Thank very much you for accepting to chair one of our regular paper sessions --- session chairs play a very important role at the conference.
Please make sure to arrive at the Bayside room in which your session has been scheduled at least 15 minutes before the start of the session. Speakers have been instructed to report to you before the start of the session. Please make a note of the name of the presenter for each paper. You should help speakers who have their presentations on a USB key copy it onto the hard drive of the room's laptop before the session start. If needed, please help speakers connect their laptops and install their wireless microphone before they start their presentations.
At the precise official starting time for your session, you should identify yourself and welcome participants to your session. Your role is then to introduce each speaker and to manage the time and room interactions.
Each paper presentation at the conference is allotted a 30-minute slot (see the schedule for details):
- oral presentation: 20 minutes
- question period: 5 minutes
- room-changing period: 5 minutes
Please make sure to enforce these time limits. In particular, the 5 minutes for switching rooms at the end of EACH paper (not each session) is needed because some rooms are rather far apart, so please stop the question period 5 minutes before the start of the next paper.
A clock will be provided to help you monitor the time. Three timer cards will be available : 5 - 2 - STOP. You should flash them to the speaker respectively 15 - 18 - 20 minutes after the beginning of his/her talk (this operation will be easier if you sit in the front row, close to the speaker). If the speaker has not stopped yet after 22 minutes, you should walk onstage and stand right next to him/her: this usually does the trick. Before and after the question period, you should thank the speaker and invite the audience to applaud.
During the question period, please invite questioners to use the microphone; if none is available ask them to speak loud enough. Questioners should name themselves. If needed, have the speaker repeat the questions so that all the room can hear them. If there are many people with questions, you should manage turns. Do not let a single person use up all the time. Do not take advantage of your chair position to ask questions while others are waiting. On the other hand, it is good practice for the chair to have at least one question ready, in case there are none at all from the room.
If one of your speakers fails to show up, you should pause your session until the scheduled start of the next paper, or terminate the session if there are no remaining papers. Please DO NOT CHANGE THE SCHEDULE: eack talk must start at the announced time.
Thanks in advance for your valued help.
-- Claire and Pierre