participating in the conference

Guidance for In-Person Individual Presenters:

Individual presenters of contributed submissions will be invited to give summary presentations of their work for ~5 minutes. Presenters can use slides for their summary; these can be provided before the conference to the Data for Policy team, or on the day to a local organiser in advance of the start of the conference proceedings. The summary presentations will be followed by discussion, led by the Chair, and audience Q&A. Sessions of individual presentations vary in length across the three conference regions, and presenters are reminded to check the programme for details of their session, including other participants and Chair.

Guidance for In-Person Panel Presenters:

Presenters of contributed panels will organise presentations as they wish, within the allocated time for the panel. Panel organisers should ensure that there is time for audience Q&A. Panellists can use slides; these can be provided before the conference to the Data for Policy team, or on the day to a local organiser in advance of the start of the conference proceedings. Panel organisers can arrange their own chair/moderator; if a chair/moderator is required, please let the Data for Policy team know.

Note: The conference will run in hybrid format, and there will be virtual participants in many sessions.

For in-person Chairs:

Session Chairs are pivotal to the running of a smooth and timely conference. This position is offered by the Regional Conference Chair to leading academics and experts in the field.

Activities before the session:

1. You are kindly expected to check the Conference Schedule and be clear about the exact date, time and venue of the session that you are chairing.
2. Please also read the guidance for presenters and virtual attendees to avoid any communication gap.
3. Your main role is to encourage the presenters to share their knowledge on the topic and encourage the participants to have an intellectual discussion on the subject. Where appropriate, we also invite you to share your own knowledge, research, experience, and observations.
4. We also invite you to note any critical issues raised during presentations and discussions at your sessions, to contribute to the post-conference report.
5. We kindly invite you to watch the presentation videos on YouTube and read the Zenodo materials relating to the session that you are chairing (these are available as links in the online programme).
6. Please be available in your designated room at least 5 minutes before the commencement of your session. There will also be room leads from the conference team to help with these arrangements. 
7. Announce that the total time allocated for the session is 45 minutes. Depending on whether three or four presentations are in the session, speakers should be allocated 5-7 minutes to summarise their work. It is recommended to have a combined 20-minute discussion at the end.
8. You may decide and announce the method you will use to notify the presenters when they are nearing their presentation time limit and how you will interrupt them if they have reached the end of their allocated time. If however, all time has expired for that speaker, it is acceptable to ask the audience to discuss issues with that speaker after the end of the session.
9. It is up to you as the session Chair to ensure that ALL speakers receive their allotted time and that the audience has the opportunity for their questions and comments.

Activities during the session:

1. Please briefly introduce yourself as Chair and welcome the participants to your session.
2. Ensure that each participant starts on time and ends on time. It is the responsibility of the Session Chair that the session finishes on time.
3. While inviting participant(s) to present a paper, announce their full name(s), affiliation and the title of the paper. You may refer to the Conference Programme for this purpose.
4. As an expert, we also encourage you to share your views, reflections and observations on the paper as per the time available.
5. Since ethical issues are highly controversial in the conference field, we encourage Session Chairs to avoid any diversion from the main discussions unless there is potential for novelty and contribution to overall conference debates.
6. Session Chairs are encouraged to prepare questions in order to encourage the audience when opening up Q&A and discussion.

Guidance for Virtual Individual Presenters:

Individual presenters of contributed submissions will be invited to give virtual summary presentations of their work for ~5 minutes via the conference online platform. Presenters will be made co-host in their sessions, and can therefore share slides for their summary. The summary presentations will be followed by discussion, led by the Chair, and audience Q&A. Sessions of individual presentations vary in length across the three conference regions, and presenters are reminded to check the programme for details of their session, including other participants and Chair.

Guidance for In-Person Panel Presenters:

Presenters of contributed panels will organise presentations as they wish, within the allocated time for the panel. Panel organisers should ensure that there is time for audience Q&A. Virtual panellists will be co-hosts of their sessions and can share slides. Panel organisers can arrange their own chair/moderator; if a chair/moderator is required, please let the Data for Policy team know.

Note: The conference will run in hybrid format, and there will be in-person participants in every session.