Questions?
If you have any programmatic questions or special requirements (such as needing a wheelchair lift or high chair/stool at the podium, please contact meetings@ashg.org) so we can make arrangements.

Speakers: Please read the information below before uploading your presentation and arriving at the meeting. These guidelines will help ensure that little editing, if any, will be required once you arrive and your presentation will go smoothly.

General Information

• Featured Plenary Abstract presentations are 20 minutes in length: 15-minute presentation, 5-minute questions and answers.
• Platform presentations are 15 minutes in length: 10-minute presentation, 5-minute questions and answers.
• Invited Session presentations range in time. Please discuss your allotted time with the moderator(s) before preparing your presentation, or verify your presentation time in our Online Planner.
• Disclosure Slide: All invited, platform and plenary presenters are asked to show a disclosure slide at the beginning of their presentation, even when they have nothing to disclose. This must be shown as the first slide in speaker presentations. If you have a new employment or ownership relationship that has not been disclosed, please notify ASHG of the change as soon as possible.
  • As you show your slide, it must also be verbalized.
  • If you will be discussing any unlabeled or investigational uses of pharmaceuticals or medical devices, please include that information on the second disclosure slide.
• All speakers are required to check in with the moderators in the session room 15 minutes prior to the start of the session (not the start of your talk).
• Speakers should, if possible, upload their presentation slides before traveling to the meeting, by visiting the presentation upload site, which opens in September.
• Speakers may not take laptops or thumb drives to the podium for use with their presentation. Speakers who arrive at the session room with their presentation on their laptop or a thumb drive will be asked to go to the Speaker Ready Room (Room 501A) to upload their presentation, which may delay the start of the session.
• If you are unable to present and need to send a replacement author, please inform the ASHG Programs Office by emailing meetings@ashg.org immediately. The replacement author must be approved by the Program Committee Chair and Meetings Management Office and is required to complete a conflict-of-interest disclosure form.
• Click here to view floor plan layouts for the scientific session rooms.

Important Considerations

• Session Room Equipment: All of the session room computers will be PCs; therefore, Mac users should review the sections below regarding supported formats and files. If you have any questions, contact the ASHG Programs Office at meetings@ashg.org.
• Presentation Format: Before preparing your presentation, be sure to read the “Slide Preparation” and “Multimedia Considerations” sections below. A 16:9 widescreen format will be used for projection of slides. Instructions for making your presentation compatible are below.

Upload Your Presentation

• It is recommended that you upload your presentation before traveling to the meeting. Please upload your presentation on the American Society of Human Genetics Presenter Upload Site (known as Orchestrate). For questions, email orchestrate@freemanco.com.
• If you need to make changes to a presentation that you already submitted, you will need to delete the earlier submission and resubmit the file using a new file name. It is strongly suggested that you review your presentation prior to your session by visiting the Speaker Presentation Upload Room (501A) on site.

At the Convention Center

• Upload your slides in the Speaker Ready Room (Room 501A) at least three hours before your session. If your travel plans allow, we recommend that you upload your slides the day before your talk.
• All presentations will be downloaded to your session room one hour before the scheduled start of the session. The system in the speaker ready room will be locked at that time and you will be unable to access your presentation thereafter. Please plan accordingly and upload your presentation early.
• We have the ability to run presenter mode in the meeting rooms. This allows attendees to see your slides on the monitor, but only you can view the associated notes at the lectern. Presenter mode will also be available in the Speaker Presentation Upload Room (501A).
• You can (and are urged to) review your presentation prior to the start of your session. Visit the Speaker Presentation Upload Room during the following hours:
  • Tuesday: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm; Wednesday: 7:30 am – 5:00 pm; Thursday: 7:30 am – 5:00 pm; Friday: 7:30 am – 5:00 pm; Saturday: 8:00 am – 10:00 am

Slide Requirements

• When presenting patient data and health information (including photos), all presenters must be compliant with informed consent regarding human subjects and all applicable HIPAA regulations.
• A disclosure slide must be inserted as the first slide in the presentation, in accordance with the ACCME Accreditation Requirements and Guidelines.
• ASHG rules and guidelines require disclosure of gene names and sharing of research data so that findings can be replicated and other investigators with similar data can test your findings against their own. The moderator and a member of the Program Committee will be in the audience to monitor compliance.
• If the abstract has been previously published, authors must indicate the date and publication on at least one slide.
• Be sure to adhere to the Logo Policy for Speakers’ Slides, detailed below.
• The last slide in your presentation may include acknowledgments. Authors should not use presentation time to acknowledge co-authors and collaborators.
• ASHG’s Social Media Guidelines and Twitter Policy: Remember that talks are tweetable and shareable by default. Speakers can ask that specific details not be shared and can opt out by informing the audience of their preference.

Logo Policy for Slides

It is the policy of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) that logos of ACCME defined ineligible companies are not permitted in accredited CME activities. A speaker who has a financial relationship with an ineligible company whose work is supported by that ineligible company must disclose that relationship using the required disclosure slide template which must be both displayed and verbalized at the beginning of the presentation. Research support received from that company may be attributed using only plain text at the outset of the presentation (after the disclosure slide) without use of any company logos, tag lines, or branding (color scheme) anywhere in the presentation.

A speaker from an eligible company such as a school of medicine or health science university, research institution, research consortium, for-profit hospital (exempt under ACCME rules), or government agency may credit the organization(s) using logos on the acknowledgement slide, preferably the last slide. The speaker may not brand the overall presentation with logos or designs from the organization(s).

If you violate these regulations, you will be asked to revise your presentation. If you do not revise your presentation, you may be disqualified from presenting.

For guidance on preparing effective PowerPoint slides, see our Tips for Effective PowerPoint Presentations

Multimedia Considerations

Presenters: Make your presentations compatible with on-site audio/visual specifications.

All screens will be 16:9 widescreen format, not 4:3. Computers and projectors will be configured for 1280 x 720 resolution.

To take full advantage of the new widescreen format, presenters must convert pre-existing slides to a 16:9 format and develop new slides in the 16:9 format. If presenters use the 4:3 presentation format, the presentation will still display but will be “pillar boxed” on the 16:9 screen, as shown below, and content on the lower part of the slide may be cut off.

Be sure to format your slide template before preparing your presentation. If you convert an existing presentation to the 16:9 format, your text, videos, and photos may appear stretched and will need to be resized or re-entered.

Convert Your Slides

For PowerPoint 2013 and newer:

1. On the “Design” tab, select “Slide Size”
2. In the drop-down box, select “Widescreen (16:9)”

For PowerPoint 2007 and 2010:

1. On the “Design” tab, select “Page Setup”
2. In the drop-down box, select “On-Screen Show (16:9)” and click “OK”

For the Newest Apple Keynote:

1. From the Keynote Window, select “Document” on the top right-hand corner
2. Under “Slide Size”, select “1280 x 720”

For the Older Apple Keynote:

1. From the Menu Bar, select “Show Inspector”
2. On the Inspector, select “Document Inspector” located in the top left-hand corner
3. Under “Slide Size”, select “1280 x 720

Videos and photos may need to be resized so they do not appear stretched. Animations should be checked to ensure the elements line up correctly. Start early to leave time to resize slide content.

Supported File Formats

• PPT, PPTX: The presentation format is optimized for PowerPoint, whether created on a PC or Mac. To take advantage of advanced media support in PowerPoint, we recommend all PPT files be converted to the PPTX format. You can find the convert feature located under “File, Help” when you have your PowerPoint open.
• KEY; Keynote files are not supported. Please export your presentation as a PowerPoint file for upload, and be sure to review the result in the Speaker Ready Room.
• Prezi files are currently unsupported for upload. Please ask for assistance in the Speaker Ready Room.

Video, Audio, and Webpage Link Support

• Please see this article for file formats supported within PowerPoint.
• Consider compressing your videos. If you’ve authored your PowerPoint as a PPTX, there are tools within PowerPoint to do this automatically.
• If you will be converting or authoring videos, we recommend H.264 encoding at less than a 5Mbps bitrate for best performance.
• If you plan to play a DVD as part of your presentation, please notify a technician in the Speaker Presentation Upload Room so arrangements can be made for assistance in your meeting room.
• Custom Fonts: We only supply fonts that are included with Office 2013. If you need a specialized font, it should be embedded into your PowerPoint presentation. Some licensed fonts may not embed and should be replaced with a font included with Office.
• Links to Web Pages: Session room computers are not connected to the Internet. Links to web pages will not function and may cause issues if clicked accidentally during your presentation. We strongly recommend removing all internet links from your presentation.
• Movies: PowerPoint does NOT embed movies. They must be placed in the same folder as your PowerPoint. You should copy your PowerPoint and all movies to a folder on a USB thumb drive. It is good practice to keep a second copy in your luggage.

Audiovisual Equipment

The audiovisual equipment available inside the room includes:

• Computer, monitor, and mouse/slide advancer on a lighted lectern
• Data projector
• Screen
• Monitor for speaker presentation mode and notes
• Speaker timer with flashing lights to let you know when your time is almost up
• Lavaliere microphone
• Lectern microphone
• Table microphone
• Aisle microphones in the audience area for the question and answer period

There will not be an Internet connection. If you require equipment not listed above or an Internet connection for your presentation, please contact the ASHG Programs Office at meetings@ashg.org.

Backup: Please bring a backup copy of your presentation with you. You should copy your PowerPoint and all movies to a folder on a USB thumb drive. PowerPoint does NOT embed movies. They must be placed in the same folder as your PowerPoint. It is good practice to keep a second copy in your luggage.

On The Day of Presentation

• Arrive at the meeting room at least 15 minutes before the start of your session (not your talk) and introduce yourself as a speaker to the audiovisual technician and moderator(s). Please sit near the stage to ease the transition between talks.
• Ask the AV technician to go over the setup and to provide instructions on the use of the speaker timer. The timers have green, yellow, and red lights and are pre-set according to the time allotted for your session. The green light appears during your talk, the yellow light indicates you should be concluding your presentation, and the red light indicates that you should stop talking to allow for questions.
• It is important that all speakers stay on time. Moderators have been instructed to stop you from speaking if you go over the allotted time.
• At the lectern, there will be a monitor where you can follow your presentation. Simply click your session time, then click your name on the display, and your PowerPoint will launch automatically.
• Speak directly into the microphone in a normal voice, and do not handle the microphone while speaking.
• If you have any difficulties or need any assistance, click the ASSISTANCE NEEDED button on the computer.
• At the end of your presentation, the display will return to the list of presenters in that session.

Remember that the ASHG Photo Policy prohibits attendees from taking photos, videos, or audio recordings of speakers presenting their slides in all meeting session rooms.