Session Chair Guidelines

As a Session Chair, you will share the responsibility of ensuring the quality of the presentations in your session. The responsibilities for Session Chairs are outlined below:

Regularly scheduled conference calls with your committee to develop your session track, and to draft the session outline and timing format, talk titles and a list of invited speakers. A toll free conference call number will be provided to you as the Session Chair, and you will be responsible for setting up and holding conference calls with your committee.
Present Session Outline for review and approval by the Program Committee Co-Chairs January 29, 2010. As a result of your committee conference calls, you will be expected to draft a proposed session outline/agenda which includes timing for each presentation, a suggested talk title for each presentation and a list of invited speakers and their contact information. You, or your designee, should make the initial contact with the invited speakers, and then Courtesy Associates will follow up with a formal letter of invitation. Courtesy Associates will forward additional information specific to your session in regards to suggested formats, timing and breaks. All sessions and speakers must be finalized by Friday, January 29, 2010.
Review the PowerPoint (PPT) presentations submitted by the speakers in your session in advance of the conference. The PPT slides will be made available to you online, and you will communicate any changes you would like to request to the speaker directly. It is extremely important to have presentation submitted on time, as these slides will need to be reviewed by The Academy, our CME provider, as well as posted on the ACTHIV website for viewing by our attendees. An Audience Response System (ARS) will be available so we ask that you encourage your speakers to utilize this feature in order to make their presentations as interactive as possible. All presentations that will utilize the ARS must be identified ahead of time so that the ARS provider can prepare the questions and answers.
Coordinate with your co-chair to write the Opening Remarks and introduce each presenter for your session (you will each have 5 minutes). Bios for each speaker in your session will be provided to you in advance of the conference. If you will use PowerPoint slides during your Opening Remarks, you will need to submit a copy of your slides prior to the conference. If you make changes to your slides after the submission deadline, bring a copy of your updated presentation to the Speaker Ready Room onsite, and an audiovisual technician will upload your slides.
Monitor the timing of each presentation to ensure that each starts and stops on time. It is essential that each session run on time. A speaker timer will be on the podium to help the presenters stay on time. However it is your responsibility to ensure this is followed.
Attend a Session Chairs/Speakers Breakfast on the morning of your session to review the format and timing of the session with your speakers, and to alert us if there have been any last minute changes in speakers.

Please note that the presentations will be pre-loaded onto the conference computers so it is not necessary for you or your speakers to bring laptop computers. There will be a Speaker Ready Room available for speakers who would like to practice using the audiovisual equipment or for those who have last minute changes in their slides There will be an audiovisual technician in the session room to instruct the speakers on how to use the equipment and the timers.