2016 Annual Meeting

Tips for Selected Paper and Lightning Session Moderators

The goal of moderating these sessions is to foster interesting discussion and helpful feedback on presentations. Plan to moderate actively. Discussion time is valuable for both attendees and presenters. Read all the papers in advance (Selected Papers are available on AgEcon Search after May 25). Prepare 1-2 questions on each paper, to be ready to start discussion. Two weeks before the conference, circulate papers among all presenters in the session, asking them to read their colleagues’ papers. Let presenters know that a 15 minute (Selected Paper Sessions)(7 minutes for Lighting Sessions) time allotment will be rigidly enforced. At the session, manage presentation time to allow at least 5 minutes (Selected Paper Session)(2 minutes for Lightning Sessions) of discussion time per presentation. Invite questions after each presentation (rather than collective discussion at end of period). Allow time for audience members to initiate questions, but be ready to ask the first one.

As moderator, you should arrange for a presentation computer, which can be your computer or that of one of the presenters. Plan to arrive at your session room 20 minutes ahead of the start time to ensure that all presentations are loaded onto the computer before the session begins.