\documentclass[a0,final]{a0poster}
\usepackage{multicol}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{1in}
\setlength{\textwidth}{42.78in}
\setlength{\textheight}{31.06in}
\setlength{\columnsep}{1in}
\usepackage{pdftricks}
\usepackage{helvetic}
\usepackage{color}
\definecolor{turquoise}{cmyk}{0.65,0,0.1,0.1}

% I want to define section headings to be blue and bold.
\makeatletter
\renewcommand\section{\@startsection {section}{1}{\z@}%
                                   {-3.5ex \@plus -1ex \@minus -.2ex}%
                                   {2.3ex \@plus.2ex}%
                                   {\huge\bfseries\color{blue}}}
\renewcommand\subsection{\@startsection {subsection}{2}{\z@}%
                                   {-3.5ex \@plus -1ex \@minus -.2ex}%
                                   {1.5ex \@plus.2ex}%
                                   {\Large\bfseries}}
\makeatother

\title{Making a poster in \LaTeX}

\begin{document}
  \sf
  \begin{flushleft}
	{\fontsize{84}{93}\selectfont\textbf{It is not too hard to make posters in \LaTeX}}
    \hbox to \hsize{%\hfill
      \color{turquoise}
      \vrule height 4pt width.742\hsize
      \hfill}%
  \end{flushleft}
  \vspace{-1.6in}
  \begin{flushright}
    \begin{tabular}{r l}
	\begin{minipage}[h][0.6in][b]{2.3in}
	\includegraphics[width=2.5in]{logo.pdf}
	\end{minipage}
      & 
	\begin{minipage}[h][0in][c]{8in} % [b]{8in}
	{\fontsize{32}{32}\selectfont\color{turquoise}
        	Dennis L. Chao\\
		Department of Computer Science\\
		University of New Mexico\\
		\texttt{dlchao@cs.unm.edu}
	}
	\end{minipage}
    \end{tabular}
  \end{flushright}

  \vspace{1.5in}

\begin{multicols*}{3}
  \raggedcolumns
  \sf

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% column 1
\section*{Introduction}

This is Dennis Chao's attempt to make a poster in \LaTeX.
Well, actually, pdflatex to be exact.  pdflatex produces a pdf file with 
the proper fonts.  Another nice thing about pdflatex is that you can 
import jpg figures\footnote{Like this:
  \includegraphics[width=3in]{dogs1.jpg}
}.
The pdf can be e-mailed to Kinko's for printing.
Don't worry too much about the physical size of the poster.  
Kinko's will scale it up to the width of their printer if you want.

Why make posters in \LaTeX?
\begin{itemize}
\item If your paper is in \LaTeX, you can easily import text, figures, and bibliographical information.
\item The output generally looks nice.
\end{itemize}

\columnbreak
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% column 2

\section*{Packages}
You may need the following packages installed for this stuff to work:
\begin{itemize}
\item a0poster to size the page and fonts to a0.
\item multicol for the 3-column format to work.
\item pdftricks if you want to do line drawings in pdflatex.  pstricks is the
normal \LaTeX{} equivalent.
\item color for color fonts.
\item helvetic if you like the Helvetica font.
\end{itemize}
You might also need to make sure you have reasonably up-to-date versions
of these packages, especially multicol (I am using version 1.5z).
You can get everything you need from \texttt{www.ctan.org}.

\section*{Compiling the \LaTeX}

Just run \texttt{pdflatex}.  Perhaps more than once.

I think my main problem was formatting the title.
The \LaTeX{} source for my title is a mess because I was trying
to get it to look exactly like I wanted.  You don't need to be
this fussy.

\columnbreak
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% column 3
\section*{Conclusions}

It is not too hard to do posters in \LaTeX.

\end{multicols*}
\end{document}