Montréal Digital Poster Revolution

By John Port, M.D., Ph.D., 2019 Annual Meeting Program Committee Chair

In the beginning, there were only traditional paper posters. As time progressed and computers got cheaper, we introduced electronic posters on small screens. We lived in this dual environment and were reasonably happy with it – until now.

Starting in Montréal, we will have the best of both worlds. We will no longer have traditional or electronic posters. Instead, we are introducing digital posters, posters displayed on beautiful large 2k 43-inch diagonal (37-inch wide) high-definition flat panel displays. Much like changing from reading films to PACS, this technology represents the evolution of the field, and will come with significant cost saving to the Society.

For those that love browsing traditional 36-inch square paper posters, this new digital poster technology comes with a browse function (“next poster” and “previous poster” controls) that allows you to rapidly view posters in succession, in essence bringing the posters to you rather than you walking amongst the posters. Presenters who choose this single-slide option can present all of their work at once, just as is done now for traditional posters.

Additionally, with the new digital poster technology, we also gain flexibility to do other slide formats. Imagine a “Harry Potter” newspaper effect: a single slide poster containing static text, with embedded moving animations for the figures. If you are a fan of presenting E-posters, a short slide show will suffice. Anything is possible. And with online poster submission, no more worries about printing out the poster, bringing it to and from the meeting, paying for the paper, etc. As before, all posters will have assigned poster presentation times. Come check out the new digital posters in Montréal!