"Have you ever considered..."
I always dread hearing these words when I'm giving a poster presentation because I don't know if the person is about to offer a suggestion that is completely irrelevant to my research or a legitimate way to improve my research. I prefer suggestions that are relevant, meaningful, and feasible. However, most of the time I think that people are attempting to 1-up me, rather than engage in a legitimate discussion about my methods and findings. To serve my own interests, here are my preferences for attending a poster presentation...
1. Don't feel like you need to stop at every poster; stop at the ones on topics you care about
2. If the presenter is available and not talking to someone else, ask them to give you a short synopsis of their poster (if their synopsis is more than 30 seconds then I apologize)
3. If needed, ask clarifying questions to understand what they did
4. If everything makes sense, and you have no additional questions, then find something about their research that you can praise and move on to a new poster
5. If they did things differently than you would have done and you think something could be learned about why they did something a certain way (or you are just curious how they did something), then ask them about it and have a discussion; but if you think their rationale for doing something a certain way is insufficient, then find something about their research that you can praise and move on to a new poster (i.e., don't try to point out all the flaws in their research)
6. If you want to give a suggestion, simply do not do it, and instead, find something about their research that you can praise and move on to a new poster (however, if someone asks you for a suggestion, then it is fair game)
7. If their findings are different than what you have seen in other studies or what you would have expected, then ask them about this and have a discussion