Information for Presenters and Moderators

Thank you for volunteering to moderate a session at the 7th International Marine Conservation Congress. Please review the following instructions carefully.

 

Overall, the purpose of a moderator is to help keep sessions and symposia running smoothly. This is achieved via three specific roles: introducing speakers, keeping time, and handling audience Q&A.

 

1. Please make sure that you know which session or sessions that you are moderating, and please be sure to arrive in your assigned room 15 minutes before your session starts, which your session’s speakers have also been asked to do.

    

2. Make sure all of your sessions’ speakers are present.

    

3. Please use this time to also make sure that you are correctly pronouncing your speakers’ names, and any technical terms in their talk titles.

    

4. Be sure to make sure all of your speakers know how you will signal that their time is running out (described below).

    

5. A technical team will be stationed in each venue that will manage and control the AV and the sound. Please introduce yourself to them. They will ensure presentations are loaded and assist speakers with any technical questions.

    

6. Just before it is time for your session to start, please welcome everyone to the session, read any IMCC-provided announcements, and introduce your first speaker by name and presentation title. You should sit in the front row in a seat where you are clearly visible to the presenter. 

    

7. PLEASE KEEP TO THE SCHEDULE:  Delegates will be moving between sessions, it is important that we carefully follow the schedule- start the 10:00 a.m. talk at 10:00 a.m., the 10:15 talk at 10:15, etc. Speakers have been told that their talks should be 12 minutes long with some time for a quick audience Q&A after their talk, and it is important that we start a new talk every 15 minutes to stay on schedule. 

    

8. TIME KEEPING:  
   • Use the stopwatch feature on your smartphone to keep time accurately. 
   • At 10 minutes, please signal your speaker by raising your hand while seated.
   • At 12 minutes, stand to signal the speaker. 
   • At 13 minutes, begin slowly walking towards the podium. 
   • By 14 minutes, the presentation must end, even if unfinished.

      

9. If there is time for questions, you, not the speaker, should indicate “we have some time for questions,” and you, not the speaker, should call on people who have raised their hands. All delegates have been informed of the Code of Conduct, and no one should ask any inappropriate questions, but if they do it is your role to step in and protect the speaker by moving on to another question. If there are no audience questions, you may, but do not have to, ask a question as a moderator.

    

10. Once it is time to introduce your next speaker, please repeat this process. 

Other things to please keep in mind: 

• Please do not start talks early, even if one talk finishes early and there are no questions. If a talk is cancelled, please do not rearrange the other talks in your session to fill that gap, and instead please say “the next talk is cancelled, we will resume in 15 minutes.” All talks should start at their scheduled times.

• The only exception to these instructions are for speed talks, in which new talks start every 5 minutes not every 15 minutes, and speakers speak for 3 minutes not 12. 

Please also carefully review the following moderator guidelines to help us create a welcoming and inclusive environment for all presenters and attendees.

 

Pronunciation Matters: Before the session, take a moment to confirm the correct pronunciation of each presenter’s name. If you’re unsure, kindly ask them beforehand. Pronouncing names correctly shows respect and consideration.

 

Cultural Awareness: Be mindful of diverse cultural backgrounds. Avoid assumptions about speakers based on their names, appearance, or accent. Treat all presenters with the same level of professionalism and respect.

 

Inclusive Language: Use gender-neutral and culturally sensitive language. Refer to presenters by their preferred titles or pronouns if applicable.

 

Active Listening: Be attentive during each presentation. Acknowledge the presenter’s key points and be thoughtful in your follow-up questions or comments.

 

Encourage Engagement: Ensure that all presenters have an equal opportunity to speak and engage with the audience. Facilitate Q&A sessions so that questions are directed respectfully and without bias.

 

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at IMCC@ConBio.org with subject line “IMCC Moderator” 

 

Thanks again for your help!

 

Sincerely,

The IMCC7 Co-Chairs

Guidelines for presentations at IMCC7

 

Welcome, delegates! If you are receiving this message, you are scheduled to deliver an oral presentation, speed talk, or poster at the upcoming International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC). We’re excited to learn about your important research!
To make sure that everything goes smoothly, we have prepared the following guidelines and tips and tricks. Please review everything carefully, and if you have any questions or
concerns, please email IMCC@ConBio.org with the subject “Presentation Guidelines Question.” 

 

ORAL PRESENTATIONS – 12-minute: 
Most talks at IMCC7, those which are part of general sessions and both open and closed
symposia, are 12 minute PowerPoint talks, with 2 additional minutes allotted at the end for
Q&A. (For instructions on Speed Talks, please see below). We can only accommodate PowerPoint software.

 

Sessions will be managed as follows: 

• Please arrive at least 15 minutes early to the session where you will be speaking to meet your moderator and ensure that they are pronouncing your name correctly, and to do an audiovisual check.
• Your session moderator or symposium chair will introduce you including your name and the title of your talk, and then you will have 12 minutes to present your talk.
• Your slides will be projected onto a screen as you present, and you will have a microphone to speak into. Please use the microphone.
• Your session moderator or symposium chair will be keeping time, and will alert you when you are running out of time and need to wrap up. They will signal you when ten minutes have passed, they will stand when 12 minutes have passed, they will start walking towards the podium when 13 minutes have passed, and your talk will end when 14 minutes have passed.
• It is very important that we stay on schedule and start a new talk every 15 minutes, which means that if you are running over time you will be asked to stop your presentation so the next presenter can speak. To avoid this, please rehearse your talk, including timings, carefully and thoroughly. 

 

Guidelines for scientific conference presentations:

• Title slide: Typically this would include the title of your talk, your name and that of
  your coauthors, and any relevant affiliations.
• Introduction: what does your audience need to know (about your specific discipline, study site, species, local management context, etc.) in order to understand your talk?  Please recall that IMCC attendees are a diverse audience, and explain this background context thoughtfully.
• Methods: What did you do?
• Results: What did you find?
• Discussion and conclusions: What do your results mean?
• Acknowledgements: This is where you thank people who helped you, including funders, anyone who sent you samples or data, and colleagues who provided help but not enough to be listed as a coauthor. 

 

SPEED TALKS – 3 minutes talk
Speed talks are similar to oral presentations, but each speaker is allotted 3 minutes to
speak, with a minute for questions. A new speed talk will begin every 5 minutes, and again
moderators will be keeping time closely, so please practice your talk timings carefully.  In our
experience, this is a perfect amount of time to stress one exciting, often preliminary, result,
or to raise one interesting and important question.
Unlike the general sessions and symposia of 12-minute talks, speed talks are not grouped
together by theme or topic, just by length. 

 

UPLOADING YOUR ORAL PRESENTATION OR SPEED TALK

• Please have the PowerPoint associated with your oral presentation or speed talk saved to a flash drive/USB memory stick.
• Uploading of the presentation must be done at the Speaker Desk in Hall 10. A technician will be available to assist you in uploading your talk and to make sure that it loads correctly on our system.
• Label the presentation file: SurnameFirstName (e.g., co-chair David Shiffman’s PowerPoint will be saved as “ShiffmanDavid.PPT”). If you are giving more than one presentation at IMCC, make sure that you clearly explain to the AV technician which talk is which.
• Please also have a backup copy of your PowerPoint somewhere, perhaps saved to the cloud or to your email, or saved on your laptop.
• You are not able to use your own device to present, you must use the Cape Town International Convention Centre system.
• If you have a video imbedded in your presentation, please bring a copy of the video saved as a separate file, just in case.

 

IMPORTANT TO NOTE – WHEN TO UPLOAD PRESENTATION:

• Presentations must be uploaded at least one day prior to your presentation.
• Those presenting on Tuesday October 15th may upload their presentations during the Welcome function the evening of Monday, October 14 th , or first thing in the morning on Tuesday, October 15 th .

 

POSTERS GUIDELINES
If your poster is correctly included on the schedule, please note which of the two poster
sessions you are assigned to:

• Poster session 1 Tuesday, October 15 th
  OR Poster session 2 Wednesday, October 16 th
• Poster sessions on both days are scheduled for 6 to 7 p.m. in Hall 10.

 

Format of poster
Posters must be:

• Printed portrait and NOT Landscape
• Dimensions 1200mm (height) x 850 mm (width) = size A0 or smaller.

If they are larger or oriented differently, they will not fit on the posterboards available at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Text should be in English. 

 

PRINTING OF POSTERS
Please bring your printed poster to the conference. Cape Town based printing companies require 48 hrs to print posters. This could be longer subject to their printing schedule. Printing outlets will be closed on a Saturday and Sunday.

Poster presenters are expected to stand by their poster for the duration of their poster
session, and other IMCC7 delegates will approach you and ask you about your work. Please have a brief (~60 second) summary speech ready, and if delegates have more detailed follow-up questions they can ask you. Generally, many delegates are interested in learning a very quick summary of as many posters as possible, and some will be interested in much more detail.

 

WHEN TO HANG YOUR POSTERS 

• Please hang your poster during the morning coffee break on the day of your assigned poster session. This will allow delegates to browse posters all day.
• Please find the poster panel with your assigned poster number, and hang your poster there using the provided double-sided tape.
• Volunteers will be in Hall 10 to assist. 

If you are a student presenting on Tuesday, October 15th, the poster session ends at 19:00 and the student social begins at 19:30. If you do not have time to take your poster back to your hotel room, you may leave your poster up overnight and retrieve it the next day, we don’t want you to miss any of the student social.

If you are presenting on Wednesday, October 16th, and there is a poster from the previous evening still hanging in your spot, please ask one of our volunteers to gently and carefully
remove it prior to placing yours. 

 

SOME TIPS ON POSTER DESIGN: 

• Posters typically contain the same elements as a talk: title, authors, introduction, methods, results, discussion/conclusions.
• Consider adding a photograph of yourself so that other delegates can find you, and consider adding your contact information.
• Please ensure that all text is legible. This is facilitated by short, key messages (which can be in bullet point format and need not be in complete sentences,) using no text smaller than size 24, and ensuring that whatever colour text you use contrasts clearly
  with whatever is behind it.
• Whenever possible, consider using a graph or diagram instead of text.