I am thinking that there is a good chance that one of the most interesting presentation formats at the Mobile and Embedded Developer Days, January 23-24, won't be the technical sessions or the lightning talks but the poster sessions. We currently have 4 poster sessions time slots scheduled mid morning an mid afternoon both days of the conference.

What is a poster sessions?

Poster sessions come from the acdemic world and where they are used to advertise research. For MEDD the primary purpose of a poster is the communication of information and ideas to the attendees by combining text and graphics to make a visually-pleasing presentation.

A poster presentation involves showing your poster to numerous attendees at the conference in the main auditorium. As viewers walk by your poster should quickly and efficiently communicate your given topic. Unlike the fast pace of a slide show or verbal presentation, a Poster Session allows viewers to study and restudy your information and discuss it with you one-on-one. The posters should present general information and invite viewers to ask more detailed questions of the presenters.

I found the following points about posters from a George Mason University document on Developing a Poster Presentation useful:

• Posters are designed to appeal to peers and collegues at conferences and/or public displays, and to meet the organizational and informational requirements of conferences and/or public displays
• The audience of a paper is a person, the audience of a poster is people.
• A poster presentation allows for question-and answers sessions, and the exchange of ideas and information.
• A papaer presents all of the information, a poster present the most important information.

What information should I share?

Your asking me? Ask yourself!

What's important to you? What information would you like the attendees to know or what idea would you like to share? What feedback would you like to get back from the attendees?

Ok, some of your creative juices are wiped and you need some examples. Below are some of the posters presentations that you'll see at MEDD:

• Tira Wireless - Mobile Content Lifecycle Management
• Qusay Mahmoud - JavaME in Mobile Education
• Intel - Optimizing a Java Platform for the Mobile Internet Device
• Medio - Benefits of a Markup-Based Mobile Application
• MicroAI Engine - Artifical Intelligence using Java ME

Guidelines

• Size: Please stick to a 24" x 36" size (2x3'). If you need more space get creative with fold-outs, etc.
• Material: Choose a stiff poster board that can be hung on the wall. Use every day materials and your kids' glue and crayons. Skip the professional look, this is about creativity.
• Layout: Hummm one week to go so I'm guessing that the guidelines in
  • The Poster Session: a Guide for Preparation
  • How to Present a Poster Session
  • Writing Guides: Poster Sessions
  • How to Make a Great Poster
  • Providing Poster Session (19 links)
  
  are probably out of the question so it time to consider

  The Alternative Poster

  The professional-looking posters discussed above have an attractive counterpart. The artistically inclined can make a poster by sketching it entirely by hand. This has to follow the same design guidelines as described in the documents above, but it is produced with colored felt-tip pens on poster board of pleasing complementary or neutral color. Text material (a minimum of 18-point type) is easy to do by hand with felt markers if there are lightly penciled lines to follow. This less formal kind of poster is fast and inexpensive to do, and if neatly and imaginatively done can have a very special charm as you can see in the example to the right.
• Logistics: We want to start hanging posters on Tuesday, and alternatively starting at 7:00am Wednesday morning.
• Each presenter needs to be at their poster presentation during the four poster sessions times. Yeah, yeah we all need a bio break but do your best to be there.
• Bring a notepad. Hopefully, you will need it and if you do not bring it you will assuredly need it.

How do I sign up

The call for posters is still open for Developer Days attendees. Fill in the following form and submit your presentation ideas to the submissions mailing list atdeveloperdays.dev.java.net. Deadline for submissions is January 21, 2008

Subject Line: PosterPresentation - <Title>

Title: <insert your title here>
Format: poster presentation
Target Audience: <Intermediate, Advanced>
Abstract: <keep it short - we all have other jobs>
Bio: <short biography of the speaker. Web pages, blogs, past speaking, etc>

Developer Days registration is still open

Registration for Mobile & Embedded Developer Days is still open. The only thing missing is you and your poster. Sign up now and join the rest of the mobile and embedded developers for 24 technical sessions, 14 lightning talks, 9 (currently) poster sessions, a social event, and a bar-camp in Santa Clara January 23-24.