Presenter Information
AV Guidelines
For the AAPM Spring Clinical Meeting, each scientific session room will be equipped with one digital projection system for single projection of Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations.
Confidence Monitor: A large, strategically placed monitor facing the speaker/head table which displays the presentation on the screen behind the presenter, thus allowing the speaker to present to the audience with full "confidence" of what is being shown out of his/her line of sight, without having to turn to look at the screen.
Speakers will have the option to view their slides in "Presenter Mode" at the lectern. The monitor at the lectern will show the notes view, if selected. The large confidence monitor will show the slides seen by the audience.
Not all speakers will want to use this feature at the lectern, but for those who want to try it, the Speaker Ready Room will have some stations with double monitors. Speakers will be able to see "Presenter Mode" on one screen and the regular presentation on the other.
Speaker Ready Room - Salon A
The Speaker Ready Room will be equipped with the necessary equipment to review Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations. Technical staff will be available to assist you with the viewing or testing of your presentation.
Friday - 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Saturday - Monday, 7:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Tuesday, 7:00 AM - 1:00 PM
For your Microsoft PowerPoint presentation
Presenters WILL NOT be permitted to hook a laptop to the digital projector.
Presenters must bring their Microsoft PowerPoint presentation on PC formatted media to the meeting, as described below.
- The DAY PRIOR to your presentation - Please bring your CD, DVD, or USB storage device to the Speaker Ready Room the day before your session during the same hour as your scheduled presentation to load the file into the presentation library and test your presentation. We recommend visiting the same hour as your talk to reduce the number of people in the Speaker Ready Room at any given time and to allow for each presenter to have ample opportunity to speak with a technician if necessary. All presentations loaded into the library will be transferred to the PC in the room where the presentation will be held. Librarians and technicians will be on duty in the Speaker Ready Room to assist you with checking your talk and depositing your file into the library. The support staff will not assist with the editing of files. There will no longer be ZIP or Jazz drives in the speaker ready room.
- The day of your presentation Please bring your CD, DVD, or USB storage device with you to the presentation room as a backup in case of emergency.
- If attending the meeting only for the day of your presentation:
- It is strongly recommended that you visit the Speaker Ready Room to test the presentation.
- PLEASE BE ADVISED, if you do not check your presentation into the speaker ready room, you will be responsible for loading your presentation onto the computer system in the presentation hall. No technician will be available to assist with this process.
- PLEASE BE ADVISED, Session Organizers have been instructed to keep the session on schedule. If you opt NOT to test your presentation in the Speaker Ready Room and there is a problem with the file that you have hand carried to the meeting, you will be asked to either give your talk without the computer presentation or withdraw your talk altogether.
Plan your PowerPoint Presentation to be presented on a PC with the following configuration:
Hardware
Intel Core I7 2.4 Ghz or faster processor, 4GB or greater RAM, 250GB or larger 7200 rpm HD, integral 16 bit audio, graphics card with 512MB or greater VRAM
Software
Windows 7 Pro, PowerPoint 2010 Pro, Acrobat reader (latest version,) QuickTime (latest version,) Math Type 4
Miscellaneous Information
- In PowerPoint versions prior to 2010 (PC) and 2011 (Mac,) video clips (other than certain animated gif files) are not embedded in Powerpoint presentations; you will need to bring the separate video files with you and submit them along with your presentation.
- There are many issues that can arise when Powerpoint files created on a Mac are run on a PC. If your presentation was created on a Mac, please come to the speaker ready room as early as possible, to give the technicians as much time as possible to fix any problems that might occur.
- If your presentation was created using Office 2007, you'll need to save it with compatibility for Office 2003 (as a .ppt file, not a .pptx) The command sequence is Office button > Save As > PowerPoint 97-2003 Presentation.
- No network access will be available from the presentation rooms.
- At the end of each day, the presentations for that day will be deleted from the presentation room PCs and the library and will not be retrievable by presenters.
- No one other than the presenter will have access to the presentation file once it is checked into the library.
Please send an email to woodward@aapm.org if you have a question about the configuration of the presentation PC, or if you have needs that exceed the standard machine configuration. All requests will be handled on a case by case basis.
Presentation Preparation
Oral Presentations - Electronic slide preparation
- AAPM will only allow electronic slide presentations in PowerPoint (ppt) or Portable Document File (pdf) formats.
- When creating your powerpoint, check your settings to ensure that Page Size shows Slides sized for: On-Screen Show (4:3).
- Use background and text material to provide maximum text contrast, e.g., white or yellow text against dark blue background, black or dark blue text against light gray or yellow background.
- Avoid ALL CAPS text.
- Avoid having more than 7 lines of text per slide and more than 8 words per line.
- The text size should ideally not be smaller than 24-points.
- Note that sans-serif fonts (e.g., Arial, Helvetica) are easier to read than serif fonts (e.g., Times Roman)
- Use standard fonts as much as possible. For PowerPoint, embed nonstandard fonts into the presentation
- Avoid full sentences and excessive text in general. Bulleted items with key words are preferable. Remember that the slides are presented as a supplement to your talk, not the other way around.
- Avoid having more than a maximum of two graphic features (e.g., plots or illustrations) per slide. A single feature per slide would be preferable.
- Avoid presentation of excessive tabular information.
- Animation and the use of color can effectively enhance a presentation. However, avoid excessive use of animation and colors as they can be distracting. These features should be used only as a means to enhance the communication objective of the lecture.
- Plan your target number of slides to be 1-2 slides per minute of lecture time.
- When you give your lecture, talk to your audience, not your slides! You should be facing your audience in most of your lecture.
- Make sure that people can hear you well. Adjust the microphone if necessary.
- Leave adequate time for questions per your Moderator's direction.
Poster Presentations
- Poster Display Dimensions:
4 feet wide by 4 feet wide display (44" x 44" usable surface)
- Poster material should be printed on presentation board or stiff paper.
- Posters are increasingly taking the center stage in many scientific conferences. Think "quality" when you put your poster together. A poorly and haphazardly put together poster reflects negatively on the authors and the institution they are from.
- The text should be large enough such that it would be readily readable at a distance of 5 feet from the poster. The text should be double spaced and not smaller than 16-points.
- Note that sans-serif fonts (e.g., Arial, Helvetica) are easier to read than serif fonts (e.g., Times Roman)
- Organize the material in a sequential columnar (top-to-bottom/left-to-right) format as opposed to a row-wise format (left-to-right/top-to-bottom). This would make it easier for multiple people to read the poster at the same time.