Instructions for Speakers & Authors

Instructions for Oral Presentation Authors

Standard Audiovisual Equipment
Electronic Presentation on an LCD Projector
Maintaining the Published Schedule
Speaker Ready Rooms
Responsibilities on the Day of your Presentation

ACS Policies for Poster Sessions
Design Suggestions for Scientific Posters

Registration for all Authors

All speakers, authors, and poster presenters must register and pay the appropriate registration fee to attend the meeting. Invited speakers should contact the symposium organizer or division program chair to clarify terms of their invitation. Unless you have been notified in writing by a division officer (chair, treasurer, 2008 program chair) or committee officer (chair and staff liaison) that they are sponsoring your registration, you must register and pay for your own meeting registration at the normal fee. If you believe that your registration fee is being sponsored by an ACS group who has not confirmed it in writing with you, we strongly recommend that you contact them well before the meeting to clarify who is registering you and who is paying your registration fee.

After you have registered, all presenters should prepare for their presentation by verifying the following items:

Status of your abstract at http://oasys.acs.org/acs/238nm/oasys.htm (use your abstract ID number and password from your acceptance notice to log-in to the system).
Your mode of presentation (ORAL or POSTER).
Time, length, and location of your presentation.
If you need to make any changes or to cancel your presentation, contact your symposium organizer and Richard Love (r_love@acs.org) immediately for further instructions. Due to the lateness of your request, you may be limited in your possibilities.
Your schedule on the day of the presentation to guarantee that you arrive in your presentation room no less than 30 minutes before your scheduled speaking time or set up your poster one hour before the scheduled start of your session.
Pertinent instructions for authors that appear below.

Instructions for Oral Presentation Authors

In order to ensure your presentation is a success, it is important that you are familiar with and abide by the following guidelines. Your cooperation will be appreciated and will help keep the meeting on schedule for the benefit of all attendees. Even though LCD projectors are standard equipment, their use in a session is at the discretion of the symposium organizer and/or session chair. Contact your symposium organizer in advance to determine their preference for presentation format.

Standard AV Equipment in Technical Session Rooms

LCD projector with VGA connection cable and switcher
Screen
Laser pointer
Lighted podium with microphone
Lavaliere microphone

You must notify your division program chair or symposium organizer of any other audiovisual requests (such as a VCR or computer). This equipment is available at an additional cost and must be approved in advance by the Division Program Chair. Onsite requests should be directed to the nearest ACS Operations Office. ACS Operations staff can assist speakers and symposium organizers in contacting program chairs. Speakers can also make payment arrangements directly with the ACS audiovisual service provider, if any program chair does not approve additional equipment costs.

Preparing for Your Electronic Presentation on a LCD Projector

Authors must provide their own laptop computer, power cord and any other proprietary cords required by the laptop. ACS is not responsible for the security of any personal equipment during the national meeting. All authors planning to give an electronic presentation on a LCD projector must bring a back-up overhead presentation in case of unforeseen computer incompatibilities or set-up difficulties with the equipment.

The LCD projectors can accommodate PC and Mac computers. Meeting rooms are not configured to play external sound from your laptop. Internet or network access will not be available in the technical session meeting room.

All LCD projectors are capable of up to 1024x768 displayed screen resolution and available color depth is 24 bit. Please check the displayed screen resolution on your laptop, particularly on the new models. If your laptop's screen resolution is set lower than 1024x768, a smaller image will appear on the projected screen. If you cannot read your presentation on your laptop screen from 10 feet (3 m) away, then your presentation will not be legible to the audience.

Maintaining the Published Schedule

Published presentation times must be maintained. It is important that presentations not start late or extend past their scheduled conclusion because of equipment set-up or associated troubleshooting with computers. Symposium organizers and session chairs will be responsible for keeping their session on time.

Speaker Ready Rooms

To assist you in your presentation, ACS will provide Speaker Ready Rooms with LCD projectors. The hours of operation will be from 3 PM to 5 PM Saturday and 7 AM to 6 PM Sunday through Thursday. Locations of speaker ready rooms are printed in the onsite program.

We strongly recommend that all authors come to the speaker ready room the day BEFORE their presentation to check for connectivity and resolution. We further recommend that authors conduct dry runs of their entire presentation prior to the scheduled talk. This dry run should be conducted in a location other than the speaker ready room.

Speaker Responsibilities on the Day of Your Presentation

It is the presenting author's responsibility to ensure that their computer is turned on and properly connected to the LCD projector no later than the "break" immediately preceding the scheduled presentation. Break, in this sense, refers to the period of time before the first talk in the morning or between noon and 1 PM.

Several laptops will be able to plug into the same LCD projector simultaneously via a "switch box" which will be provided. Directions for the use of the projector and the switch box will be provided in each room and the speaker ready room. Sufficient power will be available to handle the laptops and projectors.

Minimal audiovisual assistance on non-technical details only can be expected from your session chair or symposium organizer. Technical personnel will be on hand to address unforeseen technical problems. Please contact us if you have any questions or comments.

Instructions for Poster Session Authors

ACS Policies for Poster Sessions

Each horizontal poster board measures 4 feet high x 6 feet wide (including frame). All presentations must be confined to poster board itself. Computer display equipment, sound or projection equipment, freestanding or three-dimensional displays, demonstrations/experiments, or tables for handout materials are not permitted in the poster session.

Each author is responsible for mounting his/her material prior to the opening of the poster session and for removing it IMMEDIATELY after the close of the session. Authors can enter their assigned room approximately one hour prior to the start time of the session. We strongly recommend that you plan to finish installing your poster no later than 30 minutes before the start of your poster session. ACS will not assume responsibility for materials left beyond those time limits.

Authors must remain with their posters for the duration of the session or as long they are scheduled by their division, as indicated in the technical program. They are expected to display and discuss their results and answer question from other attendees. If your division schedules its authors for a specific time during the poster session, your paper must remain up to view until the session ends. ACS encourages you to remain for the entire poster session, even if you are only scheduled to be present for a specific time.

Poster numbers supplied by ACS will be placed in the upper corner of each poster board. This number corresponds with the number assigned to each paper in the program book.

Design Suggestions for Scientific Posters

Each horizontal poster board measures 4 feet high x 6 feet wide (including frame).
Allow ample time to prepare your poster. All poster materials (illustrations, charts, and text) must be prepared in advance.
All posters should feature a title, your name, the name of the institution where the research was performed, and should credit other contributors, as appropriate.
Use a crisp, clean design. All lettering should be legible from about 5 feet (1.5 m) away. Title lettering should be about 2" to 3" (5 to 7.5 cm). Subheading lettering should be 1/2" to 1" high (1.25 to 2.5 cm). Text lettering should be approximately 24 points (1/4" or .625 cm).
Make illustrations simple and bold, with captions at least 3/8" (.939 cm) high. Enlarge photos, tables, and charts to show pertinent details clearly.
Do not tell the entire research history. Present only enough data to support your conclusions and show the originality of the work. The best posters display a succinct statement of major conclusions at the beginning, followed by supporting text and a brief summary at the end.
Displayed materials should be self-explanatory, freeing you for discussion.
Poster elements should be mounted on 1/8" (.313 cm) foam-core board or less. Thicker boards and heavy paper will be difficult to pin onto poster boards.
Enhance your effectiveness by mounting your poster on a solid, colored background.
Utilize other techniques to improve the graphic impact. Use color to add emphasis and clarity. Simplicity, ease of reading, etc., are more important than artistic flair. Keep in mind that lighting may be dim inside large poster sessions, so make sure your contrasts and color combinations are easy to read.
For ease of transport, make poster elements small enough to package and carry.
Pack a sketch of your poster layout, measuring tape, push pins (ACS will provide a reasonable supply of push-pins, although it is wise to bring your own), or Velcro, so you can set up your poster quickly. All material must be removable. You may not write, paint, or use paste on the board.
You may want to bring handouts of your abstract or copies of your data and conclusions to share with interested viewers. Some authors also provide sign-up sheets to record names and addresses of attendees who might wish more information, reprints, etc.