Rountable Discussion Sessions

Guidelines for Moderators

Task 1: ASAP

Please send an email to the panellists in your session. Their names, email addresses, and abstract references are included in the acceptance letter you received from the online abstract service diversityrx@confex.com.

Your email to the panelists should contain the following elements:

1. Introduce yourself as the moderator of the session (please include the title), and give them your complete contact information.

2. Tell them you will be in touch with them shortly with questions that will help the group prepare for the session. We recommend that you ask them for their vacation plans during the summer so that you will have enough time to get the information you need to prepare the session.

Task 2: Recommended completion date—soon after your first email, but no later than Friday, June 20, 2008

Please review the original abstracts submitted by the participants in order to develop the Key Issues Questionnaire that will be sent to each participant (the link to the abstracts was also included in your acceptance letter from the confex.com address). The purpose of these questions is to elicit the issues, concerns, challenges and successes that each participant could contribute to the discussion. In Appendix A “Sample Material from the 2004 SESSION” you will find samples of the questions and answers used in some of the SESSION sessions in 2004. This should help you formulate the questions for your group.

When you’ve developed your questions, send them to the panellists as part of the document called “ROUNDTABLE letter from moderator to participants”.   We recommend that you ask them to return the responses no later than July 18, 2008

Task 3: Recommended completion date—Friday, August 1, 2008

When you’ve received all the responses to the Key Issues Questionnaire, please collect and resend them in one document to the participants, asking them to review and think about the issues that have arisen. You should ask them if there are any issues they would especially like to see discussed by the group during the session, and also if there are one or two issues that they would like the moderator to ask them in the opening part of the session.  Ask them to email their responses to this request to you and the whole group, so people can get a sense of the main areas of interest. As the moderator, you should take note of these responses, and use them to develop your final list of questions for the session. We recommend that you ask them to return the responses no later than August 29, 2008.

Task 4: REQUIRED completion date—August 15, 2008    

Based on your preparation for the session, please write a final abstract for the session itself. This will precede the abstracts of the panellists, and is the opportunity to give potential attendees an overview of what the session will cover. The abstract should be 250-500 words. Please upload the abstract on the online management service in your Presenter Response Form. 

Task 5: Recommended due date—September 5, 2008

  • To prepare the final list of questions that you will use during the session, review all the information you have received from the participants, identifying the key issues you want to raise during the session and who can best speak to those issues.  
  • Your opening round of questions should consist of one question for each participant (preferably on an experience or issue that would provide a good introduction to the theme of the session).  
  • Panellists should understand that their responses aren’t presentations – they should keep their answers to about 3 minutes
  • Your second round of questions could take a number of different approaches: ask some panellists to elaborate further on an issue raised in the first round; ask two or three panellists to address a single question (with the intention of eliciting different points of view); raise some new issues and ask anyone to comment; etc. Try again to give every panellist one opportunity to talk.
  • After this second round, you can invite the audience to get involved in the conversation, as well as encourage the panellists to raise questions or issues they’d like to pursue further with each other or the audience.
  • You may need to encourage some people to speak up, or redirect the conversation if it gets bogged down. Keep a list of extra questions to throw in if necessary..

When you’ve come up with your final list of questions, please email these to the participants (by September 5, 2008 at the latest), indicating which questions will be directed specifically to individuals, and which questions will be directed generally at the group.

At the session:

  • Make sure you bring a watch to keep track of time.
  • If your session has posters, stand by the door and direct people to look at the posters briefly before the session starts. The panellists should not stand by their posters (there isn’t time for them to engage in discussion with attendees). At 10 minutes after the session starting time, please start the session. 
  • Give some introductory remarks about the theme of the session and what topics you’re going to cover. Explain to the audience how the session will work, and when they will be able to participate. 
  • Tell the audience that details about each participant’s program are included in the binder, and they can look at the posters again after the session ends. Introduce each panellist by name, title, organization and city/state.  
  • Start with the first round of questions, then proceed to the second round, panellist discussion and audience participation.