Karolinska Stroke Update Meeting

Instructions for Speakers, Chairs and Abstracts/Posters

For chairpersons
-general
-consensus

Instructions for speakers - Oral presentation

All presentations take place in the main conference room.Equipment for single slide Power Point presentations will be available.

1. Prepare slides in Power Point format. Text and pictures should be readable even from the back part of the room. Avoid overloading the slides with text or graphic information. Use colours which give good contrast between the text and the background.

2. Check the time allocated for your presentation. It is of outmost importance not to exceed the time limit since the programme is very tight. A good rule is that the number of slides in your presentation should not exceed the number of minutes allocated for your lecture.

3. Put your Power Point slides on a USB memory or CD-ROM and bring, if possible, your lap top computer with the slides. We recommend that you use the conference computer but it is a safety measure in case something goes wrong. If possible, send the slides as an attached file with an email. Use your own family name as name of the file. Send the email with the file to the Liaison officer as soon as possible. Your slides will then be prepared for the presentation in our computer. If you have not mailed the slides or if you made changes to the slides after mailing them, contact the Liaison officer as soon as you arrive at the venue on Sunday 16 November. The registration desk will be open from Sunday afternoon and will be open during the whole meeting.

4. Contact the chairpersons of your session as soon as possible. If you belong to one of the Consensus Sessions, you are asked to participate in the Preparative Meeting starting on Sunday 16 November at 3PM. You can then coordinate with your session chairpersons.

5. Take an opportunity to check the speaker's chair. Control how to promote your slides and how to use the pointer. Take a seat at the first row during your session to be available when speakers are shifted.

6. Check the website www.strokeupdate.org frequently to inform yourself about any changes in the programme. An updated programme will be distributed on registration.

GOOD LUCK!

Instructions for chairpersons - General

1. Please check any programme changes regularly at this web-site and when you arrive at the venue.

2. Coordinate with your co-chairperson as soon as you arrive. Check the speakers chair, how to promote slides, to use the pointer and the microphone.

3. Contact the conference secretariat if you have queries. This can be done during the conference through the reception desk.

4. The speakers in your session have been asked to contact you as soon as you arrive. Please point out to them the importance of keeping to the time limits and check that the speaker is familiar with the speakers chair. Check that the speaker has left his/her slides with the organisers.

5. Start the session on time and keep to the time limits. As a rule, the questions and discussions will take place after the entire session. If someone in the audience insists on asking a question directly after a presentation, you may allow it if the time schedule permits.

Instructions for chairpersons - Consensus

1. Both chairpersons for consensus sessions have the responsibility for preparing a consensus statement for their session.

2. If no other agreements have been made, the second chairperson is the coordinator. The speakers in the session are invited to the preparative discussions on Sunday 16 November at 3PM, but the chairpersons may invite others to participate if this is supportive for the preparations.

3. Draft consensus statements should be prepared before the meeting at a time later defined. The draft will be distributed to all registered participants before the meeting. A final preparation will take place on Sunday 16 November at 3PM at the venue. The Chairpersons' presence is critical. Use previous statements as a guide. Please bring your own lap top computer, if at all possible. If none is available, we will try to provide you with one after your arrival.

4. At the 1998 meeting, the following definitions were made with regard to the strength of evidence supporting recommendations:

GRADE A EVIDENCE:

Strong support from randomised controlled trials and statistical reviews (at least one randomised controlled trial plus one statistical review)

GRADE B EVIDENCE:

Support from randomised controlled trials and statistical reviews (one randomised controlled trial or one statistical review)

GRADE C EVIDENCE:

No reasonable support from randomised controlled trials, recommendations based on small randomised and/or non-randomised controlled trials evidence.

5. The proposed consensus statements should be distributed to the participants at the start of the discussion. Modifications may be suggested and discussed. The Chairpersons summarise proposals and suggest final modifications. PLEASE NOTE that 'consensus' does not imply a total unity in their view on the various issues under discussion. The consensus statements will necessarily be a compromise. The consensus statements should be 'acceptable for most' in the audience and individuals should not be bound for future discussions.

The Stroke Update meeting is independent of any authority or professional organisation. The strength of its statements and recommendations is that it is based on a free discussion and evaluation of available evidence by a representative group of international experts, active researchers and stroke carers.

Instruction for posters

The poster sessions will occur during the lunch breaks when sandwiches will be distributed to all participants at the conference. The lunches are included in the participation fee, so there will be no delays caused by payment procedures. We will remind participants about the poster session at lunch break. Please put up your poster before lunch on Monday and do not forget to take it down again on Tuesday afternoon. We cannot guarantee that your poster will be saved if you forget to bring it yourself. We appreciate your presence at the poster during the lunch poster session.

When you prepare and present your poster, please note the following:

Prepare a banner in large type containing a descriptive title, the author(s), and their affiliations. Place this high up on the poster.

Bracket the poster with an introduction at the beginning and your conclusions at the end.

Make the flow of information in a poster explicit. Flow should be in columns running down the poster, not in rows running across it.

The poster should be self-explanatory; the main points should be communicated without you being there to explain them. Do not load the poster down with large amounts of methodological detail or lists of references.

Illustrations should have a prominent headline containing the take-home message in a few words. The text below the illustration should be in smaller type and should provide detailed information, much more than in a typical figure legend. The text should be easy to read from a distance (1-2 meters).

Prepare an oral presentation of no more than five minutes to walk interested parties through your poster.

Allow people to peruse your poster for a minute or so before leading them through it.

If you have a preprint of an article prepared then make it available to those viewing your poster.

The format of the poster should not exceed 1 m (height ) and 80 cm (width)

GOOD LUCK!