Presenting your poster
Academics can be really awkward. Poster sessions bring this to the fore. Many people will walk by your poster, squint a little, and then hurriedly move on. This isn't because you suck or your work isn’t important, it's usually because there are a bazillion posters (after a billion talks) and people are already tired.
People who come to your poster to talk to you are looking for a new idea about something they care about. All you need to do is talk to them about what you've done and learned, and what's next. It's really that simple. Think of every interaction as a conversation with a potential friend and future collaborator.
A good format:
If someone shows interest in your poster, introduce yourself and ask them if they’d like you to walk them through it.
Start with the question the work is trying to answer. If there’s no immediate recognition of the question, say a few words about why it’s important. (“Answering this question will help us understand/accomplish…”)
Then give highlights of the methods, results, and next steps. Less is more; your audience will ask you questions if they have them. Be sure to pause and check in on the pacing.
Finally, try to pay attention to who else has approached your poster while you’ve been talking, give them a smile, and make sure you introduce yourself and attend to their questions too. (Try to include them immediately in the conversation.) I’ve seen some naive poster presenters unknowingly turn away excellent potential collaborators and likely future reviewers of their work because they were so engrossed with someone else. It can come across as rude sometimes.
If you’ve been asked to give a flash talk of your poster, aim to convey the importance/significance of the work—the main question driving the investigation, and maybe a teaser result—rather try to consolidate the poster into a minute. Your goal is to get the right people to visit your poster. If you include too much information, you risk confusing them rather than piquing their interest.
Personally I love presenting posters, even as a professor. The scientific exchanges are usually deeper and more fun. They’re also a key way I scout out talent to try to recruit to my lab.