Guidelines for session chairs

General

• Please check the time and place of the session you are chairing on the conference programme, and please arrive at least 30 minutes before the starting time.
• The chair is responsible for welcoming the audience, introducing the speakers, and general timekeeping in a session.
• Presenters should be introduced briefly by name and affiliation only.
• Please open Q&A directly after each individual presentation.

Time-keeping

• Long paper sessions normally consist of three presentations. Speakers have up to 20 minutes each.
• Short paper sessions usually include five short papers. Speakers have up to 10 minutes each.
• There will be “5 minutes” and “1 minute” signs available to session chairs. They can be used to help speakers keep to their allotted time.
• If presenters are still speaking the end of their allotted time, the chair will ask them to stop, out of respect for the other presenters’ time, and in order to allow questions.
• The chair should ensure that at least 30 minutes in a sessions are dedicated to Q&A and discussion.

Multilingual sessions

If the session you are chairing happens to have presentations in more than one language, you may need to do a little extra coordination and accommodation with the speakers and the audience. For more information on handling multilingual sessions, please see the GO::DH Translation Toolkit Recommendations (http://go-dh.github.io/translation-toolkit/conferences/)

• Please facilitate “whispering” in any form it might take in a way that is does not hinder the proceedings of the session
• Chairs should encourage attendees to tweet and share notes in various languages at the beginning of their sessions.
• Please invite attendees to remain in the session particularly if a presentation in a different language is coming up. All presenters have been encouraged to craft multilingual materials to facilitate dialogue across languages.
• The chair should always be prepared to ask a question or two to presenters, in case no one else does.
• Finally, the chair should remember to thank all the participants and the audience at the end of the session.