Guidelines for ST&D 2010 Speakers and Session Chairs

Speakers (Chairs should also read this section)
You will have 20 minutes for your talk (and in most cases the talk will be followed by 5 minutes for questions). To attempt to minimize technology problems, all speakers in a session will use the same laptop. We will be providing PC laptops for this purpose. Please bring your powerpoint file on a thumb drive to transfer it, or you can send the final presentation in advance to stdconference2010@gmail.com if you would like us to pre-load it on the computer (and check its formatting).

Official laptops will be available at registration throughout the day on Sunday, and in the times between sessions on remaining days in order for speakers to load their talks.  Please take advantage of the opportunity to load and test your presentation in advance. 

In more general comments, please remember that your talk is not reciting a written paper. Try to tell a story.  On your powerpoint slides, make your graphics and your fonts large (24pt or larger).  Avoid any long sentences or use bullet points to convey information to readers.

Please let us know if you have any other questions about the arrangements for the spoken presentations by using the FAQ at http://stdconference2010.proboards.com/

Chairs of Paper Sessions (Speakers should also read this section.)

You have 3 responsibilities as session chair:

1. To introduce each speaker.
2. To keep the session on schedule.
3. To moderate the question time if that seems necessary.

Each speaker is given 20 minutes for their presentations, with most slots allowing for an additional 5 minutes for questions* (*with the exception of two sessions which due to timing constraints could not accomodate the additional time for questions, these are Young Readers and L1/L2 in the Tuesday 10:15 - 12:15 slot).

It is important that you keep speakers to their time limit. We will provide you with “minutes remaining” signs (10, 5, 1, STOP!)  to cue speakers and help them stay within their time limits. The talks in the parallel sessions are generally coordinated to make it easier for participants to move between the two meeting rooms. If one session is not keeping to time, people will not be able to switch off to hear speakers in the other session.

Both a data projector and a PC laptop will be provided in each room. In an attempt to minimize technical difficulties, presenters are urged to load their talks onto the computer in advance of the sessions.  However, should problems still arise during the session,  to keep parallel with other sessions subtract any time presenters take to set up their presentation from their total of 20 minutes.