1) You must submit an abstract at the abstract submission site by the deadline of March 21, 2008. If you do not submit an abstract by the deadline date, you will not be allowed to present a platform presentation. You can find the abstract submission form here.

2) You must follow all directions.

3) Each presenter will be given a 20-minute block of time for his/her presentation. Fifteen minutes will be allowed for the actual presentation. Two to three minutes will be allocated for questions/answers. The last two minutes are used for participants to move from room to room if they wish. Under all circumstances, each presentation MUST END after 18 minutes.

4) Presentations will be placed into groupings based upon many factors. Groupings are mostly into closely related subject areas but sometimes more unrelated subject areas may be grouped together. The purpose of the conference is for participants to learn to present scientific information and for all participants to learn new materials. Occasionally, unusual groupings must occur within a session.

5) Each session will have a monitor that will be in charge of the session. The monitor is responsible for keeping the session on time. The monitor may interrupt a speaker or anyone else in the room to keep control of the session and to make sure that each presentation ends at its proper time. Timing is important since people may want to move from session to session. So, each presentation must start and end at ITS APPOINTED TIME. PRESENTATIONS GOING OVER 18 MINUTES WILL BE TERMINATED BY THE SESSION MONITOR. If a presenter is not present at the start of his/her presentation time, the monitor will call a recess so that the next speaker will start at the appointed time.

6) The monitor will have large cards to indicate the time remaining for the speaker. The monitor will hold up these cards so the speaker should be able to see them. If a speaker is reading his/her presentation so that he/she does not see the time cards of the monitor, the monitor may interrupt the session to inform the speaker about the time remaining. Speakers are encouraged to know their materials well enough so they do not read the materials.

7) The monitor will read the name and title of each presentation at the start of the presentation. If a PowerPoint has been submitted prior to the conference, personnel will be present to cue the correct presentation. If you intend to bring your own laptop you will be responsible for understanding how to switch between computers and getting your presentation up and running. Any time it takes for you to switch is counted as part of your time, if it takes you twelve minutes to get your presentation going, then you will only have three minutes for your presentation. If you are technologically challenged it is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that you rely on the PowerPoint that you send to Dr. Walter Steiner. (See Platform Submission guidelines here.)

8) It is YOUR responsibility to make sure that you have correctly saved and sent your PowerPoint presentation. If your presentation requires the use of other applications, then it is strongly advised that you bring your own laptop computer. There is no guarantee as to what other programs will be present on the projection carts.

9) You should bring a back-up copy of your PowerPoint on a jump drive and/or on a CD and/or on a laptop. It is unclear at this time what operating system will be on the machines on the projection carts, be safe and perform a "Save as" in more than one format. Windows Vista operating system and Office 2007 has its own set of problems, we strongly urge those using it to also save in an earlier PowerPoint version (PowerPoint 2003 for Windows or PowerPoint 2004 for Macs.).

10) Should problems arise during the session with PowerPoint presentations, two authorized persons will be at the conference to maintain the PowerPoint materials.

11) The program for the platform presentations will be established prior to the conference. No changes/additions may be made to the program once it is established.