Online conferences have certain pros and cons when compared to those held in person. Among the cons is a distinct lack of socialization despite organizers best efforts. Zoom helps to connect us, but as humans, we often like to eat or drink as we socialize, and the inability to share a dish or sit at the same table is palpable. But there are pros as well.

Since many conferences have gone online, lots more conference materials have been made available to attendees before the conference, and it’s more likely that presentations are recorded for post-conference consumption. The ability of participants to participate asynchronously has exploded giving us all the ability to more deeply digest the material (as opposed to the local food).

We’ve been seeking to make materials available to attendees starting with the abstracts and then as more materials get uploaded, to make these available as well. Poster presenters have a bit more to do in that we ask them to record a video ahead of time as well as creating a three page spread for their poster. Podium presenters can make videos if they feel this will give them more control of their presentation or they can present live. In order to have several levels of redundancy, we are asking podium presenters to give us their powerpoints ahead of time to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

Everyone will upload a screenshot of a hook slide so that we can try to garner more interest in talks visually. Yes, a good title is still important, but perhaps you also have a key result you want everyone to see going into it. (Note, this will not be the only way your work is presented, but it will be one of the options offered to people).

So how does it work? We have instructions for poster and podium authors separately.

Poster Authors

If I were a poster author, I would need to upload three things as noted below:

Each upload button will take you to a different upload page (a nuance needed due to the file upload software). To upload a PDF of your 3 page poster presentation, click on “Upload PDF”. You’ll be taken to this page:

If you’re logged in, you’ll see the upload widget. If not, you should log in before proceeding. After you’ve selected your file, choose “Upload File” and a progress bar will indicate your upload status. At the end, you’ll see whether or not you’re successful. Remember to follow the filename conventions shown in the directions. If you make a mistake, just re-upload with the same filename, and it will overwrite the prior file.

If you need to upload the other file types, buttons linking to their upload pages have been placed below to aid in your navigation.

At this point, you will not be able to see your uploaded file or anyone else’s. We have turned off upload notifications in order to decrease the amount of email, we’re sending everyone. (However, if you all clamor for these, we’ll re-enable them). The plan is that for posters, at least, uploaded files will be made available by May 20th, a week after the upload deadline.

Podium Authors

The process is basically identical for podium authors, only you aren’t required to submit a video. Video submission for podium authors is made available in the case that you feel more comfortable that you can do a better job this way rather than presenting in person. Likewise, since we ask that all live presenters (those NOT doing videos) check in for a training session the week or two prior to the conference, you might feel that for you a video is a better option. While most of us have lots of Zoom experience, we still make mistakes in our live presentations, and the pre-conference “training” which lasts anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour dependent on your needs, can help us to keep live presentations running smoothly. Pre-conference training opportunities will be made available in May.

Your upload options are very similar to the poster upload options.

In this case, your presentation must be either ppt or pptx format rather than the PDF format of the poster. Remember that the poster PDFs are for online viewing and ppt/pptx formats are not web formats. Your ppt/pptx upload is to help us backstop you against problems with screensharing and the like. It will not be posted to the website (unless there is a real clamor for this). Likewise, videos of podiums are for playback during the presentation time slot. A conference video of your session will be posted 24-48 hours after you present on June 7-8. As with the posters, once you’ve uploaded one of the files, you’ll be given the option of uploading the others below.

Bottom Line

Get your files posted by May 13, 2022 so that we can assemble everything and have them ready for registered conference attendees to look at by May 20, 2022. We’ll let you know then everything is posted. In the meantime, good luck with your preparation, and don’t forget to register!