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ICCB Live Discussion Format

In a traditional in-person ICCB, an oral presentation is allotted 15 minutes of which 12 are used to convey information about one’s work with an audience and 3 minutes are for Q & A. This is the official allotted time a presenter gets.  In a traditional in-person ICCB, however, most presenters will have had many other opportunities to informally talk about their work, to compare experiences and have stimulating conversations with other participants.  At in-person congresses, coffee breaks, hallways, walks to and from the conference centre, morning runs and even pubs are fair game for conversations about our work. 

While a virtual conference cannot recreate these informal settings for presenters, it can be structured to ensure that presenters in symposia and general (or contributed) sessions get more than 15 minutes to discuss their work with other conference participants and to share more information about it. This year’s conference allows us to test a format that - we believe - is more appropriate for virtual settings: 

  • The 12 min talks in symposia and general (or contributed) sessions are made available on-demand for people to watch at their leisure before and after the day of the session;
  • The day of the session brings 3 to 6 presenters together to discuss their work more deeply with the audience. A moderator facilitates this discussion and ensures audience participation;
  • The sessions last 50 mins instead of 90 mins.
  • Through the longer Q & A, the audience leaves with a better sense of the general topic, the speakers’ work, and the speakers as individuals; the speakers will have interacted with 2 to 5 other speakers about their work.
  • If one or more presenters has connectivity issues, the remaining speakers can continue with the session without generating a cascade effect on other speakers and sessions.

The Scientific Committee hopes that both presenters and those in the audience will enjoy the shorter sessions, the longer Q & As, and the opportunity to jointly explore more angles and dimensions of the work that is presented.