Poster Session Moderators play an important role in ensuring our live poster presentations run smoothly. Due to physical distancing requirements, all poster sessions are virtual. New for 2021, poster presenters will have a live poster presentation.
General Information
- Moderators must register for the Annual Meeting (full or one-day) by Sept. 24.
- Poster sessions will be conducted live using the Zoom Platform. View our tips for presenting in Zoom.
- All roundtables will be scheduled during the mid-day breaks on Monday and Tuesday. View your Speakers’ Corner for the date and time of your session.
- Live poster presentations will take place on Thursday, Oct. 21 and Friday, Oct. 22 as pre-meeting activities. All registered attendees are welcome to join.
- View your Speakers' Corner for the date and time of your session.
- All sessions are scheduled in Mountain Time (MT).
- Poster sessions are 90 minutes long.
- We will use one Zoom breakout room for each presenter. A Confex technician will set a breakout room for each presenter.
- As the moderator, you will introduce the session and poster presenters. Each presenter has 6 minutes to share their screen and present their work. As the moderator, you ensure each presenter stays on time and smoothly transition to the next presenter.
User Portal
Your User Portal is the place to find all the sessions and abstracts linked to you, whether you are a speaker, author or moderator. From the User Portal, you can access your Speakers' Corner for each session you will moderate. In the Speakers' Corner you can find basic information and:
- Download presenter bios
- View presenter contact information
Prior to the meeting
- Two weeks before the meeting, email presenters to confirm their attendance. You can find their contact information in your Speakers' Corner.
- If a presenter cannot participate, ask them to go to their Speakers’ Corner and decline their participation.
- Remind presenters to upload their bios to the Speakers’ Corner. Bios are due Oct. 18. You will be able to download these directly from your Speakers’ Corner to use when you introduce the presenters. You only have 2 minutes to introduce all speakers.
- Remind presenters to familiarize themselves with Zoom and that all sessions are in Mountain Time.
- Download the slide deck template from your Speakers’ Corner. The slide deck contains a title slide, housekeeping notes and list of speakers. You will need to fill in the information for the title slide and presenter introduction slide.
Day of Instructions
- Prepare your desktop for screen sharing: Have your PowerPoint Template open, and close all other applications.
- Join your session 20 minutes in advance to test your video and microphone and to meet with the panelists.
- To access your session, log in to the Virtual Meeting Platform with the email you used to register and your registration ID number.
- As the presenters arrive, ask them to practice sharing their screen and testing their sound quality.
- It is possible that attendees will join the meeting while you are practicing. You will both have co-host privileges in Zoom giving you the ability to turn off cameras and microphones for attendees. If you see an attendee has their microphone on and is disrupting your practice session, you may turn the microphone off.
Running the Session
- Start the session on time! This is extremely important to ensure sufficient time for presentations and questions at the end.
- To kick off the session, announce the session topic, introduce each speaker and explain how the breakout sessions will work. Remind attendees that pre-recorded versions of the presentations are available on the virtual meeting platform and can be viewed on-demand. You will have 5 minutes for your introduction.
- Invite the first speaker to share their screen and start their presentation. Presentations should be given in the order listed in the Virtual Meeting Platform. If a presenter does not show, skip to the next listed presenter.
- Presenters have 6 minutes to share their screen and share their research. There will be between 8 and 10 poster presenters in a session.
- Be sure the presenters stay on time. You may need to interrupt a presenter to ask them to wrap up their presentation.;
- Once a presenter is finished, introduce the next speaker until all have presented.
- The remaining time should be used for Q&A. Keep an eye on the Zoom chat feature throughout the session for good questions from the audience. Repeat the questions to the presenters during the Q&A portion.
- You may encourage attendees to turn on their mics and videos to ask questions of the presenters directly. Ask the audience to use the Raise Hand functionality to be called upon.
What to do if...
- You can no longer moderate a session: Let the program chair (PDF) know immediately so we can find a replacement. Any attempts to locate a replacement moderator will be greatly appreciated.
- A presenter has not uploaded her/his bio: Remind the presenters to upload their bios to the Speakers’ Corner so you can access them. Bios are due by Oct. 18.
- A presenter does not show up: After the meeting, contact the program chair to notify them of any presenters who do not show.
- You are experiencing technical difficulties with the Zoom Platform: If you are experiencing technical difficulties and are in the Zoom Meeting, send a chat message. A Confex meeting professional is managing your event. You can also call 401-334-0220.
- A presenter will not stop talking: If a presenter is going over time and showing no signs of stopping, it’s perfectly acceptable – and respectful to other presenters – to say something to the effect that you hate to cut such an interesting presentation short, but in fairness to the other presenters, you must.
- No one is asking questions: Be prepared with your own questions in case this happens.