Thank you very much in advance for chairing a panel. Here are a few notes which we hope may be helpful.
If you have any questions about programming etc. ahead of the conference, please email us on [email protected]. If a problem arises on the day of your paper, please contact:
- Sam Dixon (from Thursday to Saturday, 10 – 12 July) on +44 (0)7791 624431.
- Jana Mauri Marlborough (from Friday to Sunday, 11 – 13 July) on +44 (0)7599 873869, or WhatsApp (+31631991627).
It would be helpful if you could be present five minutes before the start of your session, to meet speakers and check in with any virtual speakers (see below). Please start the panel promptly at the advertised time.
Please feel free to chair ‘lightly’: Speakers need only very brief introduction. It need be no more than name, institution/location and paper title. There’s no need for you to offer a response or ask the first question, though of course it may be helpful to have a question ready.
Please try to take questions in order, giving equal preference to physical and virtual audience members. Please promote diversity where possible, e.g. by starting with a woman, a student or early career professional, and/or a member of minority group. Research shows that this helps create an inclusive environment where all present feel welcome and encouraged to participate. We ask that virtual questions be delivered only as spoken questions (i.e. not in the chat bar). Please remind your audience of that at the start of the panel or during the first questions.
Please do be firm with timekeeping. Each paper usually has a 30-minute slot, comprising 20 minutes for the paper and 10 minutes for questions. When a speaker runs into their question time, that’s their loss: please don’t extend the time for questions in consequence. If a speaker is still speaking at 30 minutes, please gently draw them to a halt and move on to the next talk without questions, or end the session if it’s the final talk.
The conference is fully hybrid, i.e. speakers and audience members may be present physically or virtually. As a platform we are using Microsoft Teams. Please give yourself five minutes before the session to familiarise yourself with the interface. A conference helper (a St Andrews student) will be assigned to your session. They will set up the AV equipment (both for Teams Meetings and for Powerpoint presentations), get the Teams meeting live, assist any virtual speakers if necessary and admit virtual audience members. Please refer any other AV/Teams-related questions to this helper, who will either resolve them or contact our on-site AV technician.
Papers are listed online by session then panel. Please check in with any virtual speakers before the start of your session, as well as with those actually in the room. If a virtual speaker is lightly disrupted by connection issues, it may be best to let the talk proceed. If severe disruption is apparent at the outset, please swap the paper if possible with another from the same panel, to give the affected speaker time to try to fix the problem. Conference delegates have been warned that such last-minute changes may be made. We hope that such glitches will be rare at most; some discretion will obviously be needed, but please aim wherever possible to keep the session as a whole within its allotted timeframe.
Again thank you very much. We’re very grateful for your help, and hope you will find your session and any others you attend interesting and profitable.