Chairing a Scientific meeting:
Rob Taylor
Wellcome Trust Centre for Mitochondrial Research, Newcastle University
PREPARATION
• Be there early!
• Meet and introduce yourself to people presenting in a
session you are chairing
• Get their names right!
• Liase with technical support
– Have the presentations been loaded properly and checked?
– Is all the technology working (audio and visual)? Laser pointer?
– PC/Mac compatibility
AUTHORITY and CONFIDENCE
• You are in charge!
– role of co-chair?
• Think and plan about what you are going to say
• If necessary, ask for quiet at the beginning of a session
– Mobile phones off or on silent
– Housekeeping (fire exits, fire alarm drill etc…..)
• Introductions are important
– Speaker biography, area of research interest etc….
TIMING
• Make sure you stick to the schedule!
• At the beginning of session, remind the speakers how long
they have to talk
• Allow time for questions
• If a speaker appears to be running out of time, remind them
how long they have left and invite them to begin bringing
their talk to a conclusion
– Listen to the presentation, be aware if likely to run over time
– Don’t be afraid to ask them to stop if they don’t respond to your
prompts
TIME for QUESTIONS……….
• Thank the speaker for their talk, invite questions from the
floor
• May need to give some time for questions – write down one
or two of your own as you listen to the talk
• Ask members of the audience to use available microphones
– don’t be afraid to repeat the question for the speaker if
difficult to hear
• Deal with inappropriate questions……
– Protect the speaker
– Don’t let private discussion/conversation go on too long, bring
attention back to the whole audience