Category: Practical guides

Practical guide for Chairs

The Chairs have an important role at the IMISCOE conference, contributing to facilitate important research exchange on migration themes – and as an integral part of this, making conference participation an inclusive and safe experience for everyone.

We would therefore like to draw the attention of all Chairs to some important points:

  • You can find the details of the session that you are chairing (including the room number and the Webex link) after logging in on the conference portal. Your session will also be automatically marked under the block “My sessions”.
  • Please contact all presenters in the session you’re chairing in advance to find out who is presenting online and who is coming in person. Please note that it is your responsibility to follow-up and check. All email addresses are available in the program portal – click on participants’ names. Please give concrete instructions about length of time for each presentation in advance, to allow presenters to prepare adequately (for instance, if your session has 3 papers, the timing is naturally different than if there are 5 papers).
  • If the session has a discussant, please agree with them in advance about their role and importantly time-use. If the session does not have a discussant, you can either encourage paper givers to comment on each other’s presentations (for instance, via a pairing system in which each paper giver will provide feedback to the presentation of another colleague in the session) or open the Q&A with the general audience after the paper presentations. As chair, you can also ask questions or make comments regarding the papers during the Q&A, if you wish.
  • Please make sure that you prepare your session in such a way that there is some time left for the general Q&A with the audience and that paper givers will have the opportunity to react to the comments received.
  • Please make sure you know which is the room and the Webex link allocated to your session well in advance of your session’s starting time. This information will be upload directly on the conference portal, so please make sure to check it regularly.
  • Please go to the room assigned to your session as soon as the previous session ends, this should allow 10 mins before your session should start. Please ensure that the equipment is ready for use – and have presenters upload all presentations before the session starts.
  • If you are attending on-site, there are computers in each session room at OsloMet – with OsloMet login and Webex downloaded and tested for use in the hybrid format. The password/login information will be available on a printout in each of the rooms that the conference uses.
  • If you are attending online, the conference assistant who will be present in your session room in Oslo will open the computer in that room and the Webex link for online participants to make sure that everything works fine. If you are participating virtually, please double-check and test that the Webex interface works on your computer, and that the sound works both ways, well in advance of your presentation. Please encourage the participants in your session who will attend online to do the same. A special Drop-In Session will be organized on Monday, 27th of June 2022 between 15:00-16:30 CEST, to allow participants joining online to test the Webex functionalities prior to the conference, if they wish (you can join at any time during this time slot). In addition, a special Online Support Centre will also give assistance during the entire duration of the conference to participants joining via Webex. Detailed information regarding the Drop-In Session and the Online Support Centre will be provided on the conference platform, so please make sure you check it regularly.
  • Information on assistance is available in all rooms, but there are 30 parallel sessions, so we also need the Chairs to try to see how to resolve issues that are possible to fix for them.
  • Please always make sure that your session starts on time, allocate time fairly between papers, and end all sessions on time. Plan for transition times.
  • Please think carefully through how you will manage in person and online presenters – and session participants – in a good way in your session. During the Q&A, if you are attending on-site, please check the Webex chat in case any participants joining online ask questions, raise their hands, etc. If you are attending online, the assistant who will be present in your session room in Oslo will inform you of any on-site participant has questions or comments during the Q&A.
  • Please note that the presenter mode with notes in PPT will not work in Webex with our hybrid conferencing – so presenters should not use this, as everyone then sees all the notes.
  • To ensure the good visibility of your work in the conference program, we strongly advise you to create a profile on the IMISCOE Migration Research Hub, if you do not have one yet: https://migrationresearch.com . Also, please do not hesitate to share the information regarding your session on social media, by using the hashtag #IMISCOE2022.
  • Please make sure that the session is an inclusive and safe environment for all conference participants.

Being a Chair of a session at the IMISCOE conference is a big responsibility, but it is also an opportunity to make conference participants’ experience enjoyable.

We wish you a fruitful and inspiring IMISCOE conference – online or in person in Oslo!