Hello attendees! Our poster sessions are going to be held in a 2D virtual world created in the app Gather. Scroll down to learn about what you can do in the poster session world and how to format your poster.

Please note that the deadline for submitting your completed poster to the conference is June 9, 2021.

The poster session environment

Some key features of our poster session world:

• You get to walk around a virtual world with your custom avatar
• When you get close in proximity to others in the world, you will be able to see them and speak with them!
• You can locate your friends in the session with one click and walk over to them
• You can use the provided map to find posters and have a live chat with the presenter where they walk you through their poster
• You can chat with friends and colleagues that you run into or go hang out together in our lounge spaces and activity spaces

If you want to see what a poster session is like in Gather you can check out this tutorial:

How to format your poster

We want everyone to get the best experience when viewing and presenting posters so we have provided some requirements for your poster and helpful guidelines.

Poster format requirements:

• dimensions = 4' X 3' (122 cm X 91 cm), horizontal or vertical layout accepted
• minimum recommended resolution of printout is 50 dpi (e.g. 2500 px X 1875 px)
• .jpg or .png are the only file formats accepted
• maximum file size is 3MB
• no transparent backgrounds
• Use letters or other easy identifying markers for each section of your poster (see below for more context)
• also create a smaller version of your poster for preview purposes that is 1/4 the size of your original poster (e.g. 800 px X 600 px)

How to submit your poster:

• Check that your full-size poster is of desired quality by viewing it and zooming in on individual sections of the poster. Increase resolution of image if required
• please email both full-size and preview versions of your poster to csmb2021@ualberta.ca
• deadline for submitting poster file is June 9, 2021

What presenting a poster will be like:

When someone walks up to your poster you will be able to see them and speak with them. You can introduce yourself and start presenting your poster. You have a pointer available to highlight a part of the poster you are discussing. Other people can walk up to your poster while you are presenting to someone and join your conversation or view the poster on their own while they wait to speak with you.

The important thing to note is that everyone at your poster can zoom in and out on different sections of your poster independently. Even if you zoom in on a section as a presenter, they will not see your specific view. To help viewers to follow your presentation it is helpful to guide them with section # or letters. For example: "If I can draw your attention to Panel A, this is where I show the results for...." or "In Box C, I have drawn a schematic outlining the steps of my protocol for...".

If you want to show a video (e.g. time-lapse microscopy) you can! Similar to zoom, you can share your entire screen or just a window with everyone at your poster. Note that people will no longer be able to view your poster until you stop screen sharing.