CONFERENCE POSTER Research Articles

Accessibility is imperative for inclusion

Each year, scientists present their work at conferences and other public forums and use a range of illustrative materials to help communicate the science more effectively. Much of this accompanying material is then published or posted online. Improving communication is critical because it facilitates collaboration with colleagues, policy makers, and key stakeholders and helps us share our science with broader publics. However, in preparing these supporting materials, one audience group has consistently been forgotten: people with sensory disabilities. People with vision and hearing disabilities make up 19% of the US population but only 4.5% of all doctoral recipients in 2014 (the most recent reporting year from the NSF). Neglecting the needs of these individuals in public scientific presentations creates a considerable barrier to their participation in the sciences. Many of the core principles of accessibility for presentations are about color choice, proper use of headings, and clearly labeled figures. These design elements improve experiences for all audiences but are of critical importance to people with sensory disabilities. Given the importance of public presentations for building professional networks and developing new contacts, accessibility benefits the entire scientific community. It removes barriers for presenters and audience members with disabilities, while facilitating communication and connections between scientific peers that last far beyond any single event. Professional scientific societies have made considerable and intentional strides toward inclusivity. However, the primary methods of professional communication and socialization – conference talks, seminars, and poster sessions – often present barriers when steps are not taken to accommodate and engage individuals with sensory disabilities. Small changes, like making presentations and posters available online before talks, are within the purview of societies and conference organizers, and could make an important difference to users of assistive technology such as screen readers. Increasing the engagement and participation of people with sensory disabilities is almost never mentioned in professional communication resources. Indeed, the advice they give sometimes contradicts established guidelines, encouraging presenters to eliminate captions and text on slides or making statements such as “audiences can read your slides too”, which fail to acknowledge the presence of scientists who cannot. These articles can give the impression that disabled scientists aren't a part of the community, don't attend public presentations, don't present their own work, and aren't reading research articles or consuming web resources. As both creators and consumers of presentations, the contributions and needs of scientists with disabilities deserve to be addressed. The most important step that individuals can take is simple: “consider accessibility”. This can mean evaluating color choice and contrast, using headings and document markup, modifying graphic design choices, supporting graphic elements with text, and uploading presentations to open platforms before the presentation is given. Simple changes – for example, using “alt-text” (for HTML) or object description fields to describe images in presentations – will help ensure access to image content for people who use screen reading technology. Such changes can make a big difference in overall accessibility of documents and presentations, and often improve presentation quality for everyone. Assistive technologies (hardware and software designed to reduce barriers in reading and writing documents) have improved substantially in recent years and provide innovative solutions that support the inclusion of people with disabilities. Most modern presentation software programs and applications, including PowerPoint, LibreOffice, and Keynote, have built-in tools that can help identify things like missing slide titles, low contrast images, and un-ordered text boxes, which make access difficult for many. These tools use standards developed for the World Wide Web (eg W3C Web Accessibility Initiative: https://www.w3.org/WAI), making it relatively straightforward to create documents and presentations that are suitable for use with screen reader technologies. Accessible presentations are not a panacea. Papers and posters alone will not fix structural barriers to full inclusion and equity for people with disabilities in the sciences, but they are a concrete step in the right direction. We are seeing a sea change in the way we perceive and address representation in academia and society. Our biases, conscious and unconscious, must be constantly challenged if we are going to build an academic community that reflects the breadth of skill and ability within everyone. We have made great strides in understanding the role of diversity, stakeholder participation, and equity in undertaking science that will lead to sound policy decisions. Consciously choosing to design accessible scientific content can help ensure that all of our colleagues, students, and public outreach audiences can learn about the natural world together. More information on accessible presentations is available as part of the preprint: Goring S, Stack Whitney K, Jacob A, et al. 2017. Making scientific content more accessible. Authorea; doi.org/10.22541/au.150844289.92609826. Simon James Goring Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI Kaitlin Stack Whitney Rochester, NY Aerin L Jacob Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, Canmore, Canada

Poster

Conference Poster is available in the PDF.

International Workshop on CPT and Lorentz Symmetry in Field Theory

PrefaceOn 6 and 7 July 2017 the International Workshop on ‘CPT and Lorentz Symmetry in Field Theory’ took place in Faro, Portugal (indico.cern.ch/event/596580). In this workshop we gathered theoretical physicists who are working on or are interested in issues related to CPT and Lorentz symmetry in field theory and gravity. Invariance of the laws of nature under both CPT and Lorentz symmetry is usually taken for granted, and there are profound theoretical reasons behind this idea. Lorentz invariance is generally considered as a basic building block for constructing consistent relativistic quantum field theories. Under the further assumptions of locality and unitarity, the CPT theorem then assures additional invariance of the action under the combined symmetries of charge conjugation, parity inversion, and time reversal. On the other hand, various approaches to quantum gravity allow for departures from CPT and Lorentz symmetry, either spontaneously or otherwise. While at low energies the ensuing effects can be expected to be extremely small due to Planck-scale suppression, they might be detectable in ultra-high precision tests. For these reasons, CPT and Lorentz violation constitute an attractive possibility to look for physics beyond the Standard Model and General Relativity possibly arising from quantum effects in gravity.Topics of the workshop included theoretical and phenomenological aspects of departures from CPT and Lorentz symmetry, involving field theory, gravitation, and particle physics. The contributions covered a wide range of issues, at the level of fundamental aspects and consistency of field theories such as causality, renormalization and renormalization group, anomalies, stability, effective field theory, (non)commutativity and (non)metricity, as well as more phenomenological issues, including the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe, the Casimir effect, and hadronic physics. There were also two presentations about Hořava gravity, including a review talk. The common theme in all of these contributions was always CPT and/or Lorentz symmetry. Taken together, these presentations give a good overview of the state of the art of the field.List of Scientific and Organizing Committee, Workshop secretariat, Workshop sponsors, Group photo and the Conference poster are available in this pdf.

39th Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 22-25, 2017.

Conference poster presented at the 39th Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 22-25, 2017

3rd Karl Schwarzschild Meeting - Gravity and the Gauge/Gravity Correspondence

PrefaceThe Karl Schwarzschild Meeting 2017 (KSM2017) has been the third instalment of the conference dedicated to the great Frankfurter scientist, who derived the first black hole solution of Einstein’s equations about 100 years ago.The event has been a 5 day meeting in the field of black holes, AdS/CFT correspondence and gravitational physics. Like the two previous instalments, the conference continued to attract a stellar ensemble of participants from the world’s most renowned institutions. The core of the meeting has been a series of invited talks from eminent experts (keynote speakers) as well as the presence of plenary research talks by students and junior speakers.List of Conference photo and poster, Sponsors and funding acknowledgments, Committees and List of participants are available in this PDF.Piero NicoliniMatthias KaminskiJonas MureikaMarcus Bleicher

Designing conference poster presentations

Attending conferences is one of the more exciting aspects of undertaking a PhD. It gives you the opportunity to meet some of the best minds in your field, and to meet other PhD students, and perhaps most importantly it is a chance to showcase your work. Conference presentations are often either a talk or a poster. To have got to this point in your education it is reasonable to assume that you have given a few oral presentations. It is less common to have given a poster presentation. This article aims to give you some useful hints and tips for designing and presenting posters at conferences.

Effect of Osteopathic Cranial Manipulative Medicine on Visual Function.

The effects of osteopathic cranial manipulative medicine (OCMM) on visual function have been poorly characterized in the literature. Based on a pilot study conducted by their research group, the authors conducted a study that examined whether OCMM produced a measurable change in visual function in adults with cranial asymmetry. Randomized, controlled, double-blinded clinical trial. The intervention and control (sham therapy) were applied during 8 weekly visits, and participants in both groups received 8 weekly follow-up visits. Adult volunteers aged between 18 and 35 years with unremarkable systemic or ocular history were recruited. Inclusion criteria were refractive error between 6 diopters of myopia and 5 diopters of hyperopia, regular astigmatism of any amount, and cranial somatic dysfunction. All participants were evaluated for cranial asymmetry and randomly assigned to the treatment or sham therapy group. The treatment group received OCMM to correct cranial dysfunctions, and the sham therapy group received light pressure applied to the cranium. Preintervention and postintervention ophthalmic examinations consisted of distance visual acuity testing, accommodative system testing, local stereoacuity testing, pupillary size measurements, and vergence system testing. A χ2 analysis was performed to determine participant masking. Analysis of variance was performed for all ophthalmic measures. Eighty-nine participants completed the trial, with 47 in the treatment group and 42 in the sham therapy group. A hierarchical analysis of variance revealed statistically significant within-groups effects (P<.05) from before the intervention to visit 16 in distance visual acuity of both eyes, local stereoacuity, Donder pushup in both eyes, and near point of convergence break and recovery. For treatment group vs sham therapy group, a statistically significant effect (P<.05) was observed from before the intervention to visit 16 in pupillary size under bright light in the left eye and in near point of convergence break. Osteopathic cranial manipulative medicine may affect visual function in adults with cranial asymmetry. Active motion testing of the cranium for somatic dysfunction may affect the cranial system to a measurable level and explain interrater reliability issues in cranial studies. (ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT02728713).

Vaccines against Shigella and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli: A summary of the 2016 VASE Conference.

PATH hosted the inaugural Vaccines Against Shigella and Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VASE) Conference in Washington, DC in June 2016, bringing together experts from around the world for a highly collaborative forum to discuss progress in the development of new enteric vaccines. Diarrheal disease and long-term sequelae caused by infections with the bacterial pathogens Shigella and enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) pose a significant public health burden in low-income communities. There are currently no licensed vaccines against these pathogens, and the global health community has recently prioritized their development. The 2016 VASE Conference aimed to accelerate communication and progress among those working in the enteric vaccine field to make Shigella and ETEC vaccines a reality as quickly as possible. Research presented in oral and poster presentations at the VASE Conference covered a range of topics, including: the global burden of disease and public health case for Shigella and ETEC vaccines; current vaccine candidates in development; immunology and host responses to the pathogens; and the rationale for and status of combined Shigella-ETEC vaccine candidates. This article reviews key points and highlighted research presented in each of the plenary conference sessions and poster presentations at the 2016 conference. Planning for the 2018 VASE Conference is underway and will likely provide an important platform for sharing the latest updates on Shigella and ETEC vaccine research efforts and maintaining the momentum for accelerating this work. It is also expected that the VASE Conference will continue to provide a unique opportunity for those in the enteric vaccine field to share ideas, make connections, and create workable plans to make Shigella and ETEC vaccines a reality. (Updates available at: www.vaseconference.org.).

You Are About to Enter Another Dimension: The Medical Twilight Zone

You Are About to Enter Another Dimension: The Medical Twilight Zone

Developing and producing a focused conference poster

This fourth article in the Writing for Publication series aims to provide guidance on developing and producing a poster presentation for a conference. Most academic conferences offer opportunities for health professionals to present their work as an oral presentation or a poster; an earlier paper in this series discussed the submission of abstracts to conference organisers for consideration. Planning, preparing and producing a poster presentation requires different skills from those used when giving an oral presentation. These are examined in this paper by outlining what is meant by a poster presentation, and discussing key issues to consider when planning and producing a poster, and when presenting it at a conference.

Beyond Group Work Camp: A bridge to symposia and conference participation via professional presentations

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is twofold - to describe a Group Work Camp workshop that facilitates continued professional involvement beyond the camp experience, and to share the information offered in this session. The workshop provides information about developing peer-reviewed presentations for professional association conferences and addresses the benefits of such presentations. It identifies different presentation formats and describes the abstract preparation, submission and review processes. It addresses the dissemination of supplemental material related to the presentation. Detailed recommendations for navigating the preparation and presentation processes are shared with the hope of easing anxieties for new presenters. By scheduling the workshop near the conclusion of camp, it builds upon the group experience to facilitate continued involvement with the association and its activities. It provides a bridge and a method for further professional groupwork engagement and outlines a path for post-camp connections.Keywords: Group Work Camp; groupwork; International Association for Social Work with Groups (IASWG); professional associations; conference abstract; poster and paper presentations.

Challenges of treating a patient living with lymphoedema and advancing disease.

International Journal of Palliative NursingVol. 23, No. 7 Short reportChallenges of treating a patient living with lymphoedema and advancing diseaseRebecca ElwellRebecca ElwellSearch for more papers by this authorRebecca ElwellPublished Online:29 Jul 2017https://doi.org/10.12968/ijpn.2017.23.7.318AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail View article References Billingham R (2008) Chronic oedema in advancing disease. Br J Community Nurs 13(10): S3 Abstract, Google ScholarElwell R, Craven N (2015) A glossary of terms to assist the recognition and diagnosis of skin conditions associated with lower-limb chronic oedema. Br J Community Nurs 20(Suppl 4): S14–20 Link, Google ScholarElwell R (2015) Developing a nurse led red leg service. Nursing Older People 27(10): 23–27 Crossref, Medline, Google ScholarInternational Lymphoedema Framework (2006) Best Practice for the management of lymphoedema. An International consensus. http://tinyurl.com/lnborcx (accessed 10 July 2017) Google ScholarLymphoedema Framework (2006) Best practice for the management. International Consensus. MEP Ltd: London Google ScholarLymphoedema Support Network (2015) Report from the LSN members' survey. http://tinyurl.com/y9m3z4hm (accessed 10 July 2017) Google ScholarLymphoedema Support Network (2011) Management of oedema in advancing disease Information for patients. http://tinyurl.com/y8lvkqot (accessed 10 July 2017) Google ScholarLymphoedema Support Network (LSN, 2011) The Use of Kinesio Tape in Lymphoedema Management. Information for patients. London: LSN Google ScholarMoffat C, Franks P, Doherty DC et al. (2003) Lymphoedema: an underestimated health problem. Q J Med 92: 731–8 Crossref, Google ScholarNarahari SR, Ryan TJ, Aggithaya MG (2013) How does yoga work in lymphedema? J Yoga Phys Ther 3: 135. doi: https://doi.org/10.4172/2157-7595.1000135 Google ScholarPosnett J, Franks P (2008) The burden of Chronic wounds. Nursing Times 104: 3, 44/45 (LSN/Macmillan) Google ScholarThe MS Society (2016) Facts and myths about MS. http://tinyurl.com/jztfxhr (accessed 10 July 2017) Google ScholarWhitaker J (2016) Lymphoedema management at night: views from lymphoedema patients across 5 countries. Wounds UK, conference poster presentation Google ScholarWigg JA (2009) Pilot randomised control trial to compare a new intermittent pneumatic compression device and 12-chamber garment with current best practice in the management of limb lymphoedema. Eu J Lymphology Related Problems 20(58): 16–23 Google ScholarWounds UK Best Practice Statement (2015) Compression hosiery (2nd edn). http://tinyurl.com/qgchajt (accessed 10 July 2017) Google Scholar FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails 2 July 2017Volume 23Issue 7ISSN (print): 1357-6321ISSN (online): 2052-286X Metrics History Published online 29 July 2017 Published in print 2 July 2017 Information© MA Education LimitedPDF download

Conference Poster

Conference Poster can be found in PDF

Connected Community

Connected Community

How to prepare conference abstracts and poster presentations.

An effective way of disseminating nursing research is to present it at a national or international conference.

Impact of an In-Class Biochemistry Mini-conference on Students’ Perception of Science

The work presented here is the summary of a 3 year study that aimed to uncover how students’ perception of science changes with the chance to participate in a mini-conference that is incorporated into the biochemistry lecture course. Students were asked to work in groups of 2 or 3 and research a topic that is related to the material covered in class. Their research was presented during the last lecture of the course, and the presentation was conducted similar to a conference poster session. The students’ grades on this assignment were entirely based on peer evaluation and not on evaluation by the instructor. A survey was conducted before and after this assignment to gauge how the experience changed students’ perception of science. The study was conducted with both STEM majors and non-STEM majors to allow comparison of how these two groups of students were affected by the experience.

8th European Summer School on Experimental Nuclear Astrophysics (Santa Tecla School)

The conference poster can be viewed in the PDF

Ionic Liquid Containing Solid Polymer Electrolytes for Lithium Metal Batteries

Researching novel battery systems is essential for the turn away from fossil fuels and electrification of cars, since renewable energies (e.g. light, wind) are not available at all times and the energy is not necessarily consumed at the place where it is gained. Lithium air / lithium oxygen batteries state a possible candidate facing the necessity for high energy battery systems, due to a high theoretical energy density (11.680 Wh∙kg-1), comparable with those of gasoline (13.000 Wh∙kg-1).[1] Several reasons hindered the commercialization of secondary lithium air / lithium oxygen batteries so far. On the cathode side the oxygen evolution and the oxygen reduction reaction are not yet efficient without (expensive) catalysts (e.g. gold, platinum). Like in normal lithium metal batteries, most of the challenges are related to the negative electrode material. Lithium metal is unstable against various materials, including the commonly used organic carbonate based electrolytes. While reacting with the electrolyte, the capacity of the battery is dramatically fading, and a highly resistive layer, the Solid Electrolyte Interface (SEI) is growing. The reaction of electrode and electrolyte does not only lead to solid components, but also to gaseous products, which in closed systems cause dangerous pressure increase. Within a lithium air battery also reactions with other components of the ambient air (e.g. carbon dioxide, nitrogen, moisture) have to be taken into account. During these reactions inactive materials like lithium carbonate and -nitrate are formed, disabling the cyclability very fast. The most important reason hindering the commercialization of secondary lithium metal batteries is the formation of high surface area lithium during cycling, categorized by the morphology subdivided into dendritic, mossy and granular lithium. Dendritic lithium is the most dangerous one. The best case scenario would be a loss of contact of the dendrites to the lithium metal electrode, just leading to a fade in capacity. The worst case would be a dendrite growing through the separator to the positive electrode, causing thermal runaway and explosion of the cell. This can be prevented by the use of a solid electrolyte. Solid electrolytes have negligible vapor pressure, are not flammable and are leakage-free. They also combine the benefits of a separator with an electrolyte, thus saving costs. Depending on the system they have low gas and water diffusion rates. One drawback compared to liquid electrolytes is the usually much lower specific conductivity. Within the last years ionic liquids have been investigated, and they show a suppression of dendrite growth.[2] They have higher specific conductivities than solid electrolytes, but still there are some drawbacks in open systems (e.g. in lithium air batteries) like leakage and cost. Solid polymer- and gel electrolytes offer good compromises. In this work we show the combnation of a solid polymer electrolyte with an ionic liquid, combining the benefits of both systems. We will introduce tetrafluoroborate based Solid Polymer Electrolytes (SPEs). Compared to systems based on trifluoromethylsulfonylimide,[3] they combine good conductivity in the desired temperature region (20-60 °C) with high electrochemical stability, while tetrafluoroborateas anion offers water stability and is cheap in production. Free standing films with thicknesses of 80 - 100 µm were achieved (Figure 1), while keeping the mechanical properties needed for handcrafted cell building. The SPEs were characterized in respect to their electrochemical behavior in lithium metal half cells (plating/stripping), conductivities (electrochemical impedance spectroscopy - Figure 2) as well as electrochemical stability (linear sweep voltammetry) and compared to our previous prepared bis(oxalate)borate based SPEs.[4] Also lithium metal full cells (Lithium vs. Lithium iron phosphate) were tested (cyclic voltammetry - Figure 3). The tests were carried out temperature dependent. [1] G. Girishkumar, B. McCloskey, A.C. Luntz, S. Swanson, W. Wilcke, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 1, (2010), 2193-2203. [2] G.B. Appetecci, G.T. Kim, M. Montanino, M. Carewska, R. Marcilla, D. Mecerreyes, I. De Meatza, J. Power Sources, 195, (2010), 3668-3675. [3] G.T. Kim, G.B. Appetecci, M. Carewska, M. Joost, A. Balducci, M. Winter, S. Passerini, J. Power Sources, 195,(2010), 6130-6137. [4] R. Jakelski, M. Winter, P. Bieker, Conference Poster No. 508, 224th ECS, (2013). Figure 1

Investigations on the Chemical and Electrochemical Stability of Imidazolium Containing Ionic Liquids

The rapid depletion of fossil fuels, as well as the increasing environmental concerns resulting from their combustion, makes the demand for the development of electrical energy storage systems. Those systems have to fulfill several requirements like high energy density and long-term cycle stability to replace fossil energy sources. Due to the fact that commercially available Lithium ion batteries cannot provide the needed specific energies and are still expensive, alternative technologies are of great interest. One approach is the use of lithium air batteries with their high theoretical energy density (11.680 Wh•kg-1).[1] The typical cell design consists of a lithium metal anode and a porous carbon cathode, which are separated by an electrolyte. During the discharge process the lithium metal electrode is oxidized, while oxygen from the air is reduced at the porous carbon cathode. 2 Li + O2 → Li2O2 Lithium metal is the negative electrode material of choice due to various advantages like its low atomic weight (6.94 g•mol-1), a low redox potential (-3.04 V versus standard hydrogen electrode) and a high specific capacity (3862 mAh•g-1).[2] Nevertheless, there are still challenges which have to be faced. One is the formation of high surface area lithium (HSAL), which can be observed in three different morphologies: mossy, needle-like and granular.[3] It has been known that HSAL formation especially occurs while using organic carbonate based electrolytes, so the replacement of this electrolyte type is considered. Intensively researched candidates are solid polymer- as well as ionic liquid based electrolytes,[4] since it has been proven that dendrite growth is hindered when ionic liquids are used as electrolyte components.[5] Further benefits of this category of substances are their wide electrochemical stability window, non-volatility and non-flammability.[6] Figure 1 shows a cyclic voltammogram of a lithium metal full cell (Lithium vs. Lithium iron phosphate (LFP)) with an 1-Ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide ([C2MIm]TFSI) based electrolyte. In this work we present investigations on the chemical and electrochemical stability of imidazolium containing ionic liquids, especially [C2MIm]TFSI, which is stated as a suitable electrolyte solvent for lithium air batteries.[7] The chosen ionic liquids will be investigated concerning their chemical (infra-red spectroscopy) and electrochemical stability (cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic cycling) at different temperatures. Furthermore the effect of an additive (fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC)) on the cycling performance of the ionic liquid based electrolytes is researched. [1] G. Girishkumar, B. McCloskey, A.C. Luntz, S. Swanson, W. Wilcke, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 1, (2010), 2193-2203. [2] M.-H. Ryou, Y. M. Lee, Y. Lee, M. Winter, P. Bieker, Adv. Funct. Mater., 25 (6), (2015), 834-841. [3] Z. Li, J. Huang, B. Y. Liaw, V. Metzler, J. Zhang, J. Power Sources, 245, (2014), 168-182. [4] R. Jakelski, M. Winter, P. Bieker, Conference Poster No. 508, 224th ECS, (2013). [5] G. B. Appetechi, G.-T. Kim, M. Montanino, M. Carewska, R. Marcilla, D. Mecerreyes, I. De Meatza, J. Power Sources, 195, (2010), 3668-3675. [6] N. Schweikert, A. Hofmann, M. Schulz, M. Scheuermann, S. T. Boles, T. Hanemann, H. Hahn, S. Indris, J. Power Sources, 228, (2013), 237-243. [7] C. J. Allen, S. Mukerjee, E. J. Plichta, M. A. Hendrickson, K. M. Abraham, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2, (2011), 2420-2424 Figure 1

Poster Exhibitions at Conferences: Are We Doing it Properly?

Literature exploring the educational value and quality of conference poster presentation is scarce. The aim of this study was to identify and describe the variation in poster exhibitions across a spectrum of conferences attended by trainees. Prospective observational assessment of conference posters was carried out across 7 variables at 4 conferences attended by surgical trainees in 2012. Posters were compared by individual variables and according to overall poster score combining all 7 variables examined. The number of authors listed was also compared. Random samples of consecutively numbered posters were examined at the exhibitions of 4 conferences, which included a UK national medical education conference (Association for the Study of Medical Education), a UK international surgical conference (Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland), a European oncology conference (European Society of Surgical Oncology), and a North American joint medical and surgical conference (Digestive Diseases Week). Significant variation existed between conferences in posters and their presentation. The proportion of presenters failing to display their posters ranged from 3% to 26% (p < 0.0001). Adherence to size guidelines varied from 89% to 100% (p = 0.002). The inclusion of references ranged from 19% to 82% (p < 0.0001). The presence of a presenting author during the allocated session varied widely from 21% to 86% (p < 0.0001). No significant variation was observed in the proportion of posters that were formatted using aims, methods, results, and conclusion sections (81%-93%; p = 0.513) or in the proportion of posters that were identified as difficult to read (24%-28%; p = 0.919). Association for the Study of Medical Education outperformed each of the other exhibitions overall (p < 0.0001). Posters with greater than the median of 4 authors performed significantly better across all areas (p < 0.0001-0.042) except presenter attendance (p = 0.480). Poster exhibitions varied widely, with room for improvement at all 4 conferences. Lessons can be learned by all conferences from each other to improve presenter engagement with and the educational value of poster exhibitions.