Thank you very much for volunteering to serve as the chairperson for a scientific session during EGU24. As the session's leader, your main responsibility is to ensure the session is run in a timely and respectful manner, and that both, on-site attendees and presenters in Vienna as well as virtual attendees and presenters on Zoom/Gather.Town, are able to play an active role in the session.

Requirements for serving as the session chairperson

  • All chairpersons must be registered for the conference, including those serving as a virtual chairperson. Zoom meetings of oral sessions, as well as the Gather.Town space for virtual posters are only accessible for registered conference attendees.
  • If you are not a session convener, please check in the programme at least 2 days before your session takes place to make sure the conveners have assigned you the chairperson role in the session modification tool. You must be identified by name and email in this tool in order to assign a Copernicus Office user ID to the chairperson. Please also verify that the conveners used the same email address and Copernicus user ID under which you registered for the conference.

Tips for chairing a successful session

  • Chairpersons are expected to introduce themselves to the audience, to open and close the session strictly on time, and to ensure that the session speakers are present and able to make their presentations without disruption. All times allocated in the conference programme already include the time for change-over. For oral presentations and introductory PICO presentations, chairpersons will receive a timer to run the countdown.
  • All EGU24 sessions are run fully hybrid. While one chairperson is supposed to cater the on-site audience in Vienna (oral sessions in lecture rooms, poster sessions in poster halls, and PICO sessions at PICO spots), a second chairperson should be available to cater the virtual audience (oral sessions on Zoom, virtual posters on Gather.Town, virtual PICO introductory talks and discussion on Zoom).
  • Please remind attendees that it is not permitted to take screenshots of any live presentations or Zoom chats unless the author explicitly grants their permission to do so. Presenters are asked to include logos encouraging or not allowing screenshots and sharing.
  • Please encourage all participants, if they have not already done so, to upload supplementary materials to their abstracts and remind them that commenting on these will continue until the end of May.

Orals

  • A conference assistant will be present in the lecture room. The assistant will help the chairperson and speakers to run the session, from a technical standpoint. All presentation files should have been uploaded by the authors at least 24 hours prior to session start. In addition, conveners can upload session materials through the session modification tool. All these files are available on the lecture room computer. The technical assistant will run the presentation files from this computer, independent whether the speaker is on site in Vienna or joins virtually via Zoom.
  • The assistant will hand out a Surface Go tablet for the chairperson taking care of the virtual attendees and presenters. They can follow the Zoom meeting's chat on this tablet and will need to repeat questions posted in the Zoom chat through the microphone in the lecture room during the discussion time.
  • Chairpersons should remind speakers to remain at the lectern and speak into the lectern microphone. Chairpersons must also remind the on-site audience to use the microphone when asking questions or making comments to both on-site and virtual presenters. This is essential for virtual attendees in Zoom to hear those speaking on-site.
  • Chairpersons must also always speak into the microphone as otherwise virtual attendees will not hear anything. If attendees in the lecture room ask questions without a microphone, chairpersons must repeat the questions through their microphone.
  • Before each presentation the chairperson should verify that the speaker is listed in the programme as one of the authors. If this is not the case and the speaker is not sufficiently acquainted with the work in order to answer questions, only the title of the paper should be read. If none of the co-authors is present, these no-shows have to be recorded. The lecture room assistant will compile a list.
  • In view of the many parallel sessions, the time schedule of the session must be strictly kept. Any disruption is extremely frustrating for those wishing to attend only selected presentations. Therefore, if an unforeseen gap should occur in the time schedule and no stand-by paper is available to fill in, the chairperson should host discussions on the previous talks or give short oral introductions of poster papers.
  • Any programme changes received by egu24@copernicus.org by by Monday, 8 April 2024 will be included in the online programme, the mobile app, and the "daily programme" outside the lecture rooms.
  • Please read the presenter guidelines for oral presentations carefully.

PICOs

  • Presenting Interactive COntent (PICO) combine combine the advantages of short oral presentations which provide an introduction to the science with in-depth exploration and discussion at touch screens (or virtually, through Zoom). This connects authors and interested colleagues, encouraging networking and feedback. PICO sessions take place at the PICO spots, a combination of a presentation space with an audience, together with a number of touch screen displays.
  • The PICO session starts with two-minute introductory presentations from all authors. Chairpersons are required to ensure that the rather tight schedule is kept. A conference assistant will be available at the PICO spot. After all authors presented the summary of their work in two minutes, the chairperson will invite the on-site audience to move to the touch screens (PICO viewing) or remain at the stage to interact with virtual PICO authors.
  • While on-site PICO authors will speak at a lectern in the PICO spot, virtual PICO authors will join on Zoom. A conference assistant will be present on-site to help run the technical aspect of the session. All presentation files should have been uploaded by the authors at least 24 hours prior to session start. In addition, conveners can upload session materials through the session modification tool. All these files are available on the PICO spot computer. The conference assistant will run the presentation files from this computer, reegardless of whether the speaker is on-site in Vienna or joins virtually via Zoom.
  • Chairpersons should remind speakers to remain at the lectern and speak into the lectern microphone. This is essential for virtual attendees in Zoom to see and hear the speaker.
  • Chairpersons must also always speak into the microphone as otherwise virtual attendees will not hear anything. If on-site attendees at the PICO spot ask questions without a microphone, chairpersons must repeat the questions through their microphone.
  • During the interactive PICO viewing, all uploaded presentations are automatically opened on the respective PICO screens with the assigned PICO screen numbers. While virtual authors will remain in Zoom for the discussion and interaction with both on-site and virtual audience members. Two chairpersons are required; one to assist with the PICO touch screens for discussion with on-site PICO authors and another at the PICO stage area to moderate the discussion with virtual PICO authors.
  • Please read the presenter guidelines for PICO presentations carefully.

Posters

  • Chairpersons of poster sessions should gather and guide the on-site audience in Vienna from poster to poster in the order of their appearance, and they should invite the authors to present their posters, stimulating discussions afterwards as required.
  • Chaipersons should remind any attendees of poster sessions that they can vote for the OSPP contest. Eligible OSPP authors were asked to include a QR code on their poster.
  • Chairpersons must remind the on-site audience in Vienna that all virtual posters of the day are to be presented on Gather.Town during time block three (14:00–15:45 CEST). Authors of virtual posters are asked to stand beside their assigned virtual poster board in Gather.Town to answer questions through the video chat.
  • A chairperson must be present alongside the conference assistant, to run the virtual poster session in Gather.Town. During this time, the conference assistant will navigate the avatar while the chairperson should gather and guide the virtual audience from poster to poster in the order of their appearance, moderating the session. They should invite the authors to present their posters for some minutes and stimulate discussions afterwards as required. At the beginning of the session, chairpersons are asked to check the "Last-minute vPoster Authors" zone located in the bottom-left corner of the virtual poster hall, to pick -up any authors who may belong to their session. These authors should be given a chance to present their research alongside other poster authors of the session. As these authors will have been assigned a vPoster after switched from on-site to virtual participation at a late stage, they will not have an assigned virtual poster board. Posters of these authors can be viewed in the form of a live presentation file on the session page.
  • During time block three (14:00–15:45 CEST), the on-site audience is invited to interact with the virtual poster authors at the virtual poster hubs (transformed PICO spots, representing the corresponding virtual poster hall). An on-site chairperson will moderate the discussion between virtual poster authors and the on-site audience, as the conference assistant moves through the Gather.Town space, visiting the virtual poster boards.
  • Please read the presenter guidelines for poster presentations carefully.