Talking posters

I know it sound like something off Harry Potter but the "talking posters" was the name we gave to a compact presentation format for issues at the upcoming LCA conference. A five minute three slide presentation of the key finding of a piece of work is then supported by a poster which is up for the whole day and a 20 minute Q&A with poster presenters in each topic area.

Platform presenters only get 10 minutes more and have no poster up to communicate to people attending parallel sessions who miss the presentation so this is not a lesser format. If it works well we could see future conferences sessions being one keynote presentation, a series of talking posters and lots more time to have questions and discussions. (my opinion only - not that of ALCAS or conference committee.)

This presentation format was used at SETAC europe (called power posters) and was participated in by leading LCA practitioners such as Bo Weidema and Mark Huijbregts. In CSIRO's up coming "What’s in Our Water: The significance of trace organic compounds (2010)" poster snapshots are being used are part of their conference format.

So for presenters who are participating in the upcoming conference in the talking poster sessions, get on board, check your facebook, and tweet to the world, because you are part of the future generation where less is more and our attentions spans can no longer manage 30 minute presentations about where you work, the number of people in your organisation or an introduction to the summary of the overview of the conclusions.