Information for chairs

BERA would like to thank all chairs for their most valuable contribution to the conference.

Please make yourself familiar with the session you are supposed to chair.

All meeting rooms will have a data projector, PC (PowerPoint facilities), sound and internet. There will be staff near all rooms if there are any problem with any of the facilities.

For most individual paper sessions, the final presenter for that slot will serve as the session chair. 

At the beginning of the session:

• Check that all presenters have arrived.
• A short introduction of the presenter and institution can be announced at the beginning of each paper.
• Ensure presenters begin and end on time.
• For each paper questions and discussion should take place after all presentations.

Keep to time and please be firm when reminding speakers to stop. You will have warning cards when you have 5mins/2mins remaining. Thank the presenters at the end and encourage those who wish to engage the speakers in lengthy discussion to do so over coffee. Please make any housekeeping announcements if requested and remind people of the next events on the programme.

If unfortunately some presenters fail to turn up to the session, please agree with the audience and other speakers how the extra time should be used (it may involve an earlier finish, a break, or allowing longer for each speaker). Try to ensure that each speaker is given the same amount of time for the presentation and discussion of their paper.