Chapter 16 Conferences
Developing a professional network is essential, regardless of career path. Therefore,graduate students are expected to attend national and international meetings and to report on their research at those meetings. Ideally, you would attend two conferences per year, pending available funds, but minimally you should attend one per year (there are typically sufficient department funds available to support this).
16.2 How/why to give a talk
Learning to present your research is important. Very few people will read your papers carefully (sad, but true) but you can reach a lot of people at conference talks and posters. Also, if you plan on staying in academia, getting a post-doc position and getting a faculty position both significantly depend on your ability to present your data. Even if you want to leave academia, presentations are likely to be an important part of your job. Additionally, every time you present your work, you are representing not just yourself but the entire lab.
It is therefore highly encouraged that you seek out opportunities to present your research, whether it is at departmental talk series and events, to other labs (within or outside of UO), at conferences, or to the general public. If you are going to give a presentation (a poster or a talk), be prepared to give a practice presentation to the lab at least one week ahead of time (two weeks or more are advisable for conference presentations, and many weeks ahead of time are advisable for job talks, which require much refining). Practice talks will help you feel comfortable with your presentation, and will also allow you to get feedback from the lab and implement those changes well in advance of your real presentation.
Templates for posters will be available, and you can use those as much or as little as you’d like. Some general rules for posters should be followed: minimize text as much as possible (if you wrote a paragraph, you’re doing it wrong), make figures and text large and easy to see at a distance, label your axes, and make sure different colors are easily to discriminate. Other than that, go with your own style.
- Here’s a great set of templates for posters, as well as a philosophy for thinking about them: Butter Poster
16.3 Travel expenses
For any conference expenses that are covered by the lab or the department, you’ll need to work with our front office staff to book or reimburse. Here’s a general breakdown:
16.3.1 Conference fees
These should be paid using the department P-card. If it’s possible to send an invoice for conference fees, send those to Alison Helzer (ahelzer@uoregon.edu). Or, you can give Alison your log-in information, and she can pay the conference fee on your behalf.
16.3.2 Flights
Flights should be booked through the Concur system. Before this can happen, you’ll need to submit an initial travel request.
See the department wiki for information on how to submit a travel request (to Alison Helzer) and how to book flights.
16.4 Poster printing
Posters can be printed through the college of design in the output room on the second floor of Lawrence Hall from 9am to 3pm, M-F. Here are some instructions for printing. All of this information is available online but some details might be difficult to find.
Check the document size. Make sure the dimensions are set to the size at which you intend to print the poster (they recommend against scaling up a smaller document). It’s best to do this step before you make the poster in PowerPoint!
Convert the document to the correct PDF format. On the website, they specify the PDF/X-4 format but in person they have previously asked for PDF/X-3, so it might be worth saving the document using each version and asking which they prefer when you go to release the print in person.
Separate instructions for using windows or mac to convert a Powerpoint slide to one of these specific PDF file types can be found here.
Note that the instructions ask you to use Adobe Acrobat to convert the Powerpoint slide to the correct file type. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed, you can use one of the computers in 280 Lawrence Hall (see this page for some more tips on printing Powerpoint posters).
If you don’t currently have the right Adobe software on your laptop, you can download it for free from UO. You will need to submit a ticket to UO Psych IT requesting they send an installation package.
Submit the file for printing.
Connect to the AAA-PRINT server (aaafileserver.uoregon.edu). Instructions for connecting on Windows or Mac are available on this page under step 2.
Copy your file into the folder on AAA-PRINT named for the paper type you plan on using (most likely standard matte or satin, but premium and custom options are also available).
Go to the output room on the second floor of Lawrence Hall and release the print.
Make sure you have the necessary funds in your account (you’ll be asked to pay using your UO ID card, but see alternative payment options here). Students can add Duck Bucks by logging into DuckWeb, clicking “Student menu”, and then “QuikPAY Student Account”. Faculty and Staff should click “Employee information”, and then “Make electronic payments on UO bill” (more information on adding Duck Bucks here).
- Pricing: For standard printing, posters are printed on a 42-inch roll, and you will be charged by the linear foot ($8 for standard matte paper and $12 for standard satin. More details about printing prices here).
Use the paper cutter in the room directly above the output room to trim your poster (which will likely be necessary assuming one your poster dimensions is below 42 inches).