INFORMATION FOR PRESENTERS
Guidelines for Session Chairs
Please read carefully the guidelines – Click here to view
Poster Presenters
How to prepare for your 90 second pitch at the AEA Europe Conference
At the AEA Europe conference you have 90 seconds to introduce your poster and to entice the attendees. The better this works, the more people will be visiting your poster board to listen into more detail to what you have done and what your results are. And the bigger your chance of winning AEA Europe’s Poster Award.
Your pitch should not be aimed at giving everything away, but should concentrate on capturing the interest of the attendees to maximize the number that will come and speak to you. It is not possible to cram an entire abstract worth of information in 90 seconds. So you should focus on introducing yourself and setting up the main question, problem, or objective of your research project. You should be able to give your pitch effortlessly without notes or relying on your poster. It should comprise a ‘hook’, an introduction and an ‘appetizer’.
The hook is the short opening statement you use to draw the interest of the attendees. For instance a question or a statement that introduces the topic and its importance in a way that makes sure the audience will remember you and your topic. Next you should explain who you are, who you worked with, in what capacity you did this work, and what your exact role was. Then it is time for the appetizer. You should explain why your topic is of interest to the attendees of the AEA Europe conference and make clear what your central problem, finding or research question is.
Remember it is only 90 seconds and that more is less. It is wise to write out and practice your pitch and to make sure that it fits within the 90 seconds time frame. Keep in mind that the session chair will not give you more time than allowed and that practice makes perfect.
Ignite Presenters
Twenty slides automatically advance at 15-second intervals for a total presentation time of five minutes in length. You will also be allotted an additional 5 minutes for Q&A following your presentation.
Open Paper Presenters
Speakers are asked to present for 20 minutes and allow 10 minutes for questions/discussion, making each paper
presentation a maximum of 30 minutes. Please consider this when preparing your slides.
FORMAT OF THE POSTER PRESENTATION SESSION
The plenary poster session will be held in the Akamas (A+B) room of the venue.
A digital version of your poster will be displayed on the central screen for 90 seconds, which is the maximum time you are allowed to pitch in front of the conference attendees.
Important notes:
- The session chair will keep track of time to ensure that each presenter finishes within the allotted time.
- The poster sessions have a duration of 120 minutes, so there is enough time for some short introductory remarks by the session chair, time for you to walk to and from the stage, time for instructions for the audience on how to vote etcetera.
The poster award and voting procedure
- There is a poster award of €500, sponsored by Cito.
- Each attendee can nominate up to three posters for the award.
- Voting will be done through the conference app, which will allow each attendee one voting opportunity.
- The Professional Development Committee will count the votes after voting is closed.
- The poster with the highest number of nominations will be announced as the poster award winner during the closing session of the conference.
In addition to the poster session
Posters will also be mounted in physical form on boards at a central location at the venue. You will be provided with a poster board whose dimensions will be a maximum of 1.5m high x 1.0m wide. You can use that space to present a poster composed in a variety of ways.
We advise you to prepare a physical poster with A0 size – portrait orientation (click here for size guide).
The more you are available for attendees to answer questions while the posters are mounted, the better your chances of winning the award.
The conference app can be used by attendees to chat/exchange messages with you or schedule time with you to get more information on your topic/research, as long as voting is still possible. And of course, you can take the initiative yourself.
FORMAT & UPLOADING YOUR POSTER
For the better organization of the session, poster presenters will be required to upload their poster here or send it by response to this email by the 30th of October.
The format should be: PowerPoint (.ppt) and PDF (.pdf). and there should be one page and one page only.
We advise you to prepare your digital & physical poster with A0 size (84.1 cm width x 118.9 height cm) – portrait orientation.
If you are using PowerPoint to create the poster, to set the size, you can do it from “Design” tab, Slide size, Custom size, select Portrait and then enter the above measures.
Firstly, thank you for chairing a session at AEA-Europe. It is the contribution of our members that make the conference such a success and we are grateful for that.
Each session runs for 90 minutes, during which three papers are presented; 30 minutes is thus allocated to each paper. Ideally, presenters are asked to allocate a maximum of 20 minutes for the actual presentation of their paper and 10 minutes for discussion. However, sometimes presenters take longer than 20 minutes. If it is clear that the presenters are approaching the end of their presentation (even though they are over time), the chair should allow them time to do so. The Chair should indicate to presenters at the start of the session that extra time presenting will result in less time for questions and answers. In any event, each paper within the session must come to an end after 30 minutes.
Chairs should make an effort to contact presenters before the relevant session, introduce themselves and inquire if speakers have any special requirements. It is also useful to read the abstracts as provided by the presenters (book of abstracts will be available on the conference website/digital bag page), in order to prepare a short introduction of each of the contributions. Be aware that most open paper presentations are grouped in a certain session with an overall session topic.
Chairs should introduce each presenter by name and affiliation, and give the title of the presentation. They should encourage presenters to adhere strictly to the allotted time of 30 minutes total.
Signs to indicate to presenters when they have 5 minutes remaining, 1 minute and when their time is up will be placed on the head table. Some Chairs ask a colleague who will be facing the presenters to use these signs discreetly. If you choose to do this, rather than do it yourself, please let the presenters know where the person will be who is holding up the signs.
Some presenters might be presenting their work for the first time, or might not be accustomed to presenting in English, or might simply be nervous. It might be helpful for the presenter to know you are there to assist. Please come to the scheduled room in good time before the presentation starts.
Chairs will also act as discussants of the session’s presentations. This entails saying a few words about each of the papers at the end of the presentation, inviting and chairing questions and thinking of some questions for the presenters themselves in case this is needed.
On the technical side, the room will be equipped with a laptop, projector and screen (sound system will be available in some rooms). Presenters are asked to bring their presentation on a USB in PowerPoint or PDF format. They will need to transfer the files to the computer prior to the start of the session. We are unable to accept presentations on personal laptops given the technical complication of the equipment (in case that the use of a personal laptop is required the presenters will be asked to seek the support of the technical staff (a phone number for the technical staff will be available on the head table).
Currently, many people videotape/audiotape or photograph sessions. This might not be what the presenter wants. Consequently, before the session starts please make certain the presenter(s) is aware of this and, find out if the presenter agrees to be videotaped/audiotaped or photographed. If not, state that videotaping/audiotaping or photographing is not acceptable for this session.
Fire regulations mean that we cannot allow people to stand in a room during a session or to bring in chairs from other rooms. If your room is fully occupied, please remind any further arrivals of this.
Thank you for Chairing a session of AEA-Europe. Good chairing makes a huge difference to the success of a conference.