Instructions for Chairs

Please refer to the programme available on the conference web page to confirm the session you are chairing and times.

The talks will be held on Zoom and we would ask you to be online at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the session, to check that all speakers are present and to assist them with testing their talks.

Your role as chair is to introduce each speaker, facilitate the Q&A session at the end of each talk and to ensure the session runs to time.  The Q&A Session will be managed as follows:

• Attendees will be able to ask questions during the talk via the chat window. If the talk was previously recorded then the speaker will be able to answer questions directly in the chat window while their talk is being played. If the talk is live, the speaker can choose to pause during the talk to read the chat and answer questions verbally, or wait until the end of their talk to answer the questions verbally. Attendees can continue adding questions via the chat window during the Q&A session, which the speaker can answer verbally.
• At the end of the talk, attendees will be invited to virtually raise their hand if they wish to ask a question verbally rather than through the chat. If an attendee raises their hand, you will be able to see a raised hand icon in the participant list. Please read out the participants name and ask them to unmute themselves to ask their question. The IOP organising team will be on-hand to provide support and can help unmute anyone who has any difficulty.
• If you observe that there are not many questions appearing in the chat during the talk, please add some questions of your own, either in the chat window during the talk, or by unmuting your mic and asking the speaker directly during the Q&A session.

An overview of how long each speaker has been allocated is below. Please ensure speakers keep within the time allocated. If there isn’t sufficient time for questions, these can be taken offline or answered in the chat.

• Keynote talks – 50 Minutes and 10 minutes for Q&A
• Track A and B Contributed Talks –20 minutes and 5 minutes for Q&A
• Track C Contributed Talks – 12 minutes plus 3 minutes for Q&A

The programme for the event is available on the conference website and the presenting author has been underlined for reference.  If there are any changes to the programme we will notify you either via email or via the chat during the session.

A couple of points to note:

• All participants are encouraged to share their cameras
• A member of the IOP team will be online to answer any questions. If you need any assistance, please contact via private message. They can be identified by NAME : IOP
• All participants will be muted unless they are invited to speak.
• At the end of each session, please encourage attendees to take a break and let them know when to return for the next session.