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Academy · Concepts & Definitions · Presenting at congress (workshop)
Presenting Research at Congress: Poster and Slide Design and Preparation for Difficult Questions
A recording of this workshop will be added once a cohort has completed it. This written session plan covers poster and slide design and a live question-and-answer rehearsal, including the question each participant most wishes to avoid.
This session covers poster and slide design for a congress presentation — visual hierarchy, the amount of text a poster or slide can carry, and legibility at distance — together with a live question-and-answer rehearsal in which each participant names, and then practises answering, the question about their work that they most wish to avoid.
Learning objectives
- The design principles that distinguish a legible congress poster from an overcrowded one.
- Why the session includes a dedicated question-and-answer rehearsal in addition to design review.
- How the ‘hardest question’ exercise is conducted.
Common misconceptions
- “A congress poster should include all the content of the full manuscript.” The design constraint of a poster is legibility at viewing distance in a crowded hall, which requires far less text and a clearer visual hierarchy than a manuscript; a poster crowded with manuscript-level detail is harder to engage with, not more thorough.
Principles of poster and slide design
The session addresses visual hierarchy (what should be legible from several metres away compared with what a viewer reads at close range), appropriate text density for a poster compared with a manuscript, and consistent, legible typography and colour choices, reviewing each participant’s draft poster or slide deck against these specific criteria rather than general design preferences.
The question-and-answer rehearsal segment
Following the design portion, participants work in pairs and take turns presenting their poster or key slides to a partner, who asks genuine clarifying questions. This provides practice in answering questions spontaneously in a lower-stakes setting than the congress itself.
Preparing for the most difficult anticipated question
Each participant privately identifies the question about their own work that they most wish to avoid, which often concerns a genuine limitation or a weaker aspect of the methodology, and then practises answering it directly and candidly with their partner, since preparing for this question in advance is consistently more useful than hoping that it will not arise.
Session recording
A recording of the design-review portion of a live run of this session will be added above once a cohort has run. The question-and-answer rehearsal segment is deliberately not recorded, so that it remains low-stakes for participants.
Key points
Key points
The design constraint of a congress poster is legibility at distance rather than manuscript-level completeness. The session’s question-and-answer rehearsal, which includes the question each participant most wishes to avoid, provides practice in answering under pressure before the congress itself.
Practical application
Practical application
- Design for legibility at viewing distance, not manuscript-level text density. Content that can be understood only when read closely and at length should be removed.
- Identify the most difficult anticipated question before the congress rather than during it. Rehearsing a candid answer to the question a presenter most wishes to avoid is generally more effective than hoping that it will not be asked.
- Rehearse aloud with a partner rather than silently. Rehearsing aloud reveals hesitations and gaps that reviewing a script alone does not.
Frequently asked questions
The design principles (legibility and hierarchy) apply to both formats, and the question-and-answer rehearsal can be adapted to a virtual setting.
No. Participants identify the question privately and practise the answer only with their partner, which keeps the exercise low-stakes rather than exposing a perceived weakness to the whole group.
The design principles can still be applied usefully to a draft or outline; the question-and-answer rehearsal is most effective once at least a near-final version is available to present.
References
- Based on common congress and scientific-communication presentation guidance (e.g. major medical congress author/presenter resources), applied as general best practice. read 10 October 2026.
Every source above is a peer-reviewed article, a publisher’s record of one, or a standard issued by the body that owns it. Each carries the date it was last read. Where a standard moves, this article is revised rather than left up with a note.
How to cite this article
Pick your referencing style and copy it. Your university or target journal may vary the punctuation — check its guide if it has one.
Pubrica Academy. (2026, October 10). Presenting Research at Congress: Poster and Slide Design and Preparation for Difficult Questions. Pubrica. https://pubrica.com/academy/workshop-guides/presenting-research-at-congress-workshop/
Pubrica Academy. “Presenting Research at Congress: Poster and Slide Design and Preparation for Difficult Questions.” Pubrica, 10 Oct. 2026, pubrica.com/academy/workshop-guides/presenting-research-at-congress-workshop/.
Pubrica Academy (2026) Presenting Research at Congress: Poster and Slide Design and Preparation for Difficult Questions. Pubrica. Available at: https://pubrica.com/academy/workshop-guides/presenting-research-at-congress-workshop/ (Accessed: 15 October 2026).
Pubrica Academy. “Presenting Research at Congress: Poster and Slide Design and Preparation for Difficult Questions.” Pubrica. October 10, 2026. https://pubrica.com/academy/workshop-guides/presenting-research-at-congress-workshop/
Pubrica Academy, ‘Presenting Research at Congress: Poster and Slide Design and Preparation for Difficult Questions’ (Pubrica, 10 October 2026) <https://pubrica.com/academy/workshop-guides/presenting-research-at-congress-workshop/> accessed 15 October 2026.
Pubrica Academy. Presenting Research at Congress: Poster and Slide Design and Preparation for Difficult Questions. [Internet]. Pubrica; 2026 Oct 10 [cited 2026 Oct 15]. Available from: https://pubrica.com/academy/workshop-guides/presenting-research-at-congress-workshop/
Pubrica Academy, “Presenting Research at Congress: Poster and Slide Design and Preparation for Difficult Questions,” Pubrica, Oct. 10, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://pubrica.com/academy/workshop-guides/presenting-research-at-congress-workshop/
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Session structure
Half-day format.
1. Poster/slide design review against legibility and hierarchy criteria 2. Paired practice presentations with genuine partner questions 3. Private naming of each participant's hardest anticipated question 4. Paired rehearsal of answering that specific question directly
Pubrica AcademyWritten and maintained by Pubrica’s subject matter experts. Articles are revised when the underlying standards change, and each article states the date on which it was last reviewed.
How Pubrica can help
Pubrica assists researchers in designing congress posters and slides and conducts this form of question-and-answer rehearsal before a presentation.