Session Chair Information
Please arrive 10 minutes early to familiarize yourself with the meeting room and AV equipment. Once the presentation is launched, the presenter will control the program from the podium using a computer mouse or the up/down/right/left keys on a keyboard. Each room will have a timer and slide advancer/laser pointer. We must keep on time! Please start the sessions on time; do not delay while people return from breaks. If a speaker ends early or a talk is cancelled, please wait until the scheduled start of the next presentation before continuing.
Talks are 12 minutes long with 2 minutes for questions and a 1-minute period for changing rooms. Please briefly introduce the speaker, their affiliation, and the title of their talk – no biographical elaboration is necessary.
To keep talks on schedule, we will use the following timing conventions: at 10 minutes past the start of the talk, notify the speaker that there are 2 minutes left. If we are able to implement a central timing station, an indicator will sound. At 12 minutes, indicate it is time to begin any questions; again, an indicator will sound. At 14 minutes indicate that the talk and questions are over; the indicator will sound to signal the end of the allotted time, giving everyone an opportunity to move between rooms if they wish. At 15 minutes a sound will indicate the start of the next talk. (Note that if you are chairing a 30-minute talk in a symposium, the talk and any questions still must end at the same time as the second concurrent 15-minute talks in the general sessions.)
We are doing a few things slightly differently at this conference. For example, we are dividing our 10-talk morning sessions into two continuous 5-talk blocks, with a separate chair for each block; that way no one has to sit in one spot for 2-1/2 hours. Our afternoon talks are divided into two 6-talk blocks with a coffee break in between and two separate chairs as well (although some afternoon sessions have been shortened to accommodate society business meetings). We also hope to implement a centralized timing station to keep concurrent sessions synchronized, and further reduce the burden on session chairs.