Session Guidelines | 50 Minute Sessions

AMIA’s first Spring conference will be virtual and held April 14-16, 2021.

 

What’s Next

Session Abstract. Please review your session abstract and speaker affiliation, incorporating any notes from your Program Coordinator. Your original session description will be on the website in the preliminary program, but we will be updating the website regularly so please send your changes to your Coordinator as soon as they are available.  Please note that the program on the website is updated as a whole and not with individual changes, so your changes may not appear immediately.

Speaker bios and photos.  Please submit the bios and pictures of all session speakers here as soon as possible. For sample bios, check out a sample here. Bios and pictures will also be featured on the website and in the mobile app.

 

Overview

Registration for the Conference. All speakers are expected to register for the Conference. Those who are not AMIA members, and who are attending and speaking at the Conference for the first time, may receive a complimentary one day registration. Please note that there are Conference grants available to reduce costs.

All session slots are 50 minutes. This will allow for up to 40 minutes of presentation time plus 10 minutes of Q&A. Sessions cannot exceed their time slots – but, like the in-person environment, if there is still discussion going on, it can move “into the hall” or, in the virtual world, a chat.

Sessions cannot exceed their time slots – but, as with the in-person environment, if there is still a discussion going on, it can move “into the hall” or, in the virtual world, a chat.

Each presentation will have a host as well as technical support.  The host will introduce the session and may help the Chair in queuing up questions and monitoring the session chat.  In the next few weeks, we’ll be sending more information on how the session day will work, how log-ins will work, and the day on which your session is scheduled. The “Run of Show” document lays out the timeline; lets you know the name of the host; and identifies who your Tech will be.

You have the option to pre-record your presentation or to do it live. Pre-recorded sessions have a live Q&A component, so you will still attend your session.

In planning your session, please plan for at least 10 minutes of Q&A/discussion time.  Where there are multiple presenters on a session, please coordinate between panelists. It will take planning to coordinate this.

We will be sending more information for sessions regularly. We are working with the platform technical team to finalize how the program will work and will keep you informed regularly.

Information will be sent to the Chair and all speakers. We want to be sure that everyone has the information as soon as we receive it.

Your session recording or presentation deck will be due by April 5. Each session should have a single deck of slides (rather than individual presentations by presenters). Presentation slides should be delivered as a Google slide link (downloadable) or in Powerpoint. Recordings should be delivered in MP4 format. The April 5th deadline will not be extended. Late submissions of your pre-recorded session will not be accepted and panelists must be prepared to give the session live.

We encourage you to consider a land acknowledgement at the start of your presentation. You can find more information on Land Acknowledgements can be found here.

 

Recorded Sessions

We hope to use pre-recorded presentations as much as possible during the Conference.   This will support a smooth and less stressful presentation and allow presenters to listen to their fellow presenters; concentrate on audience Q&A; and participate in chats and other  interactivity with the audience, rather than worrying about technical glitches or timing issues.

This doesn’t mean that we don’t need you to be present!  Presenters should be available for live interactions such as introductions or Q&A during their allotted session window — before, during, and after the actual playback of their recorded presentations..

At the November conference, this worked well in allowing presenters to engage with attendees and participate in the session.

 

Live Sessions

We know everyone won’t be able to pre-record their session, and some sessions – like Lightning Talks – work better as live sessions.

For live sessions, presentation decks will be due by April 5. Each session should have a single deck of slides (rather than individual presentations by presenters). This will allow the technical team to have a backup copy in case there is a problem that day, as well as test the deck to be sure all is working in the Conference platform environment.

 

Lessons We’ve Learned

There are a few lessons we have learned the hard way through webinars, conferences, and the November conference:

Please make sure that when we are seeing you on screen in person:

  • Your background is not distracting (though it can be a bonus to see the dog peeking out from under the desk)
  • You are well-lit and not too close or far from the camera
  • Your camera is more or less at eye-level so you’re able to maintain “virtual eye-contact” as much as possible
  • Your audio is clear and without background noise – a headset can be useful in this.

How your slides look is also important of course. Experience in virtual meetings has taught us that slides may need to be even more clear and engaging than for in-person presentations, as streamed slide decks lead to a degradation in quality relative to theatrical playback.  It is best to err on the side of large, clear fonts; clear pictorial and graphical elements; etc.

If you are going to incorporate tools such as polls to encourage audience engagement, consider how this will impact timing, where best to insert them, and any similar issues..

 

Recording your Presentation

  • PowerPoint and Keynote both support recording a presentation as part of their basic functionality. We can also provide brief how-to documentation.
  • Another option is to schedule a Zoom meeting prior to the Conference, with just yourself or with your co-panelists, and/or with AMIA team members; record your presentation(s) during that meeting; and share it with the AMIA office (or use the AMIA account).
  • If you wish to implement a more complex editing process there are several programs available across all price points. AMIA cannot provide support, but will accept any video that matches our basic technical requirements.

Technical Requirements

  • Aspect Ratio          1920×1080
  • Formats         .MP4 preferred
  • File Name        sessionnumber_yourname.mp4

Send presentations to:    https://spaces.hightail.com/uplink/AMIA

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