Rules for Congress/Meeting Speakers/Chairs

I. Instructions for speakers

1. Presentation upload
Speakers are requested to upload their presentations on a protected server. This can be done online prior to the arrival at the Congress/Meeting venue, or onsite at the Speakers’ Preview Room. Clear instructions and guidelines regarding this last matter will be sent to all speakers by the officially appointed technical supplier. If the speaker wishes to upload his/her presentation directly at the Speaker Preview Room, he/she must do this at least three hours prior to the start of the relevant session.

2. Presentation formats
Only presentations prepared with the official Congress PowerPoint template are accepted.
3. Meeting room equipment.
Each meeting room is equipped with a laptop and a data-projector. A network-based presentation system will be used along with a conference specific interface to ensure the perfect quality of all presentations. Therefore, personal laptops cannot be connected in the lecture room. A laser pointer will be available in all meeting rooms.

4. Presentation timing
Normally all Congress talks will last 20 minutes and will be followed by a 8-minute discussion (this however can change depending on the sessions). It is essential that speakers keep to the time allocated to their presentation. The Chairs have been instructed to ask the speakers to stop if their presentation overruns. This will be helped by the presence of a timer on the podium (or other system, i.e. traffic light, etc.).

5. Screens
Normally there will be more than one screen in the meeting room. We advise speakers to use the mouse rather than the pointer during their talk.

6. Presentation Live-Streaming and Publication
All Congress talks will be published in Live-Streaming on a specific section of the ERA website. All talks will also be recorded and published as Webcasts in a special section of the ERA website. In case of unpublished data, speakers can remove the relevant slides from the PDF file. This must be done in the Speakers’ Preview Room while uploading the Power Point file or when submitting the file through the online platform.

II. Instructions for chairs

1. Presentation timing
Normally all Congress talks in the session will last 20 minutes and will be followed by a 8-minute discussion (this however can change depending on the sessions). It is essential that all speakers keep to the time allocated to their presentation. Chairs have the authority to ask the speakers to stop if the presentations overrun. Chairs should make sure that speakers do not run late and that the session starts and ends in time. This will be helped by the presence of a timer on the podium (or other system, i.e. traffic light, etc.).

2. Introduction
Chairs should simply welcome the audience to the session and present the speakers, without giving any specific details/introduction.

3. Discussion
Chairs are requested to moderate the discussion after each presentation (normally 8 minutes). Microphones are available in the aisles for questions from the audience. If no questions are asked from the audience, the chairs should do this.

4. Interactive Q&A
The Chair of the Scientific Committee will select a certain number of sessions in which the attendants will have the possibility to ask questions to the speakers via the virtual Congress platform. The Chairs will select the most interesting questions received from the audience. Speakers will reply directly during the session. Q&A will be published in a specific section of the ERA website, where it will be possible also to ask additional questions thus even after the session itself.

5. Unexpected events
In case one of the speakers unexpectedly does not show up, the Chairs should use the void time for discussion.

Last update: September 2021