The Petfood Forum 2016 content advisory board is seeking abstracts for noncommercial scientific research posters, due via e-mail by November 1, 2015.

Petfood Forum 2016 is scheduled for April 18-20 at the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. You do not have to be present at Petfood Forum to have a poster displayed; however, we do offer a registration discount to poster authors and the opportunity to briefly present on your research.

Oral presentations and scientific posters will be handled as two separate submission processes. For information on submitting an abstract for an oral submission, please visit our Petfood Forum events website.

What you need to know

All abstracts/topics submitted should be exclusive to Petfood Forum 2016 and be based on new and/or innovative research. Potential poster presenters are invited to submit noncommercial abstracts on research related to pet food/pet treat topics including, but not limited, to:

• Nutrition and ingredients;
• Safety and regulatory;
• Processing and production;
• Marketing, promotions or social media;
• New product development;
• Packaging.

An advisory board of pet food experts will evaluate all submissions for:

• Relevance of topic;
• Presence of new research; originality is key, so please be sure your abstract gives a clear idea of how your topic is unique and/or based on new research findings or work not found elsewhere;
• Author’s experience or background with the topic;
• Lack of commercialization or promotion—it is crucial that the poster does not come across as a sales pitch, seeking to promote your organization, product(s) or service.

No abstract will be considered if it seems commercial or if it has been published or presented prior to Petfood Forum 2016. Abstracts similar in title or content to previously presented material should include significant new information.

How to submit

Please submit your abstract by e-mail to dphillips@wattnet.net, with “Petfood Forum 2016 poster presentation abstract” specified in the subject line of the email or clearly in the email or abstract itself. Abstracts must be written in English and should be sent as Microsoft Word documents.

Try to keep the abstract to no more than 300 words; however, the length of the abstract is less important than the need for it to sufficiently explain the research, especially how it is unique or new. The author’s expertise in or knowledge of the topic should also be clear.

We recommend organizing the body of the abstract as follows:

• Abstract title and name of corresponding author/potential speaker;
• The purpose/objective of the research/poster;
• Information presented in sufficient detail to support the conclusions, plus how the topic is unique or based on new research.
• A 50-100 word biography of the potential presenter, including expertise on the topic submitted.
• Address, telephone number and e-mail address of the corresponding author;

Abstracts must be received no later than November 1. After this deadline, any abstracts submitted will be considered on a case-by-case basis. They may still be evaluated; or it may simply be too late.

After review of submissions

If your abstract is chosen for a poster presentation, you will receive a PDF template and guidelines on types of files formats to use with the template. If necessary, the Petfood Forum team can place your files in the template; in that event, we will need your files much earlier (January 15, 2016) than if you create the final PDF file yourself (February 15, 2016).

Either way, you will be responsible for the accuracy of the poster. The Petfood Forum team will have the poster produced and posted for display at Petfood Forum 2016.

Authors will be required to sign a copyright release to permit publication of the abstract and poster.