In-person Oral Presenter Guidelines

The following instructions are only for in-person plenary and concurrent session oral presenters. Online oral presenter information will be available by February 25 on the For Presenters landing page. Workshop speakers should coordinate with the workshop organizer(s) for presentation instructions. If you will not be able to attend the conference in person and will need to present online, please notify Anne Marie Mahoney (mahoney@genetics-gsa.org) as soon as possible.

Talk Length

• Plenary talks are 29 minutes total (24 minutes for the talk, plus five minutes of Q&A).
• Concurrent Platform talks are a total of 19 minutes (15 minutes for the talk, plus 4 minutes of Q&A).
• The Perkins/Metzenberg Address is 55 minutes total (45 minutes for the talk, plus 10 minutes for Q&A)

Speaker Check-in

New this year – All in-person speakers (other than workshop speakers) must check-in at the Speaker Check-in Room (Triton) the day before their presentation to upload and test their talk. You will not be able to upload your talk in the meeting room.

You will be able to test the equipment, view your slides, and run through your presentation if necessary. Technical support will be there to help you. On the day of the presentation, speakers should arrive at the meeting room (see the schedule of events to find out where your presentation room is) 30 minutes prior to the beginning of their session to check in with the session chair and for up-to-date instructions.

The speaker check-in room (Triton) will be open at the following times:
Tuesday, March 15: 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, March 16: 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Thursday, March 17: 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Friday, March 18: 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 19: 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Timing

To keep the session on time and allow people to move between concurrent sessions, the session chair may alert you as follows:

• After 15 minutes, “4 minute remains, start Q&A”
• After 18 minutes and 30 seconds, “30 seconds remain, wrap up”
• After 19 minutes, “STOP”

Answering questions

For the Plenary sessions, the session chairs will select and read attendee questions that are submitted in the Q&A window as well as questions posed by the in-person audience. For the concurrent sessions, the session chairs will facilitate the questions asked by the in-person attendees. Remember to check your talk in the app as people may leave you a question there as well.

Contacting live technical support

Technical support will be monitoring your presentation from the speaker check-in room. There will also be a large help button on the podium that you can hit if you run into a problem.

Health and Safety

Masks should be worn at all times when inside the conference center. That includes during your talk. Hand sanitizer will be available on stage for you to access when leaving the stage after your talk. For more information on health and safety policies at the meeting, please check our Conference Policies.

Presentation Day and Time

You can look up your presentation time on the Author Abstract Assignments page. All presentation times are shown in Pacific Daylight Time.

Presenter Registration

You must register for the conference by February 18 to confirm your participation.

Recordings

All oral presentations will be recorded and made available to registrants in the Conference App through April 8, 2022.

Presentation Computer

You will use the computer at the podium for your presentation. You will not be able to use your own computer.

Q&A

Q&A will be handled two ways for the plenary sessions. There will be audience microphones for the in-person attendees to ask questions. Those who are participating online will be able to post a question in the Zoom Q&A. The session chair will select questions from the Q&A and in-person audience as time allows. All participants will also be able to leave a question for you in the Conference App, so be sure to check your listing on the app to see if there are questions for you after your session.

For the concurrent sessions, the session chairs will select questions from the in-person audience as time allows. All participants will also be able to leave a question for you in the Conference App, so be sure to check your listing on the app to see if there are questions for you after your session.

Preparing Effective Oral Presentations

We encourage presenters to use color blind-friendly palettes and accessible fonts. An online tool such as Coblis will help you prepare posters that are more accessible to all.

1. Keep visuals clear and easy to read. Abbreviate your message. SIMPLE graphs, charts and diagrams are much more meaningful to an audience than complex cluttered ones.
2. Avoid using too many patterns and graphics in one frame.
3. Use a minimum of words for text and title frames. Five to eight lines per frame and five to seven words per line are the maximum-fewer is better.
4. Use upper and lower case lettering, which is more legible than all capital letters.
5. Vary the size of lettering to emphasize headings and subheadings, but avoid using more than three sizes per frame.
   Select sans serif type (example: Arial) which projects better and is easier to read than serif type.
6. Maintain the same or similar type sized from frame to frame, even if some frames have less copy than others.
7. Keep all type horizontal, even in charts.
8. Consider color with care. A dark background with highly contrasting text and graphics is most readable. Cool colors (example: deep blue, turquoise, purple) appear to recede and make white or light colored text more readable. In one study, blue was found to be the most effective background color for projection. Do not use red for text; it is extremely difficult to read.
9. Highlight your main point or heading with a dominant color (example: yellow for the heading, white for body text). Avoid the use of intensely bright or saturated colors that compete with the text.
10. Maintain a consistent color scheme. Use no more than six colors throughout your presentation.
11. Select backgrounds to enhance your text or graphics. A background that transitions smoothly from lighter to darker shades of the same hue can be effective. Some software packages permit the gradation from one color to another. A textured background can be effective, but it should not detract from or compete with text or images.
12. Remember the basics of good design: Plan a template. Use colors consistently with light fonts on a dark background. Keep text clear and easy to read.

Privacy and Recordings

All oral presentations will be available for registered attendees to view online until April 8, 2022. Sharing of results without permission is a violation of the Code of Conduct, but you should be aware that we cannot monitor whether online attendees take photographs, screenshots, audio recordings, or video recordings during your presentation.

Code of Conduct

All registrants agree to abide by the GSA Conferences Code of Conduct. Our Code of Conduct was established to communicate a transparent set of standards and guidelines for acceptable behavior at GSA Conferences and to provide a positive, safe, and welcoming environment for all attendees. Note that all sessions will be moderated and actively monitored for disruptive behavior. Any attendees disrupting the session in person or online will be removed.