How to run a poster session at your annual meeting

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A poster session is a scheduled block where presenters stand beside a visual summary of their work and discuss it one to one with attendees. For many medical and scientific societies, posters make up a large share of the accepted abstracts, so the poster hall carries a big part of the program.

Yet poster sessions are often planned as overflow. Authors get their instructions late, attendees can't find the posters they care about, and the content disappears when the boards come down. This guide walks through a poster session in the order it happens, from the call for abstracts to the weeks after the meeting.

When should you start planning a poster session?

Start with your call for abstracts. Ask submitters for their presentation preference (oral, poster or either) so review committees can place abstracts in the right format from the first round. Deciding format later means extra emails and authors who planned for a talk they won't give.

After that, the timeline follows a fixed order: review and acceptance, author instructions, the poster file deadline, numbering and printing, hall setup, the session itself, and the online gallery afterward. Set the file deadline early enough to number posters, print labels and load the gallery before attendees start planning their days. If you're choosing software for the review stage, see our guide to the best abstract management software.

What should poster author instructions include?

Send instructions with the acceptance notice, not a month before the meeting. Most author questions come from missing details, so cover them all in one place:

• Board size and orientation, confirmed with your venue or decorator
• How posters attach to the board and what you provide
• The poster number and where the board sits in the hall
• Setup and teardown times
• The hours the presenter must stand at the board
• The digital file format and upload deadline
• Disclosure or CE requirements, if they apply
• What happens to the file after the meeting, including any embargo

How should you number and lay out posters?

Number posters by track or topic so neighboring boards relate to each other, and attendees interested in one poster find others nearby. Use the same number everywhere: on the board, in the program, in the app and in the online gallery. One number that means the same thing in every place saves your staff a lot of questions on site.

Give aisles enough room for small groups to stop and talk without blocking traffic. If presenters stand at their boards in shifts, split shifts by odd and even numbers so authors also get time to see other posters.

How do you get attendees to the poster hall?

Protect the time. A poster session scheduled against popular oral sessions will be quiet, however good the posters are. Give it its own slot in the program.

Then make posters easy to find. Publish an online gallery before the meeting so attendees can bookmark posters in advance. Put a QR code on every board that opens the poster on a phone. Run poster tours led by track chairs, and show posters on screens around the hall. If you award poster prizes, set the judging criteria before the meeting and share them with authors.

Should you use e-posters or printed posters?

You don't have to choose one. Many meetings keep printed boards in the hall and publish the same posters in an online gallery, which gives attendees the conversation at the board and a way to find and revisit posters on their phones. Fully digital poster halls with screens instead of boards suit meetings with limited space or a large virtual audience.

Whatever the format, collect a digital file from every author. It's what makes the QR codes, the gallery and everything after the meeting possible.

What happens to posters after the meeting?

Keep the gallery open. Posters are research members want to cite, share and come back to. Respect any embargo, then let attendees save posters and contact authors after the meeting.

Measure what happened, too. Views, saves and questions per poster show which topics drew interest, and that should shape next year's call for abstracts. Our guide to event program KPIs covers the other numbers worth tracking.

Running your poster session in Sessionboard

In Sessionboard Posters, accepted abstracts flow straight into a branded, searchable gallery grouped by session and track. Authors upload their files through their portal, and you can generate QR codes and print-ready labels for every board. Kiosk Mode shows posters full screen on any hall screen. Attendees open the gallery on any device without an app or a login, save posters and send questions that go straight to the presenter. Views, questions and saves flow back to the author's record.

Frequently asked questions

What is a poster session?

A poster session is a scheduled block at a conference where presenters stand beside a visual summary of their research and discuss it one to one with attendees. It's common at medical, scientific and academic meetings, where accepted abstracts are often presented as posters rather than talks.

How far in advance should you plan a poster session?

Start when you open your call for abstracts, by asking submitters for their presentation preference. Send author instructions with the acceptance notice, and set the poster file deadline early enough to number posters, print labels and publish an online gallery before the meeting.

What should be included in poster presentation guidelines?

Board size and orientation, how posters attach, the poster number and location, setup and teardown times, required presenter hours, the digital file format and deadline, any disclosure or CE requirements, and what happens to the file after the meeting.

How do you increase attendance at a poster session?

Give the session its own time slot instead of scheduling it against popular talks. Publish an online gallery in advance, put a QR code on every board, run poster tours led by track chairs and show posters on screens around the hall.

Should posters be printed or digital?

Many meetings do both: printed boards in the hall and the same posters in an online gallery. Fully digital halls suit meetings with limited space or a large virtual audience. Either way, collect a digital file from every author.

What should you do with posters after the meeting?

Keep the online gallery open, respecting any embargo, so members can find, save and cite posters and contact authors. Review views, saves and questions per poster to see which topics drew interest and use that to shape your next call for abstracts.

Running a poster hall this year? Sessionboard Posters turns accepted abstracts into a branded online gallery with QR codes, print-ready labels and author Q&A. See how Posters works →