Session Facilitator Duties and Guidelines

Review the spreadsheet list of conference sessions you received by email on March 17th to find your name, session details (date, time, room number) and contact information for your session presenters.

Review the Summit Attendee Info page for additional information on venue location, parking, etc.

Schedule a time to meet (virtually) with your presenters to become familiar with their topics and presentations.

Coordinate with each presenter to develop one or two questions about their presentation. You’ll use these, if needed, to encourage discussion from the audience during Q&A.

Arrive at your session room at least 10 minutes early to meet with your Room Technician and to make sure all the presenters have arrived.

The Technician will assist presenters with loading their presentation files on the podium laptop. They will also manage the Zoom webcast and questions/comments from the virtual attendees.

Inform the Technician about any missing presenters, AV issues, or concerns about the room temperature. They will contact the appropriate event staff, as needed, for additional assistance.

Start the session at the scheduled time.

Welcome attendees. Remind them to turn cell phones to silent mode, and to sign the roster at the back of the room before leaving to receive PDH credit. Point out the nearest fire exits. Encourage late arrivals to find seats.

Introduce each presenter by their Name, Title and Organization only. Please do not read their bios; instead, you may refer the audience to the Summit Attendee Info website for this information: go.ncsu.edu/ncdot-attendee

Keep track of time. Each session is scheduled for 90 minutes.

Keep each presenter within their allotted time. With some exceptions, sessions have three (3) presenters who should speak for ~20 minutes each plus ~5 minutes for audience Q&A immediately following their presentation.

Alert presenters with time cues at 10-, 5- and 0-minutes remaining. Cue sheets to hold up will be provided for you at the podium.

Encourage and moderate discussion from the in-person and virtual audience. Virtual attendees will post their questions/comments in Zoom. Check with the Technician for any virtual responses; the Technician will read them aloud.

Virtual attendees may be unable to hear questions from the in-person attendees. Ask presenters to repeat the questions in their responses.

When all presenters have finished speaking, encourage additional audience discussion for any remaining time in the session.

End on time, or early when there’s no more discussion from the audience or presenters.

Ask all attendees to sign the roster at the back of the classroom to receive PDH.

Thank the presenters and audience for coming.

Return your Cue sheets to the podium.