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Poster Guidelines

The following guidelines are to help you design your poster. We encourage poster presenters to be
creative when designing their posters while keeping the following basic requirements in mind. Remember
a successful poster is meant to draw attendees attention to the poster while at the same time being
educational and informative. All poster presenters are asked to abide to the following:
POSTER CONTENT
Poster topic: Your poster topic was selected based on your abstract submission, and your final poster
should not deviate from the accepted abstract. Minor changes to your abstract such as grammatical
errors and typos can be made through the Conference Harvester. Any major changes to the abstract
should be submitted to sgerman@awea.org for review.
No marketing: Posters must be designed with the purpose of providing attendees the opportunity to
learn and discuss business and technology related issues. Posters are not intended to sell any products
or services. Make sure that your poster submission is NOT product specific and is objective in nature.
The poster committee will review posters for adherence to these guidelines.

If a poster submission deviates from being objective/educational or is seen as marketing material, you will
be asked to make changes during the review process. If you do not make the required changes you may
not be allowed to present your poster at the discretion of the American Wind Energy Association.
Dimensions: Each poster presentation will occupy one poster unit or meter board and files must be sized
accordingly. The dimensions for the posters must be 36 inches wide by 44 inches tall; portrait
(vertical) setting is required.

Remember that this is a VISUAL presentation - try to explain your ideas in a visually appealing way. The
sequence of information on the poster should be logical and clear. An attendee who just walks by and
reads your poster should have a clear idea of your presentation and the major points.

Identification: Identify your poster near the top of the panel with the title of your presentation and all
authors names and affiliations. The poster title text should be composed of CAPITAL letters or Title
Case letters at least one inch high.

Logo usage: If you chose to include your companys logo on your poster it cannot be printed more than
2.5 inches tall.

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Creating your poster: If you want to create your poster in PowerPoint, follow these steps:
1. Open a new PPT file and choose the blank page as your slide layout
2. Select the Portrait slide orientation setting.
3. Specify the page dimensions by going to Page Setup, and enter the width and height (36 inches wide x
44 inches tall).
4. Create your poster by inserting text boxes, graphics, or pictures.
5. Convert the completed poster to a PDF file before submission.

Converting your Poster to a PDF:

1. You must have Adobe Professional


2. Open the poster in PPT
3. Along the tool bar you should see the option Adobe PDF
4. Select Adobe PDF
5. Select Change Conversion Settings
6. Under the settings tab
7. Change the conversion settings to Press Quality
8. Then select Advanced Settings
9. At the bottom you will see the option to change the default page size change to 36 x 44
10. Make sure the box that says Optimize for fast web view is NOT checked.
NOTE: If you do not follow these steps to convert your file to PDF, you run the risk of having your
images appearing fuzzy when printed.
The poster should typically include:

1.

Introduction (background, statement of hypothesis, purpose/objectives)

2.

Methods (experimental design, techniques)

3.

Results (data summary, findings)

4.

Conclusions (interpretations, implications)

Organization: Arrange the material to tell a logical and coherent story. Summarize your results/findings bullets work well to summarize key points or contributions of the study.

Order: Consider the flow of your poster - generally left to right and from top to bottom.

Color: Aesthetics are an important part of preparing a poster that will attract attention. The use of color
will enhance poster readability (i.e., for contrast and to highlight important points) and attractiveness. Use
muted colors that blend well and do not overpower text or graphics. Use primary colors, and do not use
shocking colors like pink or yellow.

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Graphics & Pictures: Use figures (graphs, charts and illustrations with captions) as much as possible,
making sure that they are legible. Pictures are recommended to be at 300 DPI or higher. NOTE: If
images are not high resolution, they may not print clearly on your poster.

Background: Avoid use of photographs as backgrounds if they are extremely complex and make text
difficult to read. If you choose this style, make your background photograph semitransparent. Use
complementary colors as a background to text and art work.

Fonts: The written text should be sufficiently large to allow easy reading from a distance of approximately
five feet. Use large fonts for the title and sub-headers: 65-72 point font for the title, 30-36 point font for
the sub-headers, and 18 point font for the text. Use simple fonts such as Times New Roman or
Helvetica. Use only one type of font to avoid an unprofessional look. Avoid using too many style changes
such as shadow, bold, italics, and underscoring.

Text: Use a lot of white space around your work as light and empty space is more attractive to the eye.
Avoid large, continuous blocks of text; use small blocks instead. Make sure the small blocks of text can
stand alone. It should still make sense if someone comes up to your poster and reads only a small portion
of it. Use the minimum amount of text possible. Consider using right-justified text. Justified text might
look nicer from a distance, but is more difficult to read.

Simplicity: Keep your poster simple and provide a clear "take-home" message. Limit your poster to
essential data and include information to stimulate discussion; you can provide details in discussions or
as part of the optional paper. Most viewers will scan the display for its prominent features, and when
something catches their attention, linger for closer study and possible discussion of details with the
author.
ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS

Think about your target audience. Although most of the participants will likely be technical, there will
also be some non-technical attendees. Technical or non-technical, it is likely that most people will
have less knowledge about your subject than you do. Keep it simple, but informative.

Spell out acronyms in their entirety the first time used, followed by the acronym in parenthesis.
Example: American Wind Energy Association (AWEA)

Run your spell check and have your colleagues read your poster text before submission.

Provide your contact information.

Bring a good supply of business cards and poster handouts for the entire conference.

Helpful Site for Poster Production: http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/

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PAPERS OPTIONAL
All poster presenters will have the option of submitting a paper to accompany their poster. Since the
papers will be stored in electronic form, there is no limit on the length. In general, papers are usually
about 10 pages, including graphs, illustrations, tables and/or references. If you choose to submit a paper,
please notify Stephanie German at sgerman@awea.org
Cover Page: Create a cover page for your paper with the title, author(s) and pertinent information
including any copyright statements.
Margins: Make sure your margins are not outside of the printable area. Do a test-print to make sure your
document looks correct. Watch for orphan headings and shifting of text and images.
Inserted Images: Place your images in the appropriate places instead of leaving a placement marker
(i.e. insert fig. 1 here). This will insure that your document looks correct. We cannot take responsibility
for placement of your images.
Fonts: Use common fonts like Arial, Times New Roman, or Helvetica.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)


What are my schedule commitments?
You are required to attend the Poster Reception:
Wednesday, May 20, 2015, 4:30 PM 6:00 PM

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What if I cannot attend the poster reception?

You may have a co-author present in your place, but please notify Stephanie German nian as
soon as possible via email: sgerman@awea.org

If you cannot find someone to present in your place please notify Stephanie immediately so we
can plan accordingly. You will be required to forfeit your poster as we cannot have a poster
without a presenter.

Am I required to submit a final paper?

Scientific papers are optional for poster presenters. You have the option to have your paper
included in AWEA's conference presentation materials, or to be considered for publication in the
Wind Energy journal, a John Wiley & Sons publication.

If submitting a paper to AWEA, upload final paper to the Conference Harvester by Thursday, May
22, 2015.

If you are submitting your paper to John Wiley & Sons, please submit your final copy to them by
June 3, 2015.

Can I leave brochures/literature at my poster during the conference?

Please do not place any promotional material/brochures/company specific literature in the


handout holder. The poster monitors have been instructed to discard any promotional items they
see. Any items left behind after the conference will also be discarded.

Each poster will have a business card holder and an 8x11 inch handout holder. You may leave
copies of your poster or scientific paper in the handout holder and be sure to keep the business
card holder stocked throughout the conference.

I am presenting more than one poster. What do I do?


If you are presenting more than one poster, there will small signs available that you can put on the
business card holder of the unattended poster. The signs can be picked up at the Presenter Registration
counter, and will allow attendees that have questions to easily find you during the event.

What do I do if there is a problem with the poster?


Please inspect your poster when you check in and make sure that it printed correctly. Let conference
staff know if there are any major errors.

Thank you! We look forward to your poster presentation at WINDPOWER 2015!

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