Research Posters & Creative Displays

• Introduce yourself! Your name, your department and your field of study. 
• Be prepared to answer questions about your poster or display. When answering questions, remember that many individuals will not be familiar with your topic. Practice describing your research or creative project to both experts and non-experts.
• Don't be afraid to ask your audience 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 presentation is an opportunity to not only teach something, but also to learn from others.
• Encourage your peers 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 (consider using a QR code to eliminate printing costs and generating excess waste).

A good way to introduce your poster or display 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