Poster vs. talk at upcoming conference

[Humulus_lupulus]

I've got a conference coming up at the end of may where I can either present a poster or a talk. I haven't ever been to this particular conference. I've done several posters at other conferences before, and I much prefer posters. Frankly, I'm a little nervous about getting up in front of a group of people I have no experience with. I've done it once before and it went pretty well, but I seem to end up saying something silly (wrong) at some point.

 

So, do I stay in my comfort zone and do a poster or do I stretch myself to an uncomfortable place and give a talk? Honestly, I am assuming the group will be relatively small based on current registration numbers and the general lack of interest in biological engineering for this particular conference.

[peachypie]

Do a talk. It'll help you get better at presenting, which is really important to be enthusiastic and capable of communicating why your research is important (AKA like a grant!). Not to mention a talk always looks better than a poster on a CV.

[rising_star]

If you've mostly done posters, then do a talk. It's a good experience!

[TakeruK]

Agree with all of the above--go with a talk! In my field, they are certainly more prestigious than posters (usually poster presentations are assigned to those not selected for talks). In some circumstances, you might want to do a poster presentation because you can engage with individuals at a deeper level than a talk. However, it sounds like in this case, the best thing to do is to push yourself a little outside of your comfort zone and prepare a talk! The attendance might be small but think about it this way: this is a perfect chance to practice on a small audience now because you're definitely going to have to do talks with much bigger audiences in the future!!

[Humulus_lupulus]

Great feedback everyone--I'll talk to my professor to see if there is still space for a talk. I agree that I need to get out of my comfort zone and give a talk!