Chicago Illinois - August 16-20

 

The following information provides session moderators and speakers with an overview of requirements, and equipment provided for the 2009 conference.

Moderators serve to coordinate the speakers and presentations for sessions. Commonly, moderators introduce speakers at sessions and provide a brief overview of the session topic. The conference sessions are the result of a targeted call for papers. Submitted abstracts are voted on by a committee. In most cases, several abstracts are combined to create one session on a topic. For this type of session, the moderator would work with the speakers to ensure that different aspects or viewpoints are presented in the session in a congruent manner. One of your first duties as a moderator will be to contact speakers on the panel and decide on a title for the session as well as a new abstract if needed.

We will be including bios in the program and we ask that speaker bios be collected by moderators and emailed to info@nescso.org. We have bios from last year’s program and will use those if a speaker requests. Bios are also voluntary. If we do not receive a bio by the date required, we will presume that the speaker does not want one in the program. ALL speakers must register for the conference and will be charged a registration fee if they are planning on attending the conference for days in addition to their scheduled session. NESCSO will waive the fee for those speakers only attending the conference on the day of their presentation. Those individuals should notify NESCSO so that we may be sure to include them in our count for meals etc. and prepare badges for access to sessions, meals, exhibits and events.

NESCSO will provide laptops loaded with MS Office applications and an LCD for all sessions. Moderators are asked to serve as coordinators for the presentations ensuring that each speaker brings a copy of the presentation to the session on a USB drive or CD. Rather than risking having many different versions of presentations floating about at the conference, we ask that moderators serve as the coordinator for having the latest version of presentations for a session. A conference CD will be provided after the conference and we will contact you before that CD is published to be sure we have collected the correct versions of presentations.

Speakers are responsible for printing and shipping any written handouts. We will provide specifics for shipping as we get closer to the conference. However, moderators should remind speakers that a conference CD will be provided after the conference. A speaker ready room equipped with a screen and LCD will be available throughout the conference. The speaker ready room will not be equipped with a laptop.

The draft agenda will be posted on the agenda page of this website. We will send room assignments for sessions in July. If for any reason you are unable to fulfill the duties of the moderator or speaker, please contact us as soon as possible. We would like to try to eliminate last minute scurrying to find moderators or speakers so please let us know as soon as possible if you are unable to participate.

Thanks again for your assistance in making the 2009 MMIS conference a great success! We look forward to working with you!