Session helpers schedule

Slot Room 1 Helper Room 2 Helper Room 3 Helper
Fri, 14:00 Merten Mark - - Harnad  
Fri, 15:30 Lammers Christian O'Neil Christina Gentile  
Sat, 10:30 Siefkes Mathieu Saravia Athina Hrachovec Mick / Matthew
Sat, 12:00 Haralanova Mathieu McCarthy Athina Söderberg Mick / Matthew
Sat, 14:30 Jakubowski Matthew Meyer Athina Aigrain Mathieu
Sat, 16:00 Karatzogianni Christina Victor Matthew Gupta Mathieu
Sat, 17:30 Nahrada George McKerrell Matthew Bazzichelli Christina
Sun, 9:00 Bauwens Mathieu Dafermos   Spontaneous  

Check list for session helpers

To-dos for session helpers

  1. Find "your" speaker before the session

    Try to find "your" speaker before the session and introduce yourself as the session helper. Then your speaker knows to whom to turn in case there are questions about the respective session.

    Whether the speaker has already arrived you can find out at the conference bureau.

  2. Go to room before the session

    At least 15 minutes before the session is scheduled go to the respective room and contact the session helper of the session before yours. The session helper of the previous sessions hands over the responsibility for the available technical infrastructure (computer, beamer, microphone, etc.) to you.

  3. Check introduction with your speaker

    Ask your speaker whether you should introduce him/her or whether s/he will do this himself/herself. In case you are to introduce the speaker / the session make sure that you know interesting things either from the program or from the speaker. For the audience most interesting is to learn about the competence of the speaker ("Why is it interesting to listen to this speaker?")

  4. Check discussion facilitation with your speaker

    Check whether you should facilitate a discussion or the speaker wants to do this himself/herself.

    Please note that workshops may organize this differently.

  5. Help speaker with technical infrastructure

    Help your speaker with connecting to the technical infrastructure.

  6. Make sure audio recording works

    Check the audio recording and make sure it is running fine.

    The microphone should point to the speaker and should be close enough for a good recording.

    Make sure that your introduction is part of the recording to support the post-processing of the audio material.

  7. Start the session

    Start the session on time but at most 10 minutes after the official start.

  8. Make announcments

    Make announcments on behalf of the conference organizers. These announcments include:

    • The current amount of money needed to pay all costs.

      This is needed for sessions starting

      • Fri, 15:30
      • Sat, 10:30
      • Sat, 14:30
      • Sat, 17:30
      • Sun, 09:00
    • What people need to do to order lunch. You will get informed about what to say here by the conference organizers.

      This is needed for sessions starting

      • Sat, 09:00
      • Sat, 10:30
      • Sat, 12:00
  9. Introduce speaker and session

    Tell the audience the

    • name of the speaker
    • title of the session

    and

    • introduce the speaker if you agreed on this before
  10. Keep time

    The lecture should be go for about 45 minutes but in no case longer than 60 minutes.

    Workshops may organize themselves differently.

    Keep an eye on the time and signal the speaker that s/he is close to the end of the lecture time. Agree with the speaker on a good signal like showing minutes left with your fingers.

  11. Facilitate discussion

    After the lecture facilitate the discussion if agreed upon before. In any case make sure that the discussion actually takes place.

    Workshops usually organize themselves.

  12. Care about the microphone during the discussion

    Care about the microphone during the discussion. If there is a special microphone for use in the room use it and hand it to the person in the audience putting a question or making another type of contribution. It is necessary that the questions and other contributions from the audience are part of the audio recording in good quality.

  13. End session

    End the session at least 15 minutes before the slot ends. This way changing of rooms can be done in a decent manner.

    Make sure that you end the session on time. Since we have three parallel tracks and a packed schedule we need to be very careful with time.

  14. Wait for next session helper

    Wait for the session helper of the following session and hand over the responsibility.

How to deal with disturbances?

During a session there might happen things which are perceived as a disturbance. One instance is if someone wants to discuss a topic which is far off the topic of the session. In this case first keep cool. Then check whether things regulate themselves in a decent time.

If not try to find out what the opinion of the majority is. Usually people come to a session because they want to learn about the session's topic but sometimes there is a shift in the topic which is also interesting for the audience. Don't hesitate to ask the audience whether the disturbance perceived by you is a problem at all.

If the topic is interesting to some but not all you can suggest a spontaneous session which is easy to organize via the conference bureau.

In case the disturbance does not end although the opinion of the majority is clear try to ask for the questions / contributions from those not involved in the disturbance.

Oekonux/Project/Conferences/4thConference/Checklists/SessionHelpers (last edited 2009-03-25 14:46:53 by StefanMerten)

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