Instructions for Presenters
Virtual attendees have the option of presenting one virtual (i.e. faux-live) talk. In-person attendees have the option of presenting one (or more) posters and/or one in-person talk, no matter what type of in-person talk (i.e. regular contributed or invited).
The one talk-limit only applies to the presenting author; you can be a co-author on multiple talks/posters given by others. The person presenting the talk (virtually or in-person) should be the one who submits it, even if they are not lead author on the work. Talk sign-up is through a link that will appear on your 'Profile home' once you have completed your registration as a conference attendee. Jump to: |
Quick facts • To sign up for a talk or poster you must first register and pay for your meeting attendance • Once registered, a link to submit/edit a talk or poster will appear in your 'Profile home' in the registration system • Virtual attendees can present one virtual (i.e. faux-live) talk only; in-person attendees can present one (or more) in-person posters and/or one in-person talk only. • Talks are accepted 1st come, 1st served until capacity is reached or until May 15, whichever is earlier. • The submission deadline is earlier for those applying for talk awards; important details here. • Faux-live and regular contributed in-person talks are 14 min. total, STRICTLY ENFORCED; we encourage a 12-13 min. talk + questions. • Virtual (i.e. faux-live) talk videos must be uploaded by midnight (EST) June 14. Optional videos of in-person talks for inclusion on the virtual platform can be uploaded until midnight (EST) June 23. Upload your video ahead of these deadlines if you want time to correct the autocaptions. • All posters are accepted until June 1. |
Posters
These are in-person only; there is no option for a virtual poster. Those wanting to present a poster should sign up using the poster submission option which becomes available after registering as an in-person attendee (by visiting your "Profile Home" in the registration system). We recommend reviewing these Tips for Preparing Your Poster.
All posters will be accepted if submitted by the June 1 deadline. Submissions after June 1 are discouraged, but may be possible, space permitting. These will be grouped during the poster sessions into a "Last Minute Submissions" section and may not appear individually in the program. Unless you are applying for the poster prize competition, abstracts are optional but encouraged (300 word limit). If an abstract is provided, it will be available to attendees through the online program. Abstracts will not be published in hard-copy form. You can edit details of an existing poster, or withdraw it, by logging back into the submission site. Such changes will be automatically (and instantly) reflected in the conference program, once it is live.
Posters can be a maximum of 1.2 m x 1.2 m (4 ft x 4 ft) and pushpins will be provided. Poster boards will be numbered and presenters should use the assigned space. Posters will be assigned to one of two evening poster sessions. Posters should be displayed by noon on the day of the assigned poster session and removed by noon of the following day. Presenters should attend their poster during their assigned session.
Poster invitations: As in previous years, we will feature a poster invitation system (postvites) that allows presenters to browse a list of conference registrants ahead of the meeting and select up to three who will receive a personalized invitation to their poster (indicating the title, author(s), date, time and location). Past experience shows that most invitees make the effort to visit a poster to which they are invited. This is very different from a talk, which may not be attended by the people you want to meet, nor can you interact with them one-on-one if they do show up. Therefore, if you want to discuss your work one-on-one with someone, consider giving a poster.
Archiving and sharing your poster: We encourage you to consider archiving your poster. Doing so makes it publicly available and citable by yourself and others. In addition, those interested can easily download it for later reference and it may provide increased visibility for your work (e.g., to those not attending the conference or who were there but missed it among the hundreds of others).
We suggest figshare as content deposited on figshare is stored under Creative Commons licenses that allow you to retain ownership and get credit for your work. More details about their licensing options are available here. Depositing to a common host also allows people to easily browse all meeting posters on a single site via a common tag (i.e. Evol2022). Simple instructions on how to archive your poster on figshare (for free) are available here. These instructions also explain how you can easily generate a QR code that you can include on your printed poster that will allow users to directly access it on figshare simply by scanning it.
These are in-person only; there is no option for a virtual poster. Those wanting to present a poster should sign up using the poster submission option which becomes available after registering as an in-person attendee (by visiting your "Profile Home" in the registration system). We recommend reviewing these Tips for Preparing Your Poster.
All posters will be accepted if submitted by the June 1 deadline. Submissions after June 1 are discouraged, but may be possible, space permitting. These will be grouped during the poster sessions into a "Last Minute Submissions" section and may not appear individually in the program. Unless you are applying for the poster prize competition, abstracts are optional but encouraged (300 word limit). If an abstract is provided, it will be available to attendees through the online program. Abstracts will not be published in hard-copy form. You can edit details of an existing poster, or withdraw it, by logging back into the submission site. Such changes will be automatically (and instantly) reflected in the conference program, once it is live.
Posters can be a maximum of 1.2 m x 1.2 m (4 ft x 4 ft) and pushpins will be provided. Poster boards will be numbered and presenters should use the assigned space. Posters will be assigned to one of two evening poster sessions. Posters should be displayed by noon on the day of the assigned poster session and removed by noon of the following day. Presenters should attend their poster during their assigned session.
Poster invitations: As in previous years, we will feature a poster invitation system (postvites) that allows presenters to browse a list of conference registrants ahead of the meeting and select up to three who will receive a personalized invitation to their poster (indicating the title, author(s), date, time and location). Past experience shows that most invitees make the effort to visit a poster to which they are invited. This is very different from a talk, which may not be attended by the people you want to meet, nor can you interact with them one-on-one if they do show up. Therefore, if you want to discuss your work one-on-one with someone, consider giving a poster.
Archiving and sharing your poster: We encourage you to consider archiving your poster. Doing so makes it publicly available and citable by yourself and others. In addition, those interested can easily download it for later reference and it may provide increased visibility for your work (e.g., to those not attending the conference or who were there but missed it among the hundreds of others).
We suggest figshare as content deposited on figshare is stored under Creative Commons licenses that allow you to retain ownership and get credit for your work. More details about their licensing options are available here. Depositing to a common host also allows people to easily browse all meeting posters on a single site via a common tag (i.e. Evol2022). Simple instructions on how to archive your poster on figshare (for free) are available here. These instructions also explain how you can easily generate a QR code that you can include on your printed poster that will allow users to directly access it on figshare simply by scanning it.
Talk sign-up
Those wanting to give a contributed talk, or who have been invited to give a special talk (e.g. symposium, award), should sign up via the talk registration link which becomes available in your 'Profile home' after registering and paying as a meeting attendee. Virtual attendees can sign up to give a faux-live talk during the the virtual 2-day conference (June 21-22), while in-person attendees can sign up to give an in-person talk during the in-person conference (June 25-28).
Attendees can present only one talk, whether faux-live or in-person (this includes invited talks). This only applies to the presenting author; you can be a co-author on multiple talks given by others. The deadline for talk submission (faux-live and in-person) is May 15, although submissions may close earlier if capacity is reached. There is an earlier deadline for those applying to the Hamilton or Mayr competitions (details here). We recommend that you register and submit your talk early to secure a spot.
Faux-live talks: These are pre-recorded by the presenter and uploaded to the meeting platform (see below). The recording will then be played 'faux-live' in a scheduled session during the virtual meeting. The presenter is expected to be present at this session to answer questions in the chat. Following the faux-live airing of the talk, the recording will be available for on-demand viewing for 6 months on the virtual platform. Faux-live talks must be uploaded by June 14.
In-person talks: These are presented live at the in-person meeting, meaning you must be present in Cleveland. When submitting an in-person talk, there are three types to choose from:
Submitting your talk:
Those wanting to give a contributed talk, or who have been invited to give a special talk (e.g. symposium, award), should sign up via the talk registration link which becomes available in your 'Profile home' after registering and paying as a meeting attendee. Virtual attendees can sign up to give a faux-live talk during the the virtual 2-day conference (June 21-22), while in-person attendees can sign up to give an in-person talk during the in-person conference (June 25-28).
Attendees can present only one talk, whether faux-live or in-person (this includes invited talks). This only applies to the presenting author; you can be a co-author on multiple talks given by others. The deadline for talk submission (faux-live and in-person) is May 15, although submissions may close earlier if capacity is reached. There is an earlier deadline for those applying to the Hamilton or Mayr competitions (details here). We recommend that you register and submit your talk early to secure a spot.
Faux-live talks: These are pre-recorded by the presenter and uploaded to the meeting platform (see below). The recording will then be played 'faux-live' in a scheduled session during the virtual meeting. The presenter is expected to be present at this session to answer questions in the chat. Following the faux-live airing of the talk, the recording will be available for on-demand viewing for 6 months on the virtual platform. Faux-live talks must be uploaded by June 14.
In-person talks: These are presented live at the in-person meeting, meaning you must be present in Cleveland. When submitting an in-person talk, there are three types to choose from:
- Regular contributed. These are 14 min. in total length (details below) and are open to all attendees not giving any other type of talk. This is the appropriate talk-type for the majority of attendees, including those applying for the SSE Hamilton or SSB Mayr competitions.
- Symposium. These are by prior invitation of the organizer(s) of the various symposia only. Topics and organizers were chosen by the Societies ahead of the meeting. If you have been invited ahead of time by an organizer to speak in their symposium, choose this talk type and submit your talk details by the May 15 deadline. Talk lengths are arranged via your symposium organizer, but must be 14, 29, 44, or 59 min. long in total (+1 min. movement/setup time). All symposia talks will be live-streamed and recorded for later on-demand viewing on the virtual platform.
- Plenary or award. These are by prior invitation only and include presidential addresses and talks by the winners of the Dobzhansky and Young Investigator's Prizes. Hamilton and Mayr applicants do NOT choose this talk type. Award talks are 29 min. in duration (+ 1 min movement/setup time) and will be presented in the Awards Symposium on Tuesday, June 28. Plenary and award winners should choose this talk type and submit their talk details by the May 15 deadline. Plenary and award talks will be live-streamed and recorded for later on-demand viewing on the virtual platform.
Submitting your talk:
- Keywords are critical. Faux-live and regular contributed in-person talks will be grouped into sessions using these, so choose carefully.
- Abstracts are encouraged and are required if applying for SSB Mayr or SSE Hamilton awards (300 word limit).
- Spanish abstracts are encouraged. Include this alongside your English abstract, if you can (300 word total limit).
- Apply to a symposium (in-person talks). During submission of a regular contributed talk, you have the option of indicating any symposium for which your talk may be appropriate. In limited cases, symposia organizers may invite as few regular contributed talks to join their symposium. Doing so would provide greater exposure for your talk, including having it live-streamed for virtual attendees. Whether you do this or not has no impact on whether your talk is accepted (all are accepted until capacity is reached or until May 15, whichever is earlier) and no funding would be provided.
- Edit or withdraw your talk at any time by logging back into the submission system. Changes will be automatically and instantly reflected in the program (once available). Changes after May 15 will not affect the session you talk is assigned to.
Talk preparation & delivery
Faux-live virtual talks and regular contributed in-person talks should be a maximum of 14 min., leaving 1 min. movement/setup time between talks. We recommend a 12-13 min. talk, allowing 1-2 min. for questions. The 14 min. total time for in-person talks will be strictly enforced by by an audio timing system (i.e. chimes). For virtual talks, videos of maximum 14 min. are strongly encouraged; presenters that upload a virtual talk of 15 min or longer will be required to resubmit a shorter one (<15 min) or their presentation will be withdrawn.
Audio timing system: For in-person talks, different audio chimes will sound to denote the start of your talk, a 2 min. left warning (i.e. at minute 12), and the end (i.e. at minute 14), indicating start of the 1 min. movement/setup time. Please respect these. If the chime systems fails, appoint someone to monitor the time and alert speakers at the appropriate moments.
You can familiarize yourself with the chimes here:
Accessibility: For guidance on preparing your talk, including making it more accessible, review these Best Practices for Preparing Your Oral Presentation.
Copyright: Please adhere to ethical and legal reuse of any images/ videos in your presentations. You may find the information in this document useful.
Slides (in-person talks): Presentations should be formatted using the widescreen (16:9) slide size, not 4:3. Only Powerpoint and pdfs are supported. Additional information about supported file types, imbedding audio/video files, fonts, etc. is available here. Slides may be uploaded ahead of and during the conference via Edit / Withdraw / Upload link on your Profile home in the registration system (preferred method), or by visiting the Speaker Ready Room (Rm 18) onsite at the conference. Slides must be uploaded by 5 pm on the day BEFORE your scheduled presentation. You can review your talk in the Speaker Ready Room and technicians will be there to help resolve any compatibility or formatting issues. All session rooms, and the Speaker Ready Room, will have PCs running MS Windows 10 with Office 365 and the most recent version of Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. If your presentation was prepared on a Mac or other non-Windows system, we recommend that you review it in the Speaker Ready Room ahead of time. A PDF may be the safer option in this case.
Faux-live virtual talks and regular contributed in-person talks should be a maximum of 14 min., leaving 1 min. movement/setup time between talks. We recommend a 12-13 min. talk, allowing 1-2 min. for questions. The 14 min. total time for in-person talks will be strictly enforced by by an audio timing system (i.e. chimes). For virtual talks, videos of maximum 14 min. are strongly encouraged; presenters that upload a virtual talk of 15 min or longer will be required to resubmit a shorter one (<15 min) or their presentation will be withdrawn.
Audio timing system: For in-person talks, different audio chimes will sound to denote the start of your talk, a 2 min. left warning (i.e. at minute 12), and the end (i.e. at minute 14), indicating start of the 1 min. movement/setup time. Please respect these. If the chime systems fails, appoint someone to monitor the time and alert speakers at the appropriate moments.
You can familiarize yourself with the chimes here:
Accessibility: For guidance on preparing your talk, including making it more accessible, review these Best Practices for Preparing Your Oral Presentation.
Copyright: Please adhere to ethical and legal reuse of any images/ videos in your presentations. You may find the information in this document useful.
Slides (in-person talks): Presentations should be formatted using the widescreen (16:9) slide size, not 4:3. Only Powerpoint and pdfs are supported. Additional information about supported file types, imbedding audio/video files, fonts, etc. is available here. Slides may be uploaded ahead of and during the conference via Edit / Withdraw / Upload link on your Profile home in the registration system (preferred method), or by visiting the Speaker Ready Room (Rm 18) onsite at the conference. Slides must be uploaded by 5 pm on the day BEFORE your scheduled presentation. You can review your talk in the Speaker Ready Room and technicians will be there to help resolve any compatibility or formatting issues. All session rooms, and the Speaker Ready Room, will have PCs running MS Windows 10 with Office 365 and the most recent version of Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. If your presentation was prepared on a Mac or other non-Windows system, we recommend that you review it in the Speaker Ready Room ahead of time. A PDF may be the safer option in this case.
Recording your talk
Captioning. All pre-recorded talk videos will be autocaptioned in English and in Spanish. When viewing talks (faux-live or on-demand) on the Virtual platform, attendees will be able to turn on captions in either language, should they wish. Once your talk video is uploaded, captions will be automatically generated within ~1h, and you can then edit them to correct any mistakes, if you wish. The option to edit autocaptions closes when video submission closes (June 14 for virtual talks, June 23 for in-person), so if you want to correct these we suggest uploading your video ahead of the deadline. Instructions for how to edit the transcript can be found here. Speaking slowly and as clearly as possible when recording your video will improve the accuracy of the autocaptions.
We suggest a maximum of 14 min. for your video; videos 15 min or longer will be be returned to the presenters and they will be required to resubmit a shorter one or their talk will be withdrawn.
Video Recording Options: Our registration system has a built-in self-recording tool that is accessible from your 'Profile Home' (via the Edit / Withdraw / Record link). You are not required to use it, but it as an easy, one-stop option for making your recording. If you are more comfortable with another platform (e.g., Zoom, Loom, Webex, GoToMeeting, PowerPoint), you can record using your preferred software and then upload an MP4 video file via the Upload Presentation Video button in the Edit / Withdraw / Record link on your Profile home.
If you choose to use the built-in recording tool, it functions best with the latest version of Google Chrome. Detailed instructions are available here: https://support.x-cd.com/portal/en/kb/articles/record-a-presentation-in-the-submission-platform
Tips and suggestions:
- Those giving a virtual (i.e. faux-live) talk must pre-record it. It will then be broadcast at a scheduled time during the virtual conference, with the 'presenter' attending and answering questions in the chat
- Those giving a regular contributed in-person talk have the option of pre-recording a version of their talk and uploading it. Approximately 30 min. after they present their talk in-person at the meeting, the pre-recorded version will become available for on-demand viewing on the meeting virtual platform, with English and Spanish captions. We strongly encourage presenters to do this, as it provides increased exposure for their talk and increased content for virtual attendees. In-person attendees who missed your talk may also want to view the on-demand recording later. This replaces the mobile-phone recorded videos of talks that we posted on YouTube during past meetings.
- Virtual (i.e. faux-live) talks must be uploaded to the conference platform by midnight (EST) on June 14. Those giving in-person presentations that would like a recording of their presentation to be made available on the conference platform after giving their talk must upload the recording by midnight (EST) on June 23. In both cases, videos are uploaded by logging back into the registration system and following the link in your Profile home.
- Those giving symposium and other invited talks at the in-person meeting should not pre-record and upload a video. These talks will be live-streamed and the recording of this stream will be automatically posted to the virtual platform afterward.
Captioning. All pre-recorded talk videos will be autocaptioned in English and in Spanish. When viewing talks (faux-live or on-demand) on the Virtual platform, attendees will be able to turn on captions in either language, should they wish. Once your talk video is uploaded, captions will be automatically generated within ~1h, and you can then edit them to correct any mistakes, if you wish. The option to edit autocaptions closes when video submission closes (June 14 for virtual talks, June 23 for in-person), so if you want to correct these we suggest uploading your video ahead of the deadline. Instructions for how to edit the transcript can be found here. Speaking slowly and as clearly as possible when recording your video will improve the accuracy of the autocaptions.
We suggest a maximum of 14 min. for your video; videos 15 min or longer will be be returned to the presenters and they will be required to resubmit a shorter one or their talk will be withdrawn.
Video Recording Options: Our registration system has a built-in self-recording tool that is accessible from your 'Profile Home' (via the Edit / Withdraw / Record link). You are not required to use it, but it as an easy, one-stop option for making your recording. If you are more comfortable with another platform (e.g., Zoom, Loom, Webex, GoToMeeting, PowerPoint), you can record using your preferred software and then upload an MP4 video file via the Upload Presentation Video button in the Edit / Withdraw / Record link on your Profile home.
If you choose to use the built-in recording tool, it functions best with the latest version of Google Chrome. Detailed instructions are available here: https://support.x-cd.com/portal/en/kb/articles/record-a-presentation-in-the-submission-platform
Tips and suggestions:
- Don’t expect your recording to be perfect – it’s fine if you stumble on a few words.
- Relax, give yourself an opportunity to practice, and enjoy sharing your presentation.
- Review the Best Practices for Oral Presentations document for tips on making your talk more accessible.
- If you have questions concerning the recording process, email us at evolution.meetings@gmail.com.
Social media
The Evolution Meetings support the communication and discussion of science. Information presented at the meeting (in audio or visual format) may be reported and discussed by attendees and science writers via blogs, Twitter, or other platforms. We require that this be done respectfully and without direct reproduction of visual materials (e.g., no posting photos of slides or recordings), unless permission is obtained from the presenter or they have already made this information freely available in an open-source forum. Presenters are welcome to share their own material publicly. Presenters not wanting information from their presentations to be broadcast publicly should explicitly state so in their presentation. See the meeting Broadcasting Policy for more information.
The Evolution Meetings support the communication and discussion of science. Information presented at the meeting (in audio or visual format) may be reported and discussed by attendees and science writers via blogs, Twitter, or other platforms. We require that this be done respectfully and without direct reproduction of visual materials (e.g., no posting photos of slides or recordings), unless permission is obtained from the presenter or they have already made this information freely available in an open-source forum. Presenters are welcome to share their own material publicly. Presenters not wanting information from their presentations to be broadcast publicly should explicitly state so in their presentation. See the meeting Broadcasting Policy for more information.