Guidelines for Chairs of the ASSW 2025 Business and Community Meetings

valid only for chairs of meetings / workshop / sessions during the ASSW 2025 Business and Community Meetings (20 - 24 March 2025)

Session Chairs are responsible for reading these guidelines before the meeting and adhering to them during the ASSW 2025.

The Arctic Summit Science Week-2025 (ASSW) will be held in hybrid format, allowing participation on-site and virtual. This guideline document has been developed to ensure smooth running of the sessions and positive conference experiences for all participants. The guidelines cover all meetings held as a part of ASSW 2025 Business and Community Meetings from 20 – 24 March 2025.

1. Before the Session

1.1. Session Description and Running Order

By 13 March 2025: the Session Chairs are responsible to:

Ensure that the Session Description included in the ASSW 2025 conference program is accurate and up to date. If any changes are required for the Session Description, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

By 14 March 2025: the Session Chairs are responsible to

Prepare a running order for the session and share it with the local organising committee: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The running order should include details of any content that requires the use of technical equipment (e.g., presentations given by on-site participants; presentation given by remote participants, break-out discussions, pre-recorded presentations, etc). This will be passed on to the AV technician your session room.

1.2. Uploading Presentations

Session organisers are responsible to collect all presentation slides from their speakers before the ASSW 2025. These can be either:

Uploaded in advance by submitted to this DropBox Folder. Please name your file with the session date and part of your session title and a short presentation reference in the file name, for example, “20Mar_Abbreviated-Meeting-Name_Short-Presentation-Title.ppx”.
Brought to the meeting room 30 minutes before the start of the session, so they can be uploaded to the computer in the room.

Presenters will not be permitted to use personal laptops for presentations so that we can minimize disruptions to the hybrid format of the sessions.

Virtual presenters can either share their slides in advance and the in-person room host can share the slides or they can share their screen through Zoom (not needing to provide slides in advance).

Upload your Presentation here

1.3 Session Room

Session Chairs should be at the meeting room 30 minutes before the start of the session to ensure that presentations can be uploaded to the computer in the room.

A technician will be in the meeting room to help you get familiar with the equipment.
Make sure that all presenters are in the room and are familiar with the running order of the session no later than 15 minutes before the start of your session.
If relevant, make sure that the technician has all presentations required for your meeting ready on the computer in the room.

1.4. Meeting Holding Slide

A standard meeting holding slide with the title and the time of the meeting and the conference logo will be prepared by the organising committee. We will use this slide on the screen before the start of the meeting as on-site and virtual participants are gathering. You are welcome to switch to the specific content of the session after the start of the meeting.

1.5. Zoom

We will use Zoom for connecting all virtual participants to all hybrid sessions of the ASSW 2025.

Open hybrid sessions: the Zoom links for all open sessions will be posted in the ASSW 2025 program ahead of the conference. The links are password protected and the access information will be sent to all registered conference participants before the start of each day they are registered for. So your speakers and session participants will be able to log into your session that way.
Closed hybrid sessions (by Invitation only): the Session Chairs will receive Zoom links before the conference to share directly with all the invited participants of their session. Please remember that it is the Chair's responsibility to distribute the link to the attendees. Please note that all participants of closed meetings must register to attend ASSW.

2. During your Session

2.1. Responsibilities on the day

Each session will have a professional technician in the room.

Responsibilities of Technician:

Start Zoom meeting and meeting recording.
Ensure all AV equipment is working (laptop, screen, microphones), troubleshoot any technical issues as necessary.
Help Session Chair to pre-upload the session content (presentations) on the meeting laptop.

Responsibilities of Session Chair:

Remind all meeting participants of the ASSW Code of Conduct.
Ensure the timely running of the session and finish by the end of the allocated time slot.
Ensure appropriate interaction with all meeting participants, including monitoring of the online chat box in the Zoom meeting. If you need assistance with this task, make sure to delegate it to a nominated co-chair / assistant.
Ensure all meeting participants use a microphone when speaking.
Inform the meeting participants that the session is being recorded.

Big meetings (30+ participants) may also have support from a conference Volunteer, as available, who can help the Session Chair to pass hand-held microphones to the audience, monitor questions in the chat, and other tasks as required by the Session Chair.

If you have any further issues or questions on the day, please ask the Technician or Volunteer to contact the Local Organising Committee for further assistance.

2.2 Practicalities during your Session

2.2.1. Starting the Session

Remind all meeting participants of the ASSW Code of Conduct.
Point participants to the in-room info board for relevant information (e.g., connecting to WiFi, emergency contact number, etc.).
Clearly introduce the meeting title and rules at the beginning of the meeting. We also advise you to briefly outline the running order (explain how long the meeting will take and what to expect from it).
For virtual participants to understand what is said in the meeting room, on-site meeting participants MUST use the microphones in the room when speaking. Remind virtual participants to mute their microphones when not speaking.

2.2.2. Sharing of Presentation Materials

All presentation slides and other materials will be shared via Zoom for both on-site and virtual participants to ensure that the virtual participants can see them.

Virtual presenters will be using the “share screen” function within Zoom. In-person presenters will present as normal. A feed of the presentation will be broadcast into the Zoom room in a “Camera + PowerPoint” layout.

The material must be uploaded to the computer in the meeting room (Apple based!) and run from the laptop. Remote participants can share the screen to present their slides when relevant.

We recommend only sharing slides / screen in Zoom when needed during the meeting, but otherwise do not share your screen to ensure that on-site participants can see the virtual participants. The technician will be able to manually remove the “screen share” if required.

2.2.3. Session Recordings

All sessions will be recorded. The session recordings can be made available to Session Chairs upon request after the ASSW 2025 but will otherwise not be publicly available. All recordings will be deleted two months after the end of the ASSW 2025, so Session Chairs that need a recording should ensure to contact the ASSW 2024 organisers (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) as soon as possible after the event. If you do not wish for the session to be recorded, please inform the Technician before the start of the meeting.

2.2.4. Discussions during your Session

The challenge of hybrid meetings is to ensure that both on-site and virtual participants are treated equally during the discussion. A few guidelines will help you as the Chairs to ensure that all participants have a good experience in your session:

all participants, no matter if on-site or virtual, must raise their hands (or use the raise hands function in Zoom) and wait for the Session Chairs to invite them to speak. When possible, alternate between on-site and online speakers to ensure a fair inclusion of virtual participants in the discussion. This is essential to the online experience. If chairs do not include virtual attendees, it becomes very disengaging for those attending virtually.
- Speakers should state their name before making comments to ensure that both on-site and virtual participants know who is speaking.
- On-site participants:
  - must use one of the microphones in the room when speaking to ensure that online participants can hear them.
- Virtual participants:
  - Can ask questions / make comments by:
    - raising their hands and waiting for session chair to ask them to speak.
    - typing in the chat box or the Q&A box.
  - Can contact the session chair / technician via the chat box.

2.2.5. Breakout Groups

Please avoid using break-out discussions for hybrid meetings if possible. If this is necessary for the meeting, the break-out function can be activated, but please let the Technician know about your requirements and plan before the start of the meeting (and in this case arrive earlier in the meeting room to ensure this can be set up before the start of the meeting). Please make sure that there is an allocated online moderator for each online break-out. Please do not hesitate to contact the local organising committee (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) if you have further questions.