Table 4 shows the link between audience size and satisfaction among all presenters except poster presenters. Not surprisingly, those with larger audiences tend to be more satisfied, but there seemed to be a point of diminishing returns. For those with more than 100 listeners, satisfaction seems to decline slightly. One of those with more than100 speakers even reported sharp dissatisfaction with the experience.

Table 5 presents related results for poster presenters. Note in this table most of the sample size was in the top category, so it might be hard to see a clear pattern between satisfaction and audience size. On the whole, poster presenters were less satisfied than lecturers. However, poster presenters were more satisfied than lecturers with audiences under 10. This was not rare. Thirty-three lecturers reported small audiences.

Table 6 shows how satisfaction of poster presenters varied by their reasons for giving a poster presentation. Among those who prefer to give posters, satisfaction was reasonably high. It was still lower than class of lecturer (Table 1), but it was higher than for lecturers with small audiences (Table 4). Satisfaction was lower for those asked to switch to a poster presentation and much lower for those forced to switch. Table 7 shows how satisfaction of presenters of regular contributed papers varied by perceived session coherence.

Although satisfaction declined sharply for those in incoherent sessions, it was still higher than for poster presenters who had wanted to give regular contributed papers. This would seem to argue against the practice of encouraging owners of “orphan abstracts” (those that do not fit well into any session with open slots) to switch over to a poster-style presentation. Presenters with topics of limited interest to JSM attendees are likely to be dissatisfied whether giving a lecture or presenting a poster.

Switching gears, Table 8 addresses the importance of having disciplined chairs. The majority of our chairs keep their sessions running smoothly, but when this does not happen, satisfaction is impinged. Speakers do not appreciate starting early or late.

Regarding the possibility of abolishing regular contributed sessions, this was a very unpopular idea among presenters of papers in these sessions (Table 9). Sixty-nine percent of them said that it would make them less likely to attend future JSMs. These feelings were more pronounced among those who were more satisfied with the experience of presenting such papers. Among the most satisfied group, 76% object to the possible abolishment. Even among those so unsatisfied with the experience that they will not give another regular contributed talk, 27% still object to the possible abolition of such talks.