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Faculty of Philosophy

 

JointSessionGuidelines for chairs at open sessions and SWIP

Time and location

The BSPS and Joint Session programmes are now online. Please check when and where you are supposed to be chairing.

Chairing duties

Each slot lasts 30 minutes: up to 20 minutes for a presentation, with 8 minutes for Q&As, and 2 minutes to handover to the next speaker.

It is essential to keep everything running bang-on schedule, not least because many delegates will want to move between sessions.

Consequently, chairs should not feel embarrassed – indeed, they should feel obliged – to:

  • cut off speakers who are running over time;
  • cut off questioners who are wasting time;
  • announce all of this at the start of their session.

Chairs should also check that any clocks in the room are running correctly!

Projectors

A digital projector and laptop will be available at your session. Please arrive at your session at least 10 minutes before it commences, so that you can help speakers to uploading their presentations to the laptop. Speakers have been instructed to bring files on USB sticks.