ECHO's International Agriculture Conference (EIAC) in Florida will feature a poster session and proceedings. This provides conference attendees with another way, in addition to a talk or workshop, to share and exchange information. If you plan to attend the EIAC in November, please consider creating a poster or submitting proceedings. Your poster and/or proceedings can then be viewed by other conference delegates. There will be an opportunity to dialog with other conference delegates about your poster. 

Below are some specifics on how to participate in our conference poster session.

Poster or proceedings categories

Posters and/or proceedings should relate to small-scale agriculture or community development. Practices and techniques presented should be those that are affordable and that can be implemented with local resources. We are looking for posters and proceedings that fall within the following categories:

Research summaries

These reports relay information on findings learned from varying levels of experimentation. This is a good fit for scientists, graduate students, or student researchers. It is also a good fit for development practitioners to present knowledge gained from farmer field trials, observation trials conducted on project sites, or results of various surveys.

Development project summaries

This type of report is less research-oriented, presenting lessons learned from the implementation of agriculture-related development projects. For example, a report could shed light on the effectiveness of a particular development approach, crop production practice, or appropriate technology.

Crop evaluations

This is a distinct category focused on crops. Featured crops could include cereal grains, multipurpose trees, fruits, vegetables, forages, legumes, Neglected and Underutilized Species (NUS) or any other category of plants found to improve the lives of farmers and gardeners. Whether the information is gleaned from a research or development project, this is a good way to share insights on how well a crop has performed or been adapted by farmers in your part of the world.

Presenter responsibilities

Applicants must complete the Poster and/or Proceedings Submission Form which includes an abstract (250 word maximum) of your report. This form will provide an opportunity for you to indicate whether or not you are okay with your poster and/or proceedings being posted - as a PDF - on this website after the conference. After you complete the form, a staff member will review your submission. Upon approval, you can proceed with preparing your materials. Poster abstracts will be included in the ECHO International Agriculturel Conference Proceedings. 

We also ask that each poster presenter be responsible for developing, printing, and bringing their own poster to the conference. This includes any expenses incurred. ECHO will provide the space and materials (e.g. easels, tape, push-pins) to display your poster. Below are some general guidelines and resources for developing a proceedings and poster.

Proceedings guidelines

Each proceedings submission should be no longer than 3 pages, single spaced, and should contain the following blocks of information:

• Title and authors
• Abstract: 250 word summary or less of the report shared.
• Introduction and Objective(s): This section presents the “why” of your research or project. Provide a sense of context, including the location in which your work was done. Explain a problem (e.g., crop production constraints in a given area) or set of issues that your research or development project addresses. Include a statement of your objective(s).
• Materials and Methods: This section presents the “how” of your work. Describe materials used, how the study or project was implemented, and how information and data were gathered and processed.
• Results and Discussion: Here is where important findings are presented. In addition to brief statements, this section can also contain supporting tables, graphs and/or photos. Be selective about graphs/tables to show the most meaningful/relevant data and don't include long tables or raw data. Discuss the applicability of your findings to farmer constraints.
• Conclusion or Outcomes: Based on the findings presented in the Results section, outline conclusions or outcomes. This could involve listing key take-a-ways that you want people to remember and/or implications of your work to smallholder farmers. It is okay to have a combined Results and Conclusions or Results and Outcomes section.
• Reference(s): ECHO uses Chicago Manual Style for citations.

Please use the ECHO Proceedings Template when preparing your materials. It contains instructions for authors.

Printed poster preparation guidelines

Use of PowerPoint

Most commonly, posters to be printed are prepared on a single PowerPoint slide. It is important to know beforehand where you can have your poster printed. Students and scientists often have access to printers at their college or university. To be able to accommodate everyone’s poster, we would prefer that a poster not exceed 120 cm (48 inches) in width or height. ECHO Has two templates for you to utilize if you would like:

• Single-column poster template
• Double-column poster template

Design considerations

• Presenters are free to be creative as far as background and color choices. The main consideration to keep in mind is readability. Keep the following in mind:
  • A text color that contrasts well with the background color will help the words stand out. Black text on a white background, for instance, works well.
  • Present information clearly and simply. People will be less likely to read your poster if it has too many words. Consider using colored graphs or photos in place of long numerical tables.
• Keep body text left-aligned or fully justified; do not right-justify the text.
• Use conventional fonts such as Arial, Helvetica, or Tahoma, and only use one or two fonts. For a display poster developed from a single PowerPoint slide, suggested font sizes are 72-120 points for the title and 24-48 points for body text. Headings of more than six words should be in upper and lower case instead of all capitals. Never write whole sentences in all capitals or underline; use bold characters to stress your point.
• Bullets are a great way to make a simple and clear point.
• Do not attempt to put too much information on your poster! The poster should give enough information to the viewer to explain the gist and then allow the viewer to gather more information from the presenter one-on-one.
• Spell check and proof-read before printing a final version.
• Sample posters can be viewed at http://edn.link/posters