Guidelines for Oral Session Moderators

Speaker Contact

• Please make an initial contact with the speakers in your session ASAP, preferably before Friday, June 28, 2024, and inform them about the day and time of the session.

• State your goals for making your session an outstanding session.

• Reaffirm their commitment to present and ask them to send brief introductory information about them/their research so that you can use it to introduce them before their presentation.

• Emphasize the deadline for conference hotel reservation at the discounted rate (until sold out or before July 1, 2024).

• In case of lighting oral presentation sessions, inform them about the deadline (July 1, 2024) for submitting a recorded video of 12-15 min duration. Also, inform them that a 2-minute transition/buffer time is included between two lightning talks to give enough time for the next speaker to come to the podium and start the presentation.

• Please make a final contact about five to ten days before the meeting (before July 22, 2024) and verify their participation again.

• Ask them to arrive 10-15 minutes prior to the start of the session to load their presentation on the computer provided. Session locations will be listed in the app and online about one week prior to the start of AIM.

• Inform them about the meeting attire, which is business casual.

Pre-session check at the Venue

• Arrive at the session room 15 minutes prior to the start of the session.

• Assist speakers in loading their presentations to the computer provided.

• Consult with the speakers prior to the start of the session to determine who, if any, has issues with pictures or recording during their presentation. Announce to the audience prior to their talk if pictures or recordings will not be allowed.

• Inform audience that some sessions are being recorded for on-demand viewing, ask them to check the app for details.

• Read out the following statement about the opportunity for authors to convert their conference paper into a journal article: “Further develop your 2024 AIM non-refereed presentation into a high-quality peer-reviewed manuscript, submit it to the ASABE journals by October 1, 2024, and receive a page charge discount of $100 or 10%, if over 10 pages for the final layout. You must be registered for the annual meeting and present your work at the 2024 AIM. All manuscripts must go through our high-quality review process to be published in the ASABE journals. Our journals include the Journal of the ASABE, Applied Engineering in Agriculture, Journal of Natural Resources and Agricultural Ecosystems, and Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health.”

• Emphasize the importance of staying on schedule, to the presenters.

• Inform presenters about your plan for conducting presentations (e.g., 12-minute presentation followed by 3 min Q&A in case of a 15-minute regular oral presentation)

• Inform them of your plan to caution about the remaining time left for their talk (e.g., displaying the remaining time, 5 and 2 min, on a paper to the speaker in case of a 15-min presentation).

• In case of lightning sessions, inform presenters that each of them will get 5 min talk time (3-4 min presentation and 1-2 min Q&A) followed by a 2-minute transition time for the speaker flip.

• In case of lightning sessions, inform the audience that the 12-15 minute recordings of detailed presentations are available on-demand.

• In case of student presentations, identify judges to evaluate their presentations before the session starts, and make sure to collect their evaluations before they leave the session room. More details will be provided by Dr. Joe Dvorak, who is coordinating the student competition.

• Feedback from the attendees is very important for improving the technical program of future AIMs and please ask them to complete the survey about the 2024 AIM at https://na.eventscloud.com/esurvey/24aimsurvey

Running the Session

• Audio Visual Equipment. ASABE will provide a computer, a laptop projector loaded with the latest version of Power point program, screen, podium and microphone. This is standard AV equipment. If additional equipment is required, headquarters must be notified three weeks prior to the meeting. Additional equipment cost may be the responsibility of the presenter.

• Stick to the Schedule. Since we have concurrent sessions, attendees plan their schedule accordingly. It is extremely frustrating to make plans for a certain talk only to find that you have missed it. If a speaker does not show up, moderators can fill time by asking the preceding speaker to lengthen their talk, offer a break or use other creative means of filing time. This plan should be strictly implemented for the lighting talks sessions as well.

• Session Evaluation. At the close of your session please delete all of the presentations from the computer provided in the room. Do not allow participants or other attendees to download presentations to a memory device.

• Complete the session evaluation online, listing estimated number of attendees, along with list of no shows (if any) and other comments you may have within 24 hours of the session. This is very important for improving technical sessions at the future AIMs and we appreciate your time and effort in completing this important step.

• https://na.eventscloud.com/esurvey/moderator24aim

If you have questions, please contact your community program chair or ASABE: Jessica Bell 269-932-7029, bell@asabe.org