Purpose of the Themed Discussions
The Themed Discussions are intentionally participant directed, so you can choose to frame the discussion however you choose. You can make it more like a Q&A, or a tutorial, or a deep-dive into some technical issues, or something else entirely. You can also make it more or less focused, depend on how precise your goals for the session are. Some people like to prepare a clear set of slides, others prefer to let the discussion go where the attendees take it. Neither choice is better than the other.
Hosts
Beginning of the Live Discussion Session
• Remind the participants to adhere to the Code of Conduct of the conference.
• Remind the participants that the session is being recorded (and don’t forget to click record – or remind an organiser to click record!)
• Remind the participants to mute their microphones if they are not asking a question.
• Remind the participants to “raise hand” to ask questions or make text comments via the chat during the session. (This should automatically create an ordered list for you.)
• Remind the participants to use a green tick/check if they have a follow up question/comment on the topic currently being discussed.
• If any invited experts from outside the conference are present, thank them for coming and joining the discussion.
• Start the discussion by defining the scope of the discussion and outlining your goals for the discussion. Even if the scope and goals are broad or vague it still helps everyone know what to think/ask about while discussing.
During the Live Discussion Session
• Monitor Zoom for raised hands and ticks/checks.
• Call on participants that have raised their hand, or added a tick/check, on Zoom to ask their questions.
• Encourage students and those that have not spoken before to participate by raising hands. When deciding which question is being asked, be prepared to give a boost (e.g. allow those people to jump the queue in the raised-hands list on Zoom) to the participants who have not spoken before while others with a raised hand already have.
• Pay attention to the power dynamics in the discussion and intervene if live comments do not live up to the standards specified in the Code of Conduct (or DM an organiser, asking them to intervene).
End of the Live Discussion Session
• Thank all the participants and the invited experts again.
• Remind the participants that discussions can continue to take place asynchronously on Mattermost, and live in the current and appropriate rooms. In addition, the half hour after the discussion session is reserved for dedicated informal discussions.
• If any discussions were cut short during the session, make explicit reference to them and encourage the participants to continue those discussions now. If there is more than one, then suggest a particular room in the live space for each discussion (or Mattermost if they cannot stay online).