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Making effective communication a human right

 

13,000 speech-language pathologists; audiologists; speech, language, and hearing scientists, and students gathered at the Washington DC convention center last week to celebrate the 100th anniversary of ASHA – the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

We’re proud to have partnered with ASHA for four of those 100 years, providing our iPosterSessions platform for participants to present, explore, and discuss the latest scientific research and best professional practices in these fundamental components of human communication.

This year’s ASHA 2025 Convention featured 1,273 interactive iPosters presented on 92 large-format screens in thirteen 90-minute sessions over three days. Our WatchDog scheduling system automatically displayed each iPoster on its assigned screen for every session. Authors simply walked up to their screen and started presenting – no tubes, no paper, no pinning up and tearing down. Session transitions were seamless.

Continuing Education credits were awarded to both authors and attendees for creating and viewing iPosters. To receive credit, authors included narrations with transcripts or video presentations with captions, using the iPoster system’s built-in communication tools. Together with our ADA-compliant accessibility widget, participants with visual, auditory, cognitive, and other disabilities were able to explore the presentations and join the conversations.

The excitement, engagement, and energy in the iPoster area were palpable. And the experience hasn’t ended there – all presentations remain available in the online iPoster Gallery, with advanced search, filter, and sort tools for continued exploration and networking.

Working with ASHA is always a great experience for us, and we especially want to thank the ASHA Convention Team for their fantastic work in making this all happen. And of course, we want to thank all the authors and attendees for their commitment to ASHA’s vision: “making effective communication a human right, accessible and achievable for all.”

K-INBRE 2024

Some fantastic looking iPosters and lively presentations showcased at the 2024 K-INBRE Symposium A.K.A. The Kansas Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence. The conference provides an opportunity for Kansas based scientists and students to present their research side-by-side, helping to foster networking and future collaboration. The symposium delivers a genuine conference experience to students who might not have participated in a significant scientific event before.

AGU Fall Meeting 2023

This year’s Fall Meeting was held in December 2023 in San Francisco and included a virtual component that took place in January 2024. There were over 8000 iPosters and PDF+ eposters created for the event.

FM23 was an extra special collaboration for us as we worked closely with AGU staff to develop a platform for the management of the Outstanding Student Presentation Awards (OSPA). This initiative is designed to recognize and encourage exemplary research and presentation skills among student participants. Students had the opportunity to sign up for the OSPA program and receive valuable feedback from seasoned professionals, with the potential to earn recognition certificates and prizes for their outstanding work. The new platform allowed OSPA staff and volunteers to easily assign and manage reviewers to each presentation and for Reviewers to complete and submit their evaluations in the system. When the judging process was completed the feedback was made available to the students.


IAC 2023

We were delighted to support the iPoster sessions at the International Astronautical Congress, which took place in Baku, Azerbaijan last week. The conference is organized annually by the International Astronautical Federation and attracts experts and enthusiasts from the field of space exploration. Over 500 iPoster presentations were displayed and discussed over two days of the event, covering a wide range of topics and innovations. This was our second meeting to use our new screen scheduling system, which allows the authors to book their own presentation time slots in advance through their editor. The scheduled times were then automatically shown under the thumbnail image of their poster in the online iPoster gallery. The poster hall was filled with excitement and curiosity, and the whole set-up looked amazing.

closeup of an iPoster presentation in progress at the 2023 IAC. The presenter stands facing the screen with a pointer in hand. a crowd of people stand around her facing the screen.
An author presenting an iPoster at the 2023 IAC. They are pointing a screen stick at their poster.
closeup of an iPoster presentation in progress at the 2023 IAC. The presenter stands to the side, pointing at the screen with a stick while some participants look on.

AAS 242

last week Joe and Felicity supported the iPoster sessions at AAS 242. The American Astronomical Society is the largest professional organization for astronomers in the United States. It holds annual meetings to showcase the latest research and discoveries in astronomy and astrophysics. 

We have been working with the AAS since 2017 and were, as usual, blown away by the creativity and the content that go into their authors iPosters. Over 200 presentations were created for AAS 242, the summer meeting, in Albuquerque. The presentations were displayed across 40 screens over the five day event. We were  able to utilize our new  control desk feature to  automatically load the posters onto each screen prior to the start of the sessions.
 

A presenter and an attendee interacting with an iPoster at AAS 242.
A presenter showcasing their research on an iPoster at AAS 242. Two attendees are standing next to the presenter and looking at the screen.
A crowd of presenters and attendees during one of the poster sessions at the AAS 242 Meeting.
A presenter wearing a mask stands beside their iPoster on a standing screen at the AAS 242 summer meeting.
Two people facing an iPoster on a large standing screen at AAS 242.
A presenter stands beside their iPoster on a standing screen at the AAS 242 summer meeting.