Platform Sessions

Platform Sessions involve slide and audio presentations of work typically contained in a poster. For the Virtual Annual Meeting, Platform Session authors will record and upload their presentations before the start of the meeting and will be present during the scheduled Platform Session to engage with attendees through virtual chats. Upon completion, all Platform Sessions will be available for on-demand viewing via the Virtual Meeting platform.

Abstracts for the Virtual 2021 SOT Annual Meeting were due December 1, 2020. Presenters will be notified by early January 2021 of acceptance to Platform Sessions.

This page contains tips and instructions for preparing for a Platform Session presentation, as well as information and guidelines for Platform Session Chairs.

A woman stands behind a podium and is speaking to an unseen audience. The front of the podium contains the SOT salus symbol. There is a table to the woman's left on which a flatscreen computer monitor sits. To the left of the monitor, a woman is seated at the table and is looking at the speaking woman.

Instructions for Platform Presenters

Fifteen-minute presentation, including discussion

Slide presentations should be in widescreen (16:9) presentation format: see the Instructions for Converting to a Widescreen (16:9) Presentation Format. For your benefit, SOT has created a PowerPoint Template of Required Slides , which is already in widescreen format, for use by platform presenters. When using this template, each new slide will be in a predetermined format/style that maximizes readability and usefulness during platform presentations.

Slide presentations should include the following:

  1. Title slide
  2. Conflict of interest disclosures slide
  3. Slide stating the question or hypothesis to be addressed
  4. Slide describing the approach used to address the question
  5. “Methods” slide, but not including details about the method unless your presentation is on the method
  6. Research results slides
  7. Conclusions of study slide

Tips for Effective Slide Presentations

Presentation Recording and Upload Instructions

Scientific Session presenters are responsible for recording their presentations for the Virtual SOT Annual Meeting and for uploading these recordings to the Virtual Meeting platform. Your Platform Session presentation recording should be no longer than 13 minutes, leaving the additional time for responding to questions submitted by attendees via Chat. Your total presentation time, including responding to questions, is 15 minutes.

SOT has developed tutorial videos that demonstrate how to record a slide presentation with audio and/or video on a PC or MAC. The Recording Instructions for Speakers document (for MAC users and for PC users) also outlines the steps and tips for recording a PowerPoint presentation. Please remember to save your video files in .MP4 format and at the highest-quality level available.

PowerPoint Recording Instructions for Mac Users

PowerPoint Recording Instructions for Mac Users

This video demonstrates instructions on how to record a PowerPoint Presentation with audio using a Mac computer.

Watch recording
PowerPoint Recording Instructions for PC Users

PowerPoint Recording Instructions for PC Users

This video demonstrates instructions on how to record a PowerPoint Presentation with video using a PC.

Watch recording

Template for Recording a Presentation with a Video

Information on how to upload the video files to the SOT Virtual Meeting platform will be available in January 2021.

Platform Session Chair: Roles and Responsibilities

One to two Chairs are needed for each Platform Session. Chairs are asked to:

Contact the presenting authors of each abstract assigned to the session and become familiar with the abstracts in the session.

Prepare questions to ask the presenters if no questions are submitted by the attendees during the Platform Session.

Complete the survey sent to Platform Chairs following the Virtual Annual Meeting.