I am giving a poster presentation at the Association of College and Research Libraries conference in a few weeks. I just have to give a shout out to posterpresentations.com because so far this experience has been 100 times better than the last time I had to put together a poster presentation. Someone suggested that instead of printing the poster on paper it’s better to get it printed on fabric because then you don’t have to deal with trying to fly with a giant poster tube. Instead you can just fold it up and put it in your luggage.

The last time I gave a poster presentation I did in fact fly across the country to Seattle dragging a giant poster tube and worrying about whether or not I would be able to carry it on or whether I would be forced to check it. It was a huge pain and I wound up just mailing it back home to myself so I wouldn’t have to deal with the return trip. I absolutely was going to jump at the chance to not deal with that hassle even if it was going to cost more.

I started searching out online sites that would do the printing to compare prices and I came across posterpresentations.com. They were competitive in price, but what really sold me on using them was the easy templates they provided. The last time I made a poster I struggled my way through creating it InDesign and was dreading having to deal with that again. I don’t think I’ve used InDesign since I made that last poster and I certainly had little to no recollection of how to do it.

Instead I got to work with a PowerPoint template, which is easy peasy for me. It was so much easier to design the poster this time using their template. It took me so much less time than it did last time. I just had to upload the PowerPoint slide when I was done with it. They sent me back a proof, I approved it, and then the printed it and shipped it out the same day. Even that part was better. I didn’t have to drive back and forth to Kinkos with the files and then go pick it up again.

I got the poster in the mail a few days ago and it looks great. They even sent me thumbtacks and velcro hooks to hang it with. If you ever have to do a poster presentation I would highly recommend them.