Thank you for serving as the chair of a PAA flash session! The quality and tenor of the session will be impacted by your work; this may be especially the case during this year’s virtual meeting. So, in advance, thank you for reading these guidelines and for trying to facilitate a great session.
Note that your role as chair includes both pre-conference preparation and facilitation during the conference. Please build a good rapport among the presenters in advance (by making introductions/connections among the participants) and to set a positive tone during the session (by ensuring a fair allocation of available time and fostering a collegial and professional exchange). Should challenges arise, you will be looked to for guidance and leadership (and please see the instructions below if you need help). We offer these guidelines to you as the chair of a flash session.
Pre-Conference
At least one month before the conference (we suggest by April 1st), please connect with all of your presenters on the following six points:
- Discuss the ground rules for the session using the Guidelines for Flash Session Presenters. Each flash session will have 6-8 presenters. Important: virtual sessions this year are just 75 minutes long! For flash sessions, a benchmark schedule would be 3 minutes to get going and make introductions, 5 slides and 5 minutes for each presentation, and the remaining time (i.e., 30-40 minutes) for circulation and discussion.
- Presenters in flash sessions are not required to upload full papers, but should upload their posters to the static, flash session poster gallery in the Open Water virtual platform by 12:00 PM on May 2nd.
- Please let members of your session know that all materials received (papers and presentations) should not be circulated to anyone beyond the participants in the session.
- Finally, please make a plan with the members of your session regarding screen sharing. We think it will be most effective if each presenter shares their own screen. Having a plan and sharing that plan with other members of your session ahead of time, will help you save time during the session. We encourage you to have a ‘practice’ session a week or two before your actual session to introduce participants to each other and to ensure that everyone is comfortable with use of the online technology.
At the Session
- With Open Water, PAA’s virtual platform, sessions will take place in Zoom. As the chair, you will serve as the host of this session and will be responsible for starting the session as a Zoom meeting. The room will not be open to participants until you start it. You may opt to make presenting authors co-hosts, but that is up to you. Please note, there will be training provided for chairs and we will send out a notice when the platform is complete.
- Please arrive early; we suggest starting your session 10-15 minutes early. When you arrive in the room, create a breakout room for each of the 6-8 presenters in your session;
- To create breakout rooms, click the option at the bottom of the screen (if you are not using full screen view, you will need to click “More” to see this option). Select the third option: “Let participants choose room” and click “Create.”
- Rename room 1 with a presenting author’s name and then click to add a room for each presenter until all authors have a room. Click the X in the upper right corner to close the box. Do not click to open the breakout rooms at this time.
- Please welcome your speakers and attendees as they join. Make sure you have the correct pronunciation of participants’ names.
- Please make sure to start on time and end on time. This maximizes the time allocated for content and keeps the overall conference on schedule. As is typical for the PAA meetings, we strongly encourage you to defer all audience questions and comments until the end, after all presenters and the discussant have spoken. Please decide in advance if you’d like to use the ‘Chat’ function and receive questions in Chat to be asked at the end.
- Please set the stage. Welcome the audience, introduce yourself (name and affiliation) as the Chair, and identify the session title. You may add a brief comment or two to prime the audience for the session, but please limit your remarks to avoid impinging on presenters’ time. Please notify the audience that they will have an opportunity to visit with each presenter in their poster break-out room after the last presentation.
- We encourage you to introduce each presenter and title as one speaker is transitioning to the next. You can thank the previous presenter and introduce the next, noting the name and affiliation of the individual giving the presentation and the title of their paper.
- Please keep to the order listed in the program. Some people come to listen to one speaker and may be disappointed if the presentations are not made in order.
- Once all presenters have had a turn, encourage the audience to visit each poster breakout room for a more in-depth discussion. To do this, click “Breakout Rooms” again, and click “Open all Breakout Rooms.” You can use the “Broadcast Message to All” option or make an announcement to attendees that the breakout rooms are open to view posters. Please make it a point to visit each breakout room yourself to view all posters.
- Please wrap-up and end on time. Clearly define the conclusion of the session by thanking the presenters and the audience and state that the session has ended.
- Please troubleshoot if necessary. As the chair, people will turn to you should problems arise and expect you to manage the session and respond to challenges. Click the “Help” button top of the screen if there are technical issues. PAA Staff will be in the room at the beginning of all flash sessions. You can also email PAA staff at paaonsite@popassoc.org. This email will go to all PAA staff who will provide help as soon as possible. Please keep in mind that this email address will only be monitored from the start of the pre-conference workshop until the end of the conference, and staff will only respond to emails concerning technical issues or emergencies.