Presentations can be submitted in advance via http://www.presentationmanagement.com/ASHG or on-site by visiting us in the Speaker Ready Room (Room 151G). Save your files to a 3.5 Floppy Disk, Zip Disk, CD-ROM, Compact Flash Card, Multi-Media Card or a USB Storage Device. Presentations can be pulled off of laptops 24 hours prior to your session time.

To ensure that your presentation is a success, be sure to visit the Speaker Ready Room so we can get you checked-in. All presenters are required to check into the Speaker Ready Room at least 4 hours prior to their session time.

Once you are checked-in, you will be seated at a computer to review your presentation. If you submitted your presentation in advance via the website, a technician will get your presentation sent to the computer you are sitting at. If you brought media to the Speaker Ready Room a technician will help you load it onto the computer. You are allowed to make any changes that you need to while in the Speaker Ready Room. Technicians are available to assist you with issues that sometimes occur with presentations. Once you are done reviewing your presentation, be sure to notify a technician so he can verify that the presentation is saved and properly labeled. Once the technician has verified that the presentation is labeled correctly, please check-out of the Speaker Ready Room. This will ensure that your presentation gets to your session in a timely manner.

Please arrive in your session meeting room 30 minutes prior to your session starting. Each room will have a projectionist to assist you with any technical needs. Please introduce yourself to the projectionist prior to the beginning of the session. When it is your time to talk, the projectionist will open your PowerPoint presentation and start the slide show. On the lectern, is a mouse that will give you full control of the presentation. At the end of each session day, all presentations are deleted from the meeting room computers.

The computers in the presentation rooms and the Speaker Ready Room are identical. All computers are Microsoft Windows-based with Microsoft Office 2003.

While we try to support as many PC video formats as possible, we can only accept movies created as MPEGs 1 or with the following AVI codecs:

• Microsoft - MPEG-4, RLE, Video1, Windows Media Series 8 and 9
• Divx 3/4/5 and 3ivx
• Intel Indeo Video <= v.5.11
• TechSmith Screen Capture Codec
• Huffyuv Lossless Codec
• DV Format (Avid, Sony, Pinnacle, Canopus)
• Asus Video Codec, On2VP3,
• ATI VCR and YV12 Codecs
• Aware MotionWavelets
• Cinepak, MJPEG

NO QUICKTIME!  Mac users must convert all videos to either AVI or MPEG 1 format. Also please ensure all images are in jpeg format and not Quicktime TIFF. Read further below for more MAC user guidelines.

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT DVDs: If you plan to play a DVD as part of your presentation, please be sure to test the DVD for compatibility in the speaker ready room. Please be aware of the size of your video files. In most cases, lower resolution video files are very effective.

Pictures: Images inserted into PowerPoint are embedded into the presentation. Images that are created at a dpi setting higher than 75 dpi are not necessary and will only increase the file size of your presentation. Try to avoid overloading your presentation with unnecessary images. JPG images are the preferred file format for inserted images.

Fonts: We only supply fonts that are included in the basic installation of Windows. Fonts other than these should be embedded into your PowerPoint presentation. The fonts we suggest using are Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana and Tahoma. Use of fonts not included in Windows can lead to words that bleed into graphics or bullets that may be the wrong style. Microsoft provides a utility to determine if a Font can be embedded. It is located at the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/property/property.htm?fname=%20&fsize

Fonts are easily embedded into your presentation following these steps:

• Office XP / 2003
1. Click File, and then Save As.
2. On the Tools drop down menu select Save Options
3. On that menu you will see an Embed TrueType Fonts check box. Check the box.
• Office 2000
1. Click File, and then Save As.
2. On the Tools drop down menu select Embed TrueType Fonts.

If transferring a presentation from a Macintosh environment to PC platform, it is imperative that you review your presentation in the Speaker Ready Room if it contains video files, graphs or pictures. All supplied computers will contain Windows Media Player and QuickTime for Windows; however this does not guarantee a successful presentation on a PC platform.

If you are producing your presentation on a Macintosh computer please be aware of the following issues. If you are using PowerPoint 2001, it is recommended that you install the Microsoft Office 2001 Service Release 1 before creating your presentation. You can find this at the Microsoft website.

Movies: QuickTime is not native to Windows computers. PowerPoint only supports QuickTime movies up to version 2.5. To insure the best chance of success, create your movies as AVI files. In addition use Cinepak for compression instead of Sorenson. Movies saved as AVI's have the best chance of success on a Windows machine. You can also convert your movies to the mpeg format in QuickTime Pro. Please test your movies and slides on a Windows machine before finalizing your presentation. Use method outlined below for testing your movies on a PC.

It is imperative to test your "new" presentation on an actual Windows PC for verification.

The following test will determine the compatibility of movie files:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type the appropriate command for your operating system.
   • In Microsoft Windows 98 or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), type:
     mplayer.exe
   • In Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or Microsoft Windows 2000/XP, type:
     mplay32.exe
3. Click OK.  Media Player is started
4. On the File menu, click Open.
5. Select the movie that you want to verify. Click Open. The video will play if it is the correct format.

Images: Use common image formats that are cross platform compatible such as JPG, PNG, GIF, and BMP.

Fonts: Use common cross platform compatible fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana and Courier. It will be necessary to load your presentation onto a Windows machine. If this occurs, many custom Mac fonts will not translate properly.

Animations: Use simple entry animation effects, such as fly in/out, appear, and dissolve. Also, do not use exit animations: PowerPoint 2000 for Windows does not support exit animations.

File Extensions: If your Mac version of office does not append the file extension, be sure to include it in your filename. Use .PPT for PowerPoint files and .PPS for PowerPoint show files.

Advance submission:

You may submit your presentation via the internet prior to leaving for the event. A link will be provided from your association website that will direct you to the advance submission site or use this link: http://www.presentationmanagement.com/ASHG.

Your PowerPoint will be reviewed for video playback issues. Only video format changes will be made, no other content modifications or image quality changes will be made.

In the event that you wish to make changes to a presentation that you have already submitted. Please change your master copy and then resubmit the files on the website.

Save your files to a 3.5" Floppy Disk, Zip 100/250/750, CD-ROM, Compact Flash Card, Multi-Media Card or a USB Storage Device. If you create a CD-ROM, be sure to close or finalize your session. If this step is not accomplished, you cannot access the CD from any computer.

When building your presentation, all files (PowerPoint & external, i.e. movie files) associated with your presentation must reside in the same folder. Be sure you bring your movie files along with your PowerPoint presentation; they are NOT embedded into the PowerPoint.

When creating your media for transfer, copy the entire folder to the portable disk. To ensure success of your presentation, create a backup copy presentation on a separate portable disk and transport it in a separate piece of luggage.

Label your media with the following information:
   Your name
   Name of Meeting/Conference
   Date & Time of presentation
   File names

If you are speaking in more than one session, please organize and clearly label your presentations in separate folders. Do not put more than one presenter's files on the same disk. Each presenter must have his or her own media.

Speaker Ready Room (Room 151G)

Speakers must check-in at the Speaker Ready Room at least 4 hours before their scheduled presentation. This will allow time to prepare, rehearse, and finalize your presentation before submitting it. The computers in the Speaker Ready Room will be configured with hardware and software exactly like the computer in the meeting rooms. It is imperative that you review your presentation in the Speaker Ready Room if it contains video files, or if it was created on a Macintosh computer.

Once you are comfortable that your presentation is complete, inform the Speaker Ready Room technician that your presentation is ready to be uploaded to the central server. Confirm the date, time, and room for your session. Be sure to check-out of the Speaker Ready Room before leaving.

To access your file(s) on the server for subsequent viewing/edits, you must provide appropriate I.D. (i.e., driver's license) to access/checkout the file. When completed, inform the technician of any changes so the file can be uploaded to the server and the old version removed.

Please arrive at your session meeting room at least 30 minutes before the start of your session. Introduce yourself to the projectionist (who will be wearing an AVW/TELAV badge). Take time to familiarize yourself with the setup at the lectern. There will be a mouse on the lectern that will allow you to control/advance (left click will move forward, right click will move backwards) the slides during your presentation. The mouse pointer can also be used in lieu of a laser pointer. The projectionist will remain in the room throughout the session.

A lectern microphone will be provided in each meeting room. Speak directly into the microphone in a normal voice and do not handle the microphone while speaking. There should be a comfortable distance between your mouth and the microphone. If you turn away from the microphone, the audience may not hear your voice.

A confidence monitor will be provided in each meeting room. It will be located either at the head table or strategically in front of the lectern.