Public health in poster sessions

I have been freaking out a little over seeing people posting pictures from in person conferences and seeing very few masks.

I got thinking about this, and realized that good design can not only help address public health concerns, but will make things better in many other ways.

For poster presenters

Using very big text on your poster so that it can be read from two to three meters away:

• Forces you to focus on using only your key content.
• Makes your work more accessible to people with low vision. 👓
• Lets people socially distance and helps to keep everyone from getting sick with an airborne infectious disease! 🦠

 Being able to give a concise summary of your poster:

• Respects other peoples’ time. ⌚
  
• Allows more time for questions and conversations.
• Reduces potential pathogen exposure time and helps to keep everyone from getting sick with an airborne infectious disease! 🦠

If you want to take a picture of yourself by your poster, take two. 

Take one without a mask 😀 that you can share with friends and family and put in your personal scrapbook.

Take one with a mask 😷 that you post on social media to show that you publicly that you are a classy person who cares about the health and well being of your colleagues. 

For conference organizers

Using one poster per board instead of two per board, using larger poster boards, and increasing the distance between rows of poster boards:

• Makes the poster session more accessible for wheelchair users.🧑‍🦽
• Makes the poster session more accessible for people with service animals. 🐕‍🦺 
• Lets people socially distance and helps to keep everyone from getting sick with an airborne infectious disease! 🦠

Asking participants to hang posters early and scheduling more poster viewing time:

• Give people more opportunities to see all the posters they want.
• Gives more time for people to think of questions and have deeper conversations.
• Reduces number of people in poster session room at any time, lets people socially distance and helps to keep everyone from getting sick with an airborne infectious disease! 🦠

Final thought...

What you take away from a conference should be new ideas, plans for projects, a renewed excitement about your research field, and maybe a few business cards. 📇

What you take from a conference should not be an infectious disease with a one in 20 chance of long term health problems. 🤧