Call for Sessions & Associated Events

Thank you for your interest. Session submission is now closed. Chairs will be notified in late November regarding acceptance of their session. Chairs of confirmed sessions will receive further instructions at that time. The Call for Abstracts will go out in early December.

Session chair responsibilities

We are still working out the details for the virtual component, but session chairs should be willing to run their session in whatever format necessary (i.e., in-person, virtual, or hybrid).

Solicit abstracts & interact with authors
Once the sessions are established, chairs are asked to solicit at least six to eight abstracts to help form the session. Sessions are most successful when the chair or co-chairs recruit speakers well in advance of the January abstract submission deadline. All presenters must submit an abstract through the IAGLR website once the Call for Abstracts is available. Session chairs will monitor the abstracts being submitted to their session and work with the authors to edit or modify as needed. Once abstracts have been accepted, session chairs are responsible for confirming acceptance and scheduling with each presenter.

Schedule presentations
If fewer than four presentations are received for a given session, the conference program chair will consult with the session chair(s) either to combine the accepted abstracts with another session or to create a new session title to encompass similar abstracts included in other sessions. When all abstracts are assigned to a session, the session chairs will determine the order of presentation within their session and confirm scheduling with each presenter.

Run session
During the conference, each session chair helps to ensure that their session runs smoothly and is successful for both the presenters and the audience. During the conference (whether in person or virtual), session chairs are expected to introduce the session and each presenter, manage the time to ensure each presentation adheres to the 20-minute time slots, and facilitate the question-and answer-period within the final five minutes of each time slot. Depending on the final arrangements for the virtual experience, session chairs may be expected to participate in a training session.