Presentation Responsibilities & Guidelines

Before the Conference

• Confirm your participation
• Upload professional headshot
• Add professional biography
• Upload presentation materials
• Your company logo may only be on the first and last slide of your audio/visual presentation. 
• Sign electronic Creative Commons form or Complete the AWWA Creative Commons Form (PDF) by the deadline indicated on your acceptance notification.
• Register for the conference
• Please bring a copy of your presentation along with you to the conference as a backup on a USB drive.
• Notify staff if you have any special presentation requirements. Such as: internet for streaming videos, laptop sound, microphone other than the podium microphone, etc.

Checking-in at the Conference

When you arrive at the conference site, please go directly to the Registration Desk. The knowledgeable staff can provide you with the following services

• Logbook Check-In (Mandatory for all presenters)
• On-Site registration
• Speaker ribbons
• Directions to Presenter Ready Room (if applicable)

During the session

• After the moderator introduces you, position yourself at the podium and begin your presentation. 
• A laser pointer/slide advancer will be at the podium for you to use during your presentation. 
• In accordance with AWWA policy, we require that you refrain from overt to extensive commercialism during your presentation. 
• It is also requested that presenters conduct themselves in a professional manner when referring to other persons, companies or organizations in any part of their presentations. 
• Please define meanings of acronyms such as AWWA, EPA, SDWA, etc., in your oral presentation as well as your visuals for the benefit of all attendees. 
• Each presentation is 22-25 minutes in length (unless otherwise noted) with an additional 5-8 minutes for questions from the audience. 
• The moderator will indicate to you how much time you have left with 5-minute and 2-minute warning cards. They will then indicate your time is up with a red card. Proceed with questions from the audience. 
• When you have concluded, remove the microphone and return to your seat.

A poster presentation is a bulletin board organized so research data, plans or case studies stand for themselves. It is a technical paper displayed graphically, giving the reader research objectives, experimental methods, materials, results and conclusions. The author(s) provides the discussion. Posters optimize one-to-one communication and provide the opportunity for discussing topics of mutual interest.

Before the Conference

Access the conference Speaker Portal:

• Confirm your participation  
• Upload a professional headshot  
• Add professional biography
• Upload PDF version of Poster for the conference proceedings
• Sign electronic Creative Commons for or Complete the AWWA Creative Commons Form (PDF) by the deadline indicated on your acceptance notification.
• Register for the conference

Technical Details

• Title banner - A title banner should be 4-foot-long and high enough to contain the title of the poster, author(s) and employer(s).
• All Poster Boards are approximately 4 ft high by 8 ft (96 inches) wide, covered in cloth which can be either blue/gray or brown in color, depending on what is available at the convention center or hotel.
• Poster Units- Each piece of paper, graph, photograph, etc., on the poster board is defined as a poster unit. Your audience must be able to see your material from a distance of 6 ft. The following rules govern design of Poster Units The minimum size unit should be 8 1/2 x 11 in. Larger sizes may be used, but consistency is encouraged.
• Lettering should be a minimum of 0.4 in. Please print; do not use cursive.
• Graphs and figures should be drawn with a minimum width of 1 mm.
• Use photos that are 4 x 6 in. or larger. 
• To aid the reader, a clearly and concisely stated objective section is necessary. This can be followed by an experimental section. The results should be the major portion of the poster with the conclusions, stated briefly following the results.

Organization

A poster should be able to extract the essence of your work by viewing the poster during the period when it is unattended. This goal may be achieved by the use of one or more of the following:

• Organize the poster units in an orderly fashion for a logical flow top to bottom or left to right.
• Number the units in the order you want them viewed or use connecting lines to guide the reader.
• Block and subtitle the parts of your poster as you would a paper.
• Lay out your poster before coming to the conference and have it critiqued by a colleague.
• Have handouts, supplementary texts or abstracts available.

Contact Your Presenters

• As a moderator, we recommend that you reach out to each presenter prior to the conference to see if they have any questions and/or needs prior to arriving on-site.
• Moderators can download agendas and presenter information (contact information and bios) through the Speaker Portal by selecting the Moderator Report.

Before Session Starts

• Arrive at your session room at least 30 minutes before the start of the session.
• A room monitor will be assigned to the session to assist you (see Monitor Responsibilities) and will bring you the session materials.
• Presenters will check in with you 30 minutes before their presentation.
• Instruct the presenters where to sit at the head table, if one is available or in the front row.
• Encourage attendees to sit in the front of the room or fill in the seating.

During the Session

• Start the session on time. Do not change the order of the presentation or the times. If a cancellation or no show occurs, promote discussion, or as a last resort, declare a break.
• Introduce each presenter before their presentation using the presenter biographies provided.
• Presentations are 22-25 minutes long with 5-8 minutes for Q&A.
• Repeat any questions asked by attendees, so all attendees can hear the question.

After the Session

At the end of the session, the room monitor will collect the materials from you and will return them to AWWA staff.

Important Information

• AWWA will provide laptops for all sessions.
• AWWA recommends that you load all of the presentations onto one USB drive to avoid the steps of switching presenters.

Duties

Check in at registration and pick up your session bag.

This bag will include:

• Moderator Announcements (goes to moderator)
• Presenter introduction bios (one for you and one for the moderator).
• One attendance sheet for you to take attendance.

A plastic supply pouch:

• Attendance Counter (for the room monitor)
• Slide advancer / Laser pointer (goes to moderator)
• To make the slide advancer work, remove the USB device at the bottom of the slide advancer and place it into the computer. It should work now.
• Hole punch for you to punch completed CEU Forms.
• Time reminder cards (goes to moderator)
• Once in your session room, hand the moderator materials to the session moderator. The moderator should have a ribbon hanging from their badge labeled “Moderator”.
• Once the session begins, you can take a head count of attendees, or count them as they come in. Please make sure to take attendance after each speaker.
• Most sessions have 3 – 6 speakers, so some attendees might leave after one speaker to go to a new session. Please make sure to hole punch CEU forms for each 30 minutes spent in the session. See Sample CEU Form. 
• Stand in the back of the session room, and be available for the moderator if any issues arise. If they do arise, please have the moderator continue and come to registration for assistance.
• Stand close to the door to avoid slamming when attendees are entering or leaving.

Benefits of Volunteering

• Room Monitors can use their time spent in sessions towards PDH’s, CEU’s or other continuing education credits. Try to pick a session that is of interest to you or can be applied toward your CEUs.
• Room monitors receive complimentary conference time per the following guideline: must volunteer for a minimum 8 hours to receive a complimentary full conference registration. For example, if you volunteer 8 hours in one day you can then attend the rest of the conference for free, or you may volunteer to work 2 – 4 hour shifts and attend the rest of the conference for free. This is a great opportunity for local members to attend the conference who may not otherwise be able to do so.
• Spend a day out of the office volunteering, learning and networking with other water professionals from around the world!
• Volunteers are arranged through AWWA conference planning committees.

Workshop Guidelines

All workshop coordinators are required to collect and provide workshop materials to AWWA for the electronic attendee notebooks by the deadline date.
Refer to deadline dates on the Conference Presenter Speaker Portal.

 View current conferences 

Proceedings & Workshop Material

Presentations at the conference will be made available by AWWA in the conference proceedings. Presenters whose manuscript are submitted and appear in the conference proceedings will receive a complimentary copy via email. Format Manuscripts and PowerPoints submitted for the conference proceedings are not edited and will appear exactly as submitted. Therefore, it is important that you adhere to the following guidelines.
Please note: Having speaker notes in your PowerPoint and leaving your presentation in “speak” mode will cause speaker notes to appear in the conference proceedings. We recommend you provide AWWA with a PDF file of your work specifically for the conference proceedings.

• Do not make a title page.
• Begin the manuscript by centering the title of the paper, author’s name, title, company name and city.
• The company should be that of the author's affiliation at the time the manuscript is submitted.
• Work performed under previous auspices should be stated in the acknowledgment.
• If the manuscript is co-authored, double space between each name.
• Manuscripts must be single-spaced with double spaces between paragraphs.
• There are no specific margins required.
• All files should be submitted in Microsoft Office format (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) or an unlocked PDF file.
• The font used is the choice of the submitter and must be 11 or 12 point.
• The preferable choice of fonts include Arial, Times Roman or Helvetica.
• Number each page of the manuscript. Numbering pages will help in citing the paper and page number in future references.
• If you are submitting more than one manuscript, be sure to submit two separate files.
• Attachments can only be named with one file extension.
• If writing an actual manuscript, begin with a brief abstract.
• Text should be written in the third person (e.g., "The author believes...").
• Because conference proceedings are read internationally, do not refer to "our country" or "our solutions" and specify U.S., Canada, etc.
• Length of a manuscript is limited to 20 pages of text, including the abstract, tables, figures, etc.; this file can be zipped

Illustrations All figures, tables, graphics, etc., should be embedded within the text in which they are referred to (not linked). Anything that is submitted in color will remain in color on the finished product.

Proceeding Requirements

If you have been selected to present for a conference, AWWA requests that you submit your manuscript and/or presentation for the conference proceedings and completed Creative Commons form unless the conference is a no paper/no podium event. Refer to the Abstract Submittal Requirements for these events. You will be notified by AWWA Education Services of the deadline for conference materials. This deadline is usually about two months prior to the conference, but check with Education Services if you haven’t seen anything by then.

Specialty Conferences

Presentations at the conference will be made available by AWWA in the conference proceedings. Access to the proceedings will be made through a URL link that will be emailed to all qualifying recipients. Presenters whose manuscript are submitted and appear in the conference proceedings will receive a complimentary copy.

Format

Manuscripts and PowerPoints submitted for the conference proceedings are not edited and will appear exactly as submitted. Therefore, it is important that you adhere to the following guidelines: Please note:Having speaker notes in your PowerPoint and leaving your presentation in “speak” mode will cause speaker notes to appear in the conference proceedings. We recommend you provide AWWA with a PDF file of your work specifically for the conference proceedings.

• Do not make a title page.
• Begin the manuscript by centering the title of the paper, author’s name, title, company name and city.
• The company should be that of the author's affiliation at the time the manuscript is submitted.
• Work performed under previous auspices should be stated in the acknowledgement.
• If the manuscript is co-authored, double space between each name.
• Manuscripts must be single-spaced with double spaces between paragraphs.
• There are no specific margins required.
• All files should be submitted in Microsoft Office format (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) or in an unlocked PDF file.
• The font used is the choice of the submitter and must be 11 or 12 point.
• The preferable choice of fonts are Arial, Times Roman or Helvetica.
• Number each page of the manuscript. Numbering pages will help in citing the paper and page number in future references.
• If you are submitting more than one manuscript, be sure to submit two separate files.
• Attachments can only be named with one file extension.

Text

• If writing an actual manuscript, begin with a brief abstract.
• Text should be written in the third person (e.g., "The author believes...").
• Because conference proceedings are read internationally, do not refer to "our country" or "our solutions" and specify U.S., Canada, etc.
• Length of a manuscript is limited to 20 pages of text, including the abstract, tables, figures, etc.; this file can be zipped.

Illustrations

All figures, tables, graphics, etc., should be embedded within the text in which they are referred to (not linked). Anything that is submitted in color will remain in color on the finished product.