Posters for AALS Meeting — New Orleans, LA

Fourteen Association of American Law Schools (AALS) sections seek proposals for poster presentations for the 2013 AALS Annual Meeting, Jan. 4-7, 2013. Proposals are due by Sept. 28, 2012.

To: Law Teachers

From: Jane M. La Barbera

Re: Poster Presentation at 2013 AALS Annual Meeting

You are invited to submit a proposal for a poster presentation for the 2013 AALS Annual Meeting in Washington, DC (January 4-7, 2013).

Please send your proposal by e-mail to sections@aals.org by September 28, 2012. The proposal should state your name, the name of your law school, the Section for which you are submitting, the title of the poster, an actual electronic copy of the poster itself and a description of what you will be presenting. Your proposal and poster will be sent to the Section Chair and Chair-Elect who will form a Section review committee to determine what posters should be recommended to the AALS Committee on Sections and Annual Meeting, which will make the final selection of all posters.

This is an opportunity to share your work with the larger academic community. If your Section is not sponsoring posters, you may still submit a poster proposal; the AALS Committee on Sections and Annual Meeting will review it. AALS will notify all posters proposers by November 9th, 2012 if the poster has been selected, and if so, the date, time and location of the poster presentation at the Annual Meeting.

The following AALS Sections are seeking proposals from individuals for poster presentations for the 2013 AALS Annual Meeting:

  • Academic Support
  • Balance in Legal Education
  • Children and the Law
  • Clinical Legal Education
  • Environmental Law
  • Family and Juvenile Law
  • Law, Medicine and Health Care
  • Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research
  • Part-Time Division
  • Poverty Law
  • Pro Bono and Public Service Opportunities
  • Teaching Methods
  • Transactional Law and Skills (Section will give a slight preference to posters focusing on international transactional law or skills.)
  • Women in Legal Education

Who is Eligible to Submit a Poster?

Faculty members of AALS member law schools are eligible to submit one poster to a Section. Faculty at fee-paid law schools and foreign and visiting faculty members from member and fee-paid schools are not eligible to submit a poster proposal.

Professional staff at AALS member law schools are qualified to submit posters to Sections which have the majority of their membership made up of professional staff.

Goal of Posters at AALS Annual Meeting

Posters are intended to provide authors an opportunity to present in clear and succinct fashion the thesis and conclusion of their research, to describe teaching innovations or service projects outside formal program presentations. Because the focus is on the content of the research and innovative teaching, posters that are primarily promoting a book, software or materials or a law school program or project are not eligible for poster display unless it is a collaborative program or project of multiple member law schools. Advertising or fliers are not permitted with posters.

What Are Posters and How Do I Make a Poster?

Poster sessions are a common way for researchers in the sciences and the social sciences to present research results at a conference in a way that will be accessible to everyone who attends-not just those who are able to come to a specific presentation. They are not so common yet in legal academe, so here are some resources about presenting your research in the form of a poster at an academic conference. Most people put together the poster using power point and then print it on a large scale either through resources at their own university or at a copy shop. Many universities offer assistance in poster design and printing. Research assistants are also a good resource for figuring out how to put the poster together.

http://writingcenter.tamu.edu/2009/how-to/science-technical/research-posters/
http://www.healtheconomics.org/congress/2007/presentations/posters.pdf (overview)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqgjgwIXadA (template and how to)
http://www.learning.wisc.edu/ugsymposium/poster.html (step by step guide)

Audience for Posters

The readers of posters may be professors casually passing through the hallway, professors who are reading posters for insights into possible interdisciplinary links to their own work or professors who seek out a particular poster because it presents research, teaching innovation or service project important to the reader. It is important to keep poster information succinct and readable because that effort increases exposure to the core ideas of the poster.

Display of Posters

Posters will be displayed in the hallways of the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel from Friday, January 4 through Sunday, January 6, 2013. Posters will be grouped and identified as a Section’s poster. AALS will provide the easels and the poster presenter will provide the poster. The presenter’s poster will be displayed on an easel. The poster should be easily read from 2-3 feet away, the content easily digested by viewers who stop for a minute or two to review your work. Specific suggestions on size, format and logistical details of preparing and shipping your posters to New Orleans, Louisiana are described below.

Faculty posters will be grouped and identified as a Section poster (e.g. AALS Section on Women in Legal Education posters).

Poster Presentations

AALS will schedule an hour for Sections’ posters to be presented during the Annual Meeting. The current plan is to have one day during the Annual Meeting with three one hour time slots assigned to poster presentations. Poster presenters should be prepared to have their posters displayed in the hallways from January 4 through January 6, 2013 throughout the AALS Annual Meeting. If AALS should receive so many Section posters that they cannot fit in the appropriate space, we will have presenters post their posters on an easel for an hour and allow other posters to replace it, so that all posters can be shown.

Poster Guidelines:

Posters should easily read from 2-3 feet away. Text should be limited to the core ideas and presented in a font size that allows our aging academics to read it with ease.
Experienced poster presenters suggest 3-6 graphics to mix in with your text to make the posters more engaging. (See website resources on posters)

Poster Mechanics

Posters should be mounted on a hard backing such as foam core that can be placed on an easel. Foam core is available at print shops, business and art supply stores, FedEx Office, Staples, Office Depot, etc. Staples sells a 30″‘x 40″ foam core poster board for approximately $55 (pack of 10). FedEx Office sells a 3’x4’ foam core poster board for approximately $25 each. The closest FedEx Office store to the Hilton New Orleans Riverside is located at 901 Convention Center Blvd, Suite 100 (504) 585-5750.
Because posters typically will be placed on easels in an area in which other posters are displayed, it is important that posters not exceed 3ft x 4ft (36 x 48 inches).
Other than easels, AALS does not provide construction materials. Unless you have the AALS decorator (C.H.S.), FedEx Office or other local copy place assist you with your poster, please bring your own pins, tacks, tape, and whatever other set-up materials you need to assemble your poster. Please note that electricity will NOT be provided to the posters. There is no audio visual equipment with posters.

Shipping of Posters

You are responsible for shipping your poster to and from the AALS Annual Meeting.

Penfield’s, the Hotel’s shipping and receiving department, will receive incoming posters, which can be picked up in the Business Office located on the second floor near hotel’s front desk. Penfield’s can receive mounted posters or posters rolled into a tube and shipped in care of yourself* for $8.95-16.95 (price is determined by the actual weight up to 20 lbs.) Please send for delivery no earlier than three days prior to your arrival date. If you wish to send the poster back to yourself after the Annual Meeting, you may use you own FedEx, UPS or Airborne account. Again, there is a charge of $8.95-16.95 (price is determined by the actual weigh up to 20 lbs.) to send it out via Penfield’s. If you do not have an account with a shipping company you can use the hotel’s shipping account, the cost for which will be based on weight of the package, its destination and speed of service. If you plan to ship your poster home, please retain the box in which your poster was originally shipped since the hotel does not stock oversized boxes. Questions can be directed to Penfield’s at (504) 584-3939

*Please note you must be a guest staying at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside in order to ship the poster in care of yourself. If you are staying at the overflow hotel, you will need to ship your poster to yourself at the hotel at which you are staying and bring it to the Hilton New Orleans Riverside for display.

Posters shipped to the hotel can be taken to the local FedEx Office (901 Convention Center Blvd, Suite 100 (504) 585-5750) where they will mount it on foam core for $5 per square foot.

FedEx Office can receive an electronic file of posters (PDF preferred), produce a poster, affix it to foam core and deliver it free of charge on orders above $50 ($20 surcharge for orders below $50) to the Hilton New Orleans Riverside (24 hour advance notice needed for delivery). The cost to produce, print and mount a poster onto foam core is approximately $110 for a 3×4′ color poster on matte paper -$130 if you have the poster laminated.

Files can be submitted to the FedEx Office website (https://printonline.fedex.com) -and follow the instructions. You will receive an email confirmation followed by a phone call from FedEx Office. Files may also be sent to FedEx Office at usa2153@fedex.com; 24 hour turnaround. Payment by credit card is required.

The exhibit decorator, Convention Handling Services (C.H.S.), offers several options for receiving and mounting posters:

Package #1 – C.H.S. provides 3’x 4′ foam core. Presenter responsible for shipping poster to and from the Hilton New Orleans Riverside as well as affixing the poster to the foam board and setting up the poster. $22.50

Package #2 – C.H.S. will receive presenter’s poster, already affixed to foam board, at their warehouse or the hotel. At the conclusion of the Annual Meeting, C.H.S. will ship the poster back to point of origin. C.H.S. is not responsible for affixing poster to foam board, setting up of the poster or returning the poster to the service desk. $40.00

Package #3 – C.H.S. will receive unmounted poster, provide you with a 3’x 4′ white foam board and the materials needed to affix the poster to the board, and ship it to point of origin at conclusion of the Annual Meeting. You are responsible for affixing the poster to the foam board setting up of the poster and returning the poster to the service desk. $62.50

Removing Posters at the Conclusion

Posters should remain displayed until 5 pm Sunday, January 6, 2013. At the conclusion of the Annual Meeting, the hotel will discard any remaining posters. If you wish to keep your poster, please plan to retrieve your poster before 5:00 p.m. and return it by the various methods listed above.

Posters on AALS Website:

The selected posters PDF will be posted on the 2013 Annual Meeting website after the meeting, so other law faculty may see them.

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