Sometimes when we have poster sessions we will be doing 1-minute poster pitches.

During this pitch, you are allowed to show ONE STATIC slide. You will be called individually to the stage to pitch your poster. All slides will be collected by the QuMat office in advance and shown from a central computer.

Poster pitching is a skill we want to teach you, and as with any skill, this will require practice. Here are some tips for a good pitch for you to consider:

• First and foremost, the purpose of the pitch is to attract people to your poster!
• One minute is way too short to explain your work. So don’t even try to do it.
• The purpose is to make people curious about your work/poster. Give them a reason WHY they should visit your poster.

This can be done in a variety of ways: promising the answer to a thought-provoking question, promising an exciting result, highlighting the role of a close collaboration between different nodes in the program, using an interesting metaphor for your work, etc…

Many things can work, and finding out what works for you takes practice.

(Please realize that a poster pitch is, therefore, different from the better-known “elevator pitch”, after which your audience needs to get the message. Or if you like… in this case, the message is “Wow, that’s exciting, I should visit that poster!”)

•  You only have one static slide; use it well. Make sure that the slide supports what you say/use the slide to guide your spoken text. Resist the temptation to put the full contents of your poster on the slide: people will not be able to absorb the information and will not listen to your spoken word as they will be too distracted.
•  One minute is very short. Make it count -> Make sure you practice your pitch in advance