talking about: little knots of people with grey hair talking to each other, and not to the poster presenters. The age differences make it clear who are students and who are the senior scientists. The “zone of intimidation” is probably more common and more obvious at big conferences, because there is ample space between posters for people to mingle. Big conferences are more likely to have attract people who go there every year, so there is greater chances for people to establish annual “conference cliques.” While that hallway conversations are the best part of conferences, it can be poor form on the part of conference veterans to interact mostly with each other. Some say they plan on being in ...

The ESA Student Section tweeted : Conference tip: Presenting a poster? Consider giving some sort of handout: a print out of the poster, or additional info. #ESA2017 It’s a common tip , but I got thinking about it. What’s the purpose of duplicating your poster in miniature? I’ve always thought the point of having a poster handout was to remind people about your academic work. But I was cleaning off my desk recently, and found quite a few handouts of posters I’d collected from conferences. I’d hauled them back from the meeting, but I hadn’t looked at them for their scientific content or contact information since. The handout had failed in their purpose. I’m particularly wondering about the trouble of making, carrying, and tacking up poster handouts in the days where these are ubiquitous: If anyone wants to look at a poster later, why not just take a picture of it? If someone wants my email, why not take a picture of my contact info on my poster? Granted, there are a few meetings wher...