Chairing Remote Meetings/sessions¶

Talks and presentations¶

Checklist for the chair of the designated talk

Coordinate with the organisers regarding the schedule, exact responsibilities and other people involved in the event they’ll chair
Coordinate witha designated note-taker, or be ready to assign one in the beginning of the event
Share the link to the notes or shared document with all the attendees
Remind everyone of the Code of the Conduct contact person in case something needs to be reported
Introduce the speaker and note-takers (and sign language interpreter if available)
Remind everyone if the video will be recorded
Request everyone to keep their camera on whenever possible
Indicate if the speakers should speed up or slow down, or if there is a technical issue that the speaker should check
Help answer procedural questions like “where is this button that I should click”
Direct technical questions to the organiser when needed
Note-takers take notes to capture main points from the talk
With note-takers, gather questions, opinion and response, on the shared document than open discussion
- This can be done on a document or by using interactive tools like sli.do
Ask people to add ‘+1’ next to the points that they like or agree with
Verbalise some of the popular insights, opinion and thoughts
Close session in time by thanking the speakers and note-takers
Take a moment to thank the speakers for their talks

Short workshops, up-skilling or discussion sessions¶

Checklist for the session lead, helpers and note-takers of the designated session

Share the link to the shared document
Remind of the Code of the Conduct contact person in case something needs to be reported
Introduce the helpers and note-takers (and sign language interpreter if available)
If recording the call, make sure to tell the participants before you hit the record button
Allow them to turn off their video when recording
To allow participation with the video on, don’t record general discussions
Help notetakers in documenting important outcomes from every discussion
Encourage everyone to help the notetaker in documenting correct information
With helpers and note takers, gather questions, opinion and response, on the shared document than open discussion
Ask people to add ‘+1’ next to the points that they like or agree with
Verbalise some of the popular insights, opinion and thoughts
Take note of any technical issue that speaker or others come across and help troubleshoot them
Help answer procedural questions like “where is this button that I should click”
Direct technical questions to the organiser when needed
- This can be done on a document or by using interactive tools like sli.do
Create breakout rooms whenever possible to ensure that people can connect while discussing mutually useful question or issues
Facilitate fair discussion, don’t fixate on one argument
In the last part of the session, take some time to collect feedback from the participants
Ask people to volunteer to write short blogs about their experience
Close their sessions in time by thanking the speakers and note-takers
Take a moment to celebrate the session and everyone involved in running those

Lightning talks¶

Checklist for the designated chair of these sessions

Share the link of the shared notes for the session along with the link to the pre-recorded lightning talks (see details in (Program (before the event))
Ask presenters who are attending the session to write down their names so that other attendees can ask questions specific to their talks
Allow enough time for everyone to check out multiple lightning Talks
Run an open question and answer period where anyone can ask questions to any presenters; remind everyone to keep their question and response short
- Use shared document or Slido for taking questions
Keep the format informal and allow flexibility for participation
Finish the session by thanking all the participants, and ask everyone to leave encouraging words, gifs or emojis to celebrate the session and presenters’ work.
If the feedback for the session is available, use the last few minutes to gather those from the participants

Poster sessions¶

Checklist for the designated chair of these sessions

Share the link of the shared notes for the session along with the link to the gallery where the posters can be browsed (see details in (Program (before the event))
- If short pre-recorded lightning talks on the posters are available, allow time to watch a few videos
Ask presenters who are attending the session to write down their names so that other attendees can ask questions specific to their talks
Allow enough time for everyone to ask questions on the shared document, dedicated channel (Slack or sli.do) for poster discussions
Keep an eye on the document to see if everything is going well
Remind every one of the time at regular intervals
At the end, run an open question and answer session where anyone can ask question to any presenters in that session. Remind everyone to keep their question and response short
- Use shared documents or Slido for taking questions
Keep the format informal and allow flexibility for participation
Finish the session by thanking all the participants, and ask everyone to leave nice words, gif or emoji to celebrate the session and presenters’ work.
If the feedback for the session is available, use the last few minutes to gather that from the participants

Handling breakout rooms¶

If using breakout rooms in Zoom (or similar tool), make sure that the organiser helps you create Groups

Create groups that are more diverse (they will have a better discussion)
Remind everyone to give others a fair chance to speak
Ask them to write notes from their discussion in the shared document
Send message periodically reminding everyone of how much time for discussion is left
- Remind them to move on to next person if only one person has spoken so far in their Groups
When people come back from their breakout rooms, ask them to share main arguments from their discussion

The Turing Way