• Introduce yourself! Your name, your department and your research area. 
• Be prepared to answer questions about your poster. When answering questions, remember that many participants will not be familiar with your topic. Practice describing your research to both experts and non-experts.
• Don't be afraid to ask participants questions. In what program do they teach or study? Do they have a personal interest in this topic? Have they researched something similar before? 
• Welcome feedback. A poster presentation is an opportunity to not only teach something, but also to learn from others.
• Encourage your colleagues and professors to attend, and request their feedback as well.
• Consider having a take-away that people can refer back to later. This can be a link to a website or blog, or your poster abstract.

A good way to introduce your poster to someone is to have an elevator pitch prepared. An elevator pitch should be under 1 minute and should provide enough information to capture the participant's interest, without providing all the answers. Ideally, the elevator pitch will lead to a conversation about your poster.

To come up with an elevator pitch, think about 3-5 relevant things about you and your research that you want participants to know, such as:

• The issue your research is trying to solve
• Your methodology or research process
• How your research addresses the problem
• Where you hope to take this research in the future