We use various session formats in the agenda for ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN. The actual session you will be taking part in will be a Presentation Session, where several speakers present their own work addressing particular practical experiences, activities, approaches, opinions, case studies and views.

To achieve this, speakers can use accompanying audiovisual support (with maximum 5 PowerPoint slides per presentation to keep it dynamic). These presentation slots vary between 8 and 10 minutes each, followed by 7-10 minutes of dialogue and Q&A. They form a conference session which usually lasts between 60 and 120 minutes.

You will be introduced to your session chairperson beforehand, who will discuss the exact time management with you. Please keep in mind that you will also have to provide the chairperson with seed questions about your presentation (questions which help stimulate the discussion).

Under the tab 'Format Guidelines', you will find general information regarding the format of your presentation as well as suggestions for making an effective presentation and using support materials in an engaging way.

Below you will find general information regarding the format of your presentation as well as suggestions for making an effective presentation and using support materials in an engaging way.

Materials Submission

We request your biography and photo, an abstract and presentation slides. At any time, you can revisit this link and make changes to the documentation provided, until you press the 'Submit' button. Please do not forget to save your work by pressing the 'Save' button in the top right corner.

Please note that the sooner you make your materials available to the prospective audience online, the more attention they receive.

Your abstract has to be uploaded before the deadline (October 21st) in order to be published in the conference Book of Abstracts.

Conference Language

The conference language is English; however, please take into consideration that not everyone participating has English as their mother tongue – we kindly ask you to adapt your delivery accordingly and speak slowly and clearly.

Handouts

Presentations and abstracts/extended overviews are included in the conference publications (the Book of Abstracts). If you would like to distribute handouts to people attending your session, please arrange to bring enough copies with you to the session room. We do not have photocopying facilities on site and you may find it difficult and expensive to make such copies at the last moment.

Audiovisual Support

All session rooms will be equipped with a data projector (beamer) and a laptop; likely the conference venue will also have Internet access. However, we kindly ask you not to make your presentation dependent on Internet access, as it is possible, due to the high level of traffic over the network, that access to the Internet may not be available at a specific moment.

We prefer you to use the laptops that we are providing in the session rooms. This helps to reduce delays caused by changing laptops between speakers or technical problems with adaptability. If it cannot be avoided that you bring your own laptop, please inform us beforehand.

Should you use your own MAC notebook, you must bring your own adapter for the data projector.

Please be in the session room at least 20 minutes before your session starts, in order to test your audiovisual materials beforehand.

If you’re planning to show a short video as part of your presentation or any other audio application, please let us know beforehand to confirm the availability of loudspeakers for your session.

Please let us know what kind of audiovisual support you will need by October 21st.

Your Chairperson

The chairperson essentially manages the session and is responsible for timing and coordination in consultation with the speakers.

Prior to the conference we will introduce you (via e-mail) to the other session speakers and to your chairperson. The chairperson may want to discuss certain points of the presentation with you to avoid overlaps with the other presenters.

In addition, there will a possibility for you to meet and discuss your session prior to the conference with your chairperson and the other speakers in your session on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2014 at the Speakers’ Reception. We strongly encourage you to make an effort to attend.

As mentioned above, please be in your session room 20 minutes before the session begins to be able to discuss last minute changes and to test your audiovisual support.

Content & Delivery

Following our participants’ feedback from past conferences, the most successful presentations were highly interactive, addressed relevant topics and strategies and presented case studies, while avoiding overt self-promotion.

Sharing your experiences

Participants’ feedback from recent years has shown that the most popular presentations always included practical experiences relating to the use of technology in the delivery of education and training. Participants are generally very interested in finding out how systems, approaches and methods can be adapted to their own situation.

Promoting interactivity

In order to encourage discussion between participants and presenters at the end of the sessions, we ask that you remain available during the entire session, out of respect for your fellow presenters, in order to contribute to the general discussion and to participate in the session in a meaningful way. Start your presentation with a question, a personal story, a joke etc. to break the ice and to involve the audience in your story. Do ask participants if they have questions at the end of your presentation or invite them to approach you afterwards.

Presenting freely

When giving your presentation try to talk freely where possible. Unscripted presentations are easier to follow and motivate participants to ask questions.

Make sure to speak clearly, explain any abbreviations or terminology that participants are unlikely to understand, and make sure to include opportunities to clarify specific aspects of your presentations. Some sessions will be simultaneously translated.

In our experience, some of the most highly regarded presentations at our conferences have been given without the support of PowerPoint slideshows. However, well-prepared slides can also be a valuable support tool for presentations.

PowerPoint presentation

If you use slides, support your presentation with appealing visuals and ensure that they are, first and foremost, legible at a distance. Some rules of thumb are:

• Use your visuals to illustrate your message; show a chart, a picture, or just one word or sentence.
• Use font size 40 or larger and use legible fonts such as Tahoma or Arial Unicode.
• Establish your topic in the first one or two slides, present examples in the middle part and share outcomes, ideas and lessons learned in the final part.
• Less can certainly be more when presenting; your slides serve to support and visualise your story. Limit the text on your slides to catchwords or phrases.

1) How can I contact the chairperson and fellow speakers of my session?

About two weeks prior to the conference, you will receive an e-mail which will introduce you to your chairperson and fellow speakers.

2) Which session am I in?

After the programme has been published online, you can view your session details under the menu tab Speaker Details. Alternately, after online publication, you can find this information on our website.

3) What technology is provided in the conference room?

Please refer to the 'Format Guidelines' tab above.

4) Can I use my own laptop or mobile device to run a presentation?

All session rooms in the main conference will be equipped with a laptop. We prefer you to use the laptops that we are providing in the session rooms. This helps to reduce delays caused by changing laptops between speakers or technical problems with adaptability. If it cannot be avoided that you bring your own laptop, please inform us beforehand.

5) Can I use a MAC to run a presentation?

Should you use your own MAC notebook or iPad, you must bring your own adapter for the data projector.

6) How long must my presentation be?

Please refer to the 'Format Guidelines' tab above.

7) I will need internet access during my session.

The conference venue will have wireless internet access. However, we kindly ask you not to make your presentation dependent on Internet access, as it is possible, due to the high level of traffic over the network, that access to the Internet may not be available at a specific moment. To avoid problems during the session, please prepare materials which can be used offline: hand-outs, screenshots, CD-ROMs, etc.

8) I need a visa to come to the conference. Can you help me?

After you have registered for the conference, the registration department will provide information on how to request a visa letter for your attendance, as well as an information package with additional practical details.

9) I cannot upload my photo/bio/abstract/PowerPoint presentation.

If you are having problems with the submission of materials, please e-mail us here.

10) My biography and photo do not appear on the website.

Please check that you have pressed 'Submit bio and photo' button at the bottom of the page for each of the materials. If the materials have been correctly submitted, a green check mark will appear next to the tab. Please note that it will take some time for your materials to appear on the website.

You have already been regsitered for ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2014. No further action will be needed on your part regarding your registration.

Thank you. We look forward to welcoming you in Berlin.

*

Upon registration for the conference, you will receive an information package which includes a list of conveniently located hotels with whom we have negotiated preferential rates.

Should you decide to stay at the Hotel InterContinental, we recommend making your reservation as soon as possible as the number of rooms is limited.

You can book a room via the reservation office of the Hotel InterContinental using the code “ONLINE EDUCA”:
Tel.: +49 (0)30 2602 1287
Fax: +49 (0)30 2602 1182
Mail: berha.reservations@ihg.com

All materials submitted by the speakers in this session are available here.

General Introduction

Thank you for agreeing to chair an ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2014 conference session; your input and support are much appreciated, and we hope you will find the experience useful and interesting. Please supply us with your short biography and photo for our online agenda, so that we can feature your participation on our website.

We have found that well prepared and managed sessions have a significant impact on the overall value of the conference. This is why we have put together this short guide as a way to share what we have come to view as ‘best practice’ in chairing of sessions.

Session Personnel

Aside from the speakers and the chairperson, there are two other key individuals involved in each session to ensure its smooth running. These are as follows:

Session Manager: a subject matter expert available to answer questions about your duties as a chair, timing and format specifics and to answer content questions you may have to help your session run smoothly, both before the conference and on the day. Additionally, should technological support or logistical support be needed on the conference day, the session manager will be able to point you to the correct resources.

Room Minder: there to assist with more minor logistical queries, such as additional chair requirements, the provision of fresh water for speakers, the changing of the tent cards between sessions and sending for technical assistance when required.

Before the Conference

Know your audience

Our conference audience hails from a range of different disciplines and backgrounds. In 2013, 318 speakers and 2,195 participants from 91 different countries came to ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN, which continues to be the largest global e-learning conference for the corporate, education and public service sectors.

Many will be attending your session to gather information on a specific topic, while others may be truly experts in the area under discussion. Try to make sure that where abbreviations or uncommon terms are used, they are explained during the session and that where people are seeking information, those discussing a topic provide practical and useful feedback.

Know your speakers

Before the conference, we will send you and the speakers taking part in your session an introductory e-mail and a link to the session on our online portal, providing you with a description of the session, abstracts and other materials (short bios and photos of speakers).

We request that you e-mail (or Skype) all ‘your’ speakers as soon as possible in order to create an interactive and interesting session for the conference audience.

Your message will put speakers at ease and help to make their attendance at the conference a little less daunting. In the e-mail you can:

• Agree on time allocation: it will be your role to dedicate time to audience engagement and manage speaking time during the session.
• Agree on how each speaker would like to be introduced.
• Prepare 3 questions for each speaker, which you can pose after a speaker has spoken, in order to invite questions and comments from the audience. Speakers can suggest questions to you. Please leave more general discussion points to the end of the session and think of how to involve all speakers in an open discussion with the audience.
• Identify areas of common interest and possible overlap regarding the content of the session and notify your speakers if needed.
• Encourage speakers to use a minimum amount of PowerPoint slides and bring as much of their own experience to bear in a session, rather than simply reporting facts which can be read in conference abstracts and other prepared materials.
• Ask for information to prepare your concluding remarks before closing the session.

In case of disputes about timing or any other issues in relation to the session such as cancellations or non-responsiveness of a particular speaker, please involve the conference session manager as well as the programme department.

Session Format

Sessions vary in length between 60 and 120 minutes. The number of presentations varies between 2 and 6, and so we ask that you divide the time available by the number of speakers BUT leave as much time as possible (minimum 10 minutes) after each presentation for audience input. This will usually give each speaker around 15 minutes speaking time and ensure room for interactivity. While this is happening, the next presenter can call up their presentation slides on the computer. This can help to minimise the changeover time required between each presentation.

Speakers’ Reception

We organise an evening reception on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2014, to which all speakers and chairpersons are invited. (For the details, please refer to the 'Speakers' Reception tab of this portal.) Please try to attend. We will set up numbered bistro tables where you can meet the people in your session; this number refers to the number of your session and will facilitate your introduction.

Just Before and During the Session

Please be in the room at least 20 minutes before the session and check that all the people you are expecting have arrived. If one or more of your speakers do not turn up before the session please alert the room-minder. The conference programme team is constantly checking with room-minders about who has arrived and who has not, so please alert us as soon as you are worried.

Room-minders will help you to ensure the session runs smoothly from a logistical point of view (placing ‘Tent Cards’, fresh water and checking badges of those who enter). They also arrange technical support and take care of arranging extra chairs etc. The room-minder will provide you with the Session Evaluation Sheet at the start of this session. Please complete this form, which we treat in confidence, and return it to the room-minder at the end of the session.

How and where everyone sits is up to you, some people like to maintain a top table where all speakers remain for the full session, for others they prefer to sit in the front rows.

At the start of the session, please make sure to introduce everyone speaking in the session and follow the speaking order given in the conference programme.  

If a speaker runs over the agreed time, please make sure to stop him/her after giving sufficient warning, using the coloured notification cards in the room.

Please encourage all speakers or panellists to stay until the end so that audience members have a chance to approach them privately just after the session ends. At the end of the session, please encourage people to leave the room and continue their conversations in the open area.

If you finish early, and there is no more interaction forthcoming from the audience, then do finish the session. There is no need to keep the session open until the final time stated on the conference programme. Participants have a wealth of other sessions and activities to choose from.

FYI: We normally discourage presentations given jointly (i.e. 1 presentation by 2 speakers) as they can cause problems with timing and only accept them in particular situations, e.g. where two organisations are working together to realise a project and both views can offer complementary information and background.

Use of Audiovisual Support

We have provided speakers with clear instructions about what is available in each room where audiovisual support is being used and it is up to each presenter to ensure they bring their own support materials with them and put them on the computer provided. We discourage speakers from using their own laptop due to the amount of time the changeover of laptops can take. We do have technical support people available to help speakers if they run into difficulties, but mostly speakers now come prepared with their presentation on a USB stick and just need the time it takes to load them onto the computer in the room.

We do warn everyone, that although wireless Internet is available, we know from experience that the sheer weight of traffic generated by ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN can cause delays so they should not make any presentation dependent on Internet access. We have also checked where speakers have requested specific hard or software and have communicated with them beforehand letting them know whether or not we can supply what they have requested.

After the Session

There is an increasing tendency for participants to come up to the conference room laptop once the session is over and try to copy the presentations onto a USB memory stick from the laptop for their reference. This is only allowed once the individual speaker concerned has agreed. Otherwise, everyone registered as a participant will be able to view presentations that have been submitted by speakers the online OEB Content Library.

Many thanks for your support in chairing this session, do let us know if you have any suggestions for improving the format and management of the agenda.