Thank you for chairing a session at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference!
Chairs play a key role in the conference, enabling speakers to give their presentations, attendees to ask questions, facilitating discussion, and ensuring a positive and constructive environment for everyone involved. So thank you!
We are committed to providing a supportive and constructive environment that is as inclusive as possible for all attendees. Below is some guidance to help you plan and make the most of your session at the conference, and to support those presenting.
The conference code of conduct
We encourage you to familiarise yourself again with the conference code of conduct.
Read the code of conduct
We have also collated some resources to support you as Chair should there be any inappropriate comments or behaviours in the session, in person or online. Please report any incidents to the conference organisers.
Read the resources
Before the conference
We recommend that you contact those participating in your session at least a week ahead of the conference to:
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Remind them of the location, date and time of the session
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Find out how speakers prefer to be introduced, and how to pronounce their names
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Confirm how long they will have to present (as a rough guideline, for a five-paper session this is usually 10-12 minutes), and how you plan to handle the Q&A
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Encourage them to be in the session room 20 minutes before the session starts
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Let them know if you plan to record your session for upload to the online programme (to be accessible to registered delegates only for up to three months after the conference) and confirm they are happy with this
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Encourage them to send a backup copy of their presentation files to you ahead of the event in case of technical problems
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Remind them to notify you, and the conference organisers, if they are no longer able to attend
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It may be a good idea to give presenters your contact details ahead of time, so that if they get lost or are running behind schedule you can assist and adjust the session schedule accordingly
Before you arrive at the session, do check the online programme for any final changes. We will do our best to notify you of any changes to your session in advance, but the online programme will include any updates we know of.
As we make our final preparations for the conference, from Monday 7 August you will need to log in to view the conference programme. Access is via the email you used to register. If you are having any difficulties logging into the online platform, please contact us to resolve these.
You can access a downloadable grid view conference programme here, which lists sessions by date, time and room. Click through to access full session details (you will need to be logged in to view).
DOWNLOAD A GRID VIEW OF THE PROGRAMME
Chairing an in-person or hybrid session
If you are chairing a hybrid session at the Society, or an in-person session at Imperial College London, we recommend arriving at your allocated room 20 minutes in advance of the session to get set up. Room details are listed on your session details in the online programme. Please see our guide to finding rooms at the conference venue to help you locate your session room.
If your session is hybrid, an AV technician will be available, and will help you to ensure everything is set up correctly and that you can connect with your remote presenters via Zoom. There will also be guidance in the room for how to contact further technical support as required.
Your presenters have been asked to arrive 20 minutes before the session starts. Introduce yourself to each of them, get them to add their slides to the session room computer, and check for any last-minute changes to their titles and how to pronounce their name. If they are using video or audio clips, check these work.
When the session starts, please do a short welcome, and briefly introduce each of the presenters (name, institution and paper title).
Whilst the session is in progress, you will be responsible for keeping the session to time. It is very important that each of the presentations keep to time. You will have signs that indicate five minutes to go, two minutes to go, and STOP. If a participant runs over time, you may need to interrupt them verbally to stop the presentation. This is important out of respect for the other presenters, to allow everyone their fair slot to present.
Only allow time for a Q&A if time permits - if there is no time, participants should be encouraged to continue the conversation outside of the session. When running the Q&A, please inform audience members of your preferred way for raising questions, and stick to this method throughout. We encourage you to enable a range of people to ask questions, and in particular giving early-career or more marginalised colleagues the chance to speak first. Ideally, avoid taking multiple questions from the same person to give others the chance to participate.
Be ready with a first question if none are forthcoming.
At the end of the session, thank all participants and encourage attendees to continue the conversation in the break.
Additional guidance for Chairs of hybrid sessions
Each hybrid session will have a Zoom meeting set up using our conference Zoom accounts, and a session room allocated at the Society. The session’s Zoom meeting will be open on the session room laptop, linked to the room AV, so that it is visible onscreen.
You MUST NOT disconnect the session room laptop from the room AV at any point, as this will disconnect the Zoom meeting.
We strongly recommend that one of the session organisers also be logged into the meeting on their own device (muted so as not to create any feedback) so that they can provide support to presenters, help monitor the chat, and so on.
In-room presenters should bring their presentations on USB sticks and upload these to the desktop of the session room laptop. While presenting, they should share their slides using the ‘Share my screen’ feature. You may need to double-check that the slides are set to ‘Duplicate screen’ mode, so that they advance for both those in the room and those watching online.
During a remote presentation, the session Chair should be visible from the session room camera so that they are visible to the remote presenter. To keep presenters to time, you can hold the ‘5 minutes to go’ etc signs up to the camera, send a direct message in the chat, and as needed verbally interrupt to ask the presenter to stop.
As Chair you should decide how to run the Q&A so as to give opportunities to those in the room and those watching online. You should also let everyone know at the start of the session how this will work.
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We recommend that you ask for those taking part online to post questions in the session chat, to be read out and asked by the Chair. You can also ask people to use the ‘Raise Hand’ feature, and then invite people to unmute themselves to ask their question.
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During Q&A, the Chair should repeat/summarise any questions asked in the room for the benefit of those taking part online.
If your session is hybrid, as Chair you can decide to record the session for upload to the online conference programme (to be available for up to three months for registered delegates to watch on catch-up). If the session is being recorded, you should announce this at the beginning of the session.
To record a hybrid session, please press Record in the Zoom meeting at the start of the session.
Chairing an online session
Please ensure that you have installed the latest version of Zoom on your device. There is more information in our guide to planning your online attendance.
If you are chairing an online session, you will be able to access your session through our virtual platform, Fourwaves. Navigate to your session details page, and then click on the button near the top that says 'Join Zoom meeting'. This will open the Zoom meeting for you.
Please join the session around 15 minutes before the scheduled start-time to meet with the Stage Manager and welcome each of the presenters. Here, you should ensure that each presenter has a copy of their presentation, and ideally has sent you a backup version in case of technical issues.
Keep speakers to their allocated time (over-running presentations is the most common complaint we receive in conference feedback). You can use the chat to indicate ‘five minutes to go’ and ‘two minutes to go’. When there is only one minute remaining, it may be helpful to unmute and indicate this verbally. If a presenter overruns, you may need to interrupt them verbally, stop the presentation and move on.
If a speaker fails to arrive, or has technical difficulties which prevent them from presenting, we suggest you move to the next presenter rather than delaying. If the absent presenter is able to rejoin, move them to the end of the sequence. If they do not rejoin, please use the extra time for discussion, rather than allowing the other speakers extra time to present. If this happens, presenters will be encouraged to record and upload their presentations after the event (if they haven’t already done so). You may have collected presentations ahead of your session, so that you can share your screen and slides on behalf of a presenter who is struggling with technical difficulties. While it’s not ideal to have ‘next slide please’, it does save time in transitions.
Only begin a Q&A session if time permits. If there is no time for questions, or time runs out before all questions can be answered, strongly encourage participants to continue the conversation outside of the session.
Please give guidance to your presenters, stage manager and attendees on how you would like to take questions:
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You can invite questions via the ‘Chat’ function.
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You can invite attendees to indicate that they would like to ask a question by using the ‘Raise Hand’ function. You can then verbally invite an attendee with a raised hand to ask a question. Please encourage those who speak to state their name and affiliation when asking a question.
During Q&A, try to allow a range of people to ask questions, and consider giving early-career or more marginalised colleagues the chance to ask the first question. Ideally, avoid taking multiple questions from the same person to give others the chance to participate.
Running the Q&A
How to deal with various situations during Q&A:
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Time is almost up: “We have time for one last question.”
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There are too many questions to accommodate: encourage the audience to chat to the speaker during a break.
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A question is unclear: ask for clarification (“Could you be more specific?") or try to paraphrase (“If I understand you correctly, then you’re asking…") or if all else fails suggest that the question be answered in the break.
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Somebody is dominating questions: “Thank you. We need to give other members of the audience a chance to ask questions. Please continue this interesting conversation during the break.”
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Somebody is asking a long rambling question: “Would you please come to the point?”
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Somebody is making a statement rather than asking a question: “Would you please ask a question?”
What happens if there are no questions from the floor? You could just move on to the next talk. However, this is rather anticlimactic for the speaker. If possible, prepare your own question for the speaker. You can do this ahead of time by reading the abstract and thinking of a general question to ask. Alternatively, you can ask the speaker if there are any questions that they would like you to ask.