Advice for moderators of oral scientific sessions

MODERATOR/TIMEKEEPER RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Work together to find, meet, and greet each speaker in your session.

2. Review your introductory remarks with speakers (including correct pronunciation of their names and presentation titles), briefly explain any A/V equipment (laser pointers, advancing slides, etc.), and the format of the presentation (12 min talk with 2 min for questions, first 5-min warning at 9 mins, second 2-min at 12 mins, cut off at 14-15 mins). Check with the A/V team to make sure all talks are loaded for your session.

3. Let the speakers know you are there to assist them with anything they may need during their presentation.

4. Start on time to introduce your session. A good formula for introducing a session is:

• Welcome the audience and state the name of the session.
• Relate in one or two sentences why the topic is important to the audience.
• For each talk, introduce the speaker and give the title of the talk. You might tell the audience something that relates to the speaker’s qualifications (Is it their first NADS, how many times have they been to Lakeside, their favorite diatom).
• If necessary, let the audience know how and when you will be soliciting questions - at the end of each talk, or whether there will be microphones available when asking questions.

5. Keep your session on time! Inform speakers that they must complete their presentation in 14-15 minutes and will be cut off at that time. It is very important for the session to stay on time and it is your job to keep it on time. Timekeeper: Give a 5-minute warning signal to the presenter, a 2-minute warning, then let them know when their time is up and introduce the next talk.

6. Ensure the audience can hear the presenters by requiring that they use the microphone, if room is equipped with one.

7. Solicit questions from the audience after the talk. Ask the speaker to repeat questions from the audience so that all audience members can hear it before it is answered. Be prepared to help with the question and answer period. You should have at least one question ready in case there are none from the audience. This will usually stimulate questions from the audience.

8. Close the session by thanking the speakers, making relevant announcements that have been given to you by the conference organizers, and suggest posters of similar topic/interest to your session that participants should view.

9. Thank the speakers personally for their participation after the session.