Session Chair Guidelines
Session Chairs are responsible for conducting the session. They introduce the session, the individual speakers or panel members of the session. They invite comments and questions from the audience and facilitate discussions during the session. They identify and bring to the session’s important issues from poster presentations on the topic under consideration. Depending on the nature of the session, they either summarize the session deliberations or formulate conclusions drawn by the session. It is generally expected that a summary would be made of a plenary session.
Session chairs are selected by the Program Committee. Their responsibilities include:
- Maintaining session timings! This is the most important function of a session chair. There is a light system at each table, but you may be required to politely interrupt the speaker if they go over time.
- Introducing speakers and presentation titles
- Facilitating questions and discussion with in-person and virtual attendees
Please check in at the speaker ready room the day before the session you are chairing to make sure everyone has submitted their presentation. Please contact any speakers who have not uploaded their presentations.
Rapporteur Guidelines
Rapporteur shall produce the assessment report on the session for which he/she is responsible, discuss it with the chair and co-chair and send the report to the MA team leader and the ICPC chair (the MA Team leader will summarize the reports on all sessions in the MA and provide it with his comments to the ICPC chair and secretary to discuss it for a publication). The task of the rapporteur is:
- to present the summary of the posters in a short 5’ pptx,
- to draft a summary of the essential issues of the posters,
- to take notes from rhetorical discussion during the session,
- to discuss the results with the chairs to develop a Session Report.