Session Briefing

It's really important that the conference runs to schedule, and the session chairs have a vital role here.

  • If talks do not run on time, then delegates can't swap between talks as they'd like, and the talks that do run on time get disturbed when people come in late.

It is up to speakers to make sure that their laptops will drive the beamers before their talk starts. Test them out in a break beforehand. If speakers are not able to start their talks on time, they still have to finish on time. If they can't give the talk at all, they will have to change to Open Space.

Session chairs and speakers need to meet before the talks, so that they can recognise each other and the session chair has the information needed to introduce the speakers. The session chair should get the speakers to sign a release for, to give or withhold permission to record/publish the talks.

Talks must allow time for questions, and for delegates to switch rooms between talks. In practice this means that talks are typically 10 minutes less than their time slot, for example a 30 minute slot has 20 minutes of talk followed by 5 minutes of questions and 5 minutes for delegates to switch rooms to another talk.

Session chairs should

  • Synchronise their watches.
  • Make sure the speakers have signed release forms.
  • Introduce the speaker and start the session on time.
  • Warn the speaker when there is 10 minutes left
  • Tell the speaker to stop when there is 5 minutes left, if there are more questions they could carry on while the next speaker sets up, but delegates are free to move to another room. If there are lots more questions, arrange an Open Space session.

Speakers should

  • Make sure they are prepared, for example that their laptops will drive the beamer
  • Start their talk on time
  • Finish their talk 10 minutes before the end of the session and take questions.
  • If they've answered questions during their talk, they can finish it 5 minutes before the session end.
  • Leave the podium and let the next speaker get ready, 5 minutes before the session end.