Poster Session

I was part of the poster session at the recent American Historical Association (AHA). I had never done a poster before. I put in a poster proposal because you can do that on your own. The AHA doesn’t accept single paper proposals. I never thought it would be accepted; I was pleasantly surprised when it was.

Of course then I had to learn how to do  it, The AHA has been doing poster sessions for six years but did not  give any specific instructions or tips. I decided to use PowerPoint. It was a steep learning curve, but in the end I got it done.

The poster session was held on Saturday from 2 to 5.  That time frame allowed people to come before or after a session. This was good planning but the location of the session was another story. It was in the Hynes Convention Center, Ballroom C. This was on the third floor while the book exhibit was on the first floor. It was about as far away from the rest of the AHA as you could get. This really cut down on walk-in traffic.

I really enjoyed doing it. I was able to talk to a lot more people than I would have if I gave a paper. It was very nice to present my work and get feedback. Doing a poster gives you an opportunity to think about conveying your work in a different manner.