Guidelines for Chairs & Moderators
BEFORE THE CONGRESS:
- Please familiarize yourself with the program, session and speakers.
- Please prepare some backup questions.
To view your full schedule with all your roles at the congress, please click here and search for your name. Then click your name and you will see all your roles. By clicking on the session name(s), you will be able to view the details of the session/s.
Please make sure to check the online program or Congress App (available soon) for the most up-to-date timings and presentation details.
AT THE CONGRESS: BEFORE THE SESSION STARTS
Approximately two minutes before the start of each session, please ask people to take their seats, encouraging them to sit toward the front and center.
One minute before the first scheduled presentation:
- You and your co-chair/moderators (if more than one) should introduce yourselves by name and affiliation.
- Announce the title of the session.
- Ask people to set their mobile devices to silent and request that they do not take photos of the presentation slides or record the session.
DURING THE SESSION:
As the session chair / moderator, you are responsible for the time management of the presentations within your session hall:
- Please introduce the speaker and presentation title as indicated in the Congress App, which will have the most up-to-date program details.
- Please ensure that the speakers display their disclosure slides for 30 seconds
- Please follow the schedule closely.
- It is essential to adhere to the scheduled start and end times of each talk. This is so that people can move from one room to another and find the talks as announced in the program.
- Please announce a two-minute warning so that a speaker can time the end of their presentation and not overrun.
- Please gently interrupt speakers if they exceed the allocated time of their lecture.
- Please ensure that the speaker uses the microphone.
- If there is a long or complicated question from the audience and/or if the speaker does not understand the question, please summarize the question for the speaker or ask for clarification.
- Notify the in-hall AV Technician immediately of AV equipment problems.
- Expect the unexpected!
- If a speaker fails to attend the session, move to the next speaker.
If the session gets ahead of schedule, do one or both of the following:
- Solicit questions from the audience and lead a discussion.
- If you finish before the allotted time, you may let the session out early.
START OF SESSION
- If the Speakers are not seated on the stage they will most likely be seated in the first row of the hall and will make their way to the lectern on stage when it is their time to present and return to their seats following their lecture.
- A technician will be present in the hall at the AV table to assist with all technological features taking place during the session.
DURING THE SESSION
- If you see that there are no shows, you may wish to give each speaker more time and / or allow more time for questions or discussion.
- If you have Q&A, please ask attendees to approach the microphone to ask their questions or to use the ‘Ask the Speaker’ function on the App. Details re: ‘Ask the Speaker’ can be found here.
SESSION FORMAT
- Each Free Paper presenter has 7 minutes for the presentation and 3 minutes for Q&A
- Each Free Video presenter has 7 minutes for their video and 3 minutes for Q&A
IMPORTANT NOTE: Some free videos will be presented with live narration. This means the recorded video has no sound or is muted and the presenter will narrate his / her presentation as the video plays. Other videos have sound.
- Each Rapid Fire presenter has been allocated 5 minutes total – 3 minutes to present and 2 minutes for discussion / Q&A.
PREPARATION
- You can already view the abstracts in your session in the interactive scientific program here. They will also be available on the Congress App. Please note there may be late changes to your session, please check the interactive program and App for any updates.
START OF SESSION
- The Speakers will most likely be seated in the first row of the hall and will make their way to the lectern on stage when it is their time to present and return to their seats following their lecture.
- A technician will be present in the hall at the AV table to assist with all technological features taking place during the session.
DURING THE SESSION
- If you see less presenters have shown up or the presentations will not fill the allotted duration of the session, you may allow each presenter more time and allow more time for questions.
- Please ask attendees to approach the microphone to ask their questions or to use the ‘Ask the Speaker’ function on the App. Details re: ‘Ask the Speaker’ can be found here.
All scientific sessions have the ‘Ask the Speaker’ function.
Voting will only take place in sessions that have been coordinated with the organizers prior to the Congress