Thank you for agreeing to chair a session at the ROeS 2025 Conference in Graz, Austria.

Please find below some guidance for chairing at the conference:

Before the conference

  • You will find the session you are assigned to in ConfTool. Please log in with your registration details to check them. You will see all speakers and abstracts of the assigned sessions in this overview:
  • You can reach out to the speakers in advance to ask if they want to suggest one or two questions for their presentation to help with preparing the Q&A

At the conference

  • Arrive at the room at least 10 minutes before the start of the session so that you can check for potential issues with our technical support person and to meet the speakers
  • Introduce yourself to the speakers. Make sure that they are all aware of the session flow, including the order in which the presentations take place.
  • Double-check with the speakers how questions are asked and answered in the session. In most cases, the Q&A will follow directly after the presentation. Each presentation slot lasts 20 minutes: 15 minutes presentation, 4 minutes Q&A, and 1 minute to change to next presentation. Invited and topic-contributed sessions might have different rules.
  • Double-check with the speakers how they want to be reminded about the timing during their talks. It is usually easiest to sit at the front and raise your hand to do this. Paper sheets with 5 min / 2 min / 1 min warnings will be prepared for every session. Additionally, there will be a bicycle bell in case the speaker already used up his speaking time. Agree with your speakers on the rules before the session start so that they know what to look out for.
  • In the larger session rooms, please make sure that mics are used by the speakers and the audience.

During the Session

  • Welcome everyone and repeat the name of the session in case somebody is in the wrong place
  • Describe the structure of the session (presentations followed by Q&A, panel discussion, Q&A at the end, etc.) as needed
  • Introduce the speakers (name and affiliation) before their presentation
  • Time the speakers to make sure that the session time is spent fairly. If needed, remind the speakers to finish if they get close to the end of their allotted time.
  • Once the speakers have finished their talk, stand up and invite the audience to ask questions, if time allows. If the time slot for the presentation is exhausted (usually after 20 min), no further questions should be allowed. If there aren’t any questions ask one to start the discussion.
  • At the time of the session if there are no-shows, you as the chair of the session will announce the no-show and maintain the sequence of presentations. In other words, there should be no pauses in the session. You will keep the time and take questions from the audience.
  • Note: In the event of speaker no-shows, you as the chair can use the time for an extended question and answer period or begin the next presentation.
  • At the end of the session, thank all speakers and the audience