Audience interaction at the heart of poster village

    Breathing new life into an old format, the ESCRS Poster Village at this year’s Congress is already proving a resounding success with delegates. Designed to foster audience participation, the Poster Village is a highly interactive area where particularly interesting papers are presented by the authors in an informal atmosphere. “The idea is really to provide a platform for informative, productive and relaxed interaction to enable delegates to experience posters in a more stimulating way. It’s a bit like a family dinner, with everyone welcome around the table and willing to participate in an open discussion,” said Béatrice Cochener, President-Elect of the ESCRS, who co-moderated the opening interactive session on new and hot topics at Saturday’s packed Poster Village. Three different formats of poster presentation are offered at the Village: ePoster terminals, presented poster sessions and moderated poster sessions. The ePoster terminals give delegates access to the posters in electronic form to be browsed at leisure, while the presented poster sessions enable small groups to discuss with the authors and obtain more detail on their research in an informal setting. For the moderated poster sessions, a designated moderator presents a thematic summary of the posters contained in that session, followed by a question-and-answer session with the authors and audience debate. The focus is firmly on audience participation and interaction to derive the maximum benefit from the presentation. This year’s Congress gives delegates a rich choice of moderated sessions, covering everything from new depth-of-focus intraocular lenses to innovations in corneal research and advanced technologies to enhance cataract surgery outcomes. At Saturday’s first moderated session on “What is new and hot”, the feedback from participants and audience alike was that the new format provides a winning combination of interesting content and audience interaction. For speakers, the format provides the perfect opportunity to discuss their research first-hand and to gauge the level of interest that their chosen topic generates among their peers. “This is the first time I ever presented at an interactive poster session and I really enjoyed the experience,” commented Apostolos Lazaridis MD after his well-received talk on refractive lenticule transplantation (RLT) for correction of iatrogenic hyperopia and astigmatism after LASIK. “I like the format of the session, and I would much rather present my research in this kind of way than in a room with people sitting down without them really having the chance to ask questions or interact with the speaker,” he added.