#Medieval: A Students’ Conference is born III

Last round, peeps. I hope you are ready to roll and consume the last phases before it’s time to conference, baby!

Phase five: Reading the Abstracts and Choosing.

The submission date for the CfA is past, so is the extended submission deadline and now comes the impossible task of choosing. It might be easy enough if there’s only a handful of great applications. Imagine, however, you’ve received too many great ones; or, maybe some not-really-good-ones and you have to turn them down. How do you communicate that in an appreciative and respectful way?

[… communicating and choosing … bzzz … sssstttt … brr … operation finished.]

OK. The presenters are selected, they have received the information that they are on board and were given the chance to commit, again. 

Phase six: Program. Room. Snacks. SNAAACKS.

Home stretch before the final countdown! At this stage, all contributions (academic and otherwise) for the conference are confirmed and approved. Now it is time to finalise the program, update the website and spread the word, again.

But what should be in the program?

A schedule, of course, answering the main questions: where, when, what, who and for how long? 

Here’s a short list of thoughts that you might want to consider when creating the schedule:

The presentations are detailed with times, titles, names, and abstracts. It’s important to ensure that all presenters are given the same conditions for their presentations: the same tech, the same amount of presenting and question time. And here is another riddle for you: should the question round be held directly after each presentation or after a bunch of presentations? How much question time does that yield for each presenter?

Plus, what happens if the audience simply does not come up with any questions? This is the moment when the Chair(s) jump in. Usually, one or two people chair each part of the conference and guide everyone through the day. Their first job is to make people stick to the schedule. This can be a challenging task as you might not want to come across as an impolite person interrupting the others. Yet, in doing this, you guarantee fairness to all participants, you signal that this event’s timetable is reliable, and additionally, you practise your leader as well as communication skills. The Chair(s)’s second job is to chair the question rounds and to prepare interesting and exciting questions for each presenter in case of a silent audience.

After having finished the schedule, it’s time to turn your attention to

1. The presenting hardware: organise and check the functioning of laptops, cables, adaptors, and the beamer. Also, bring a few whiteboard markers in case someone wants to use them. 
2. The presenting software: collect all presentations beforehand, upload and bring them as a backup on a USB stick to the conference.
3. The snack hardware: organise and carry food, drinks, cups, plates, and cutlery into the conference room and arrange all items neatly on the buffet table. Also take a moment to consider where you might leave all that stuff once the conference is finished. 
4. Assign the tasks of the day: get the team together and distribute assignments including preparing and cleaning-up the room afterwards (everyone’s most beloved task ;).

Phase seven: Conference, baby!

Let’s go and grab some chairs, crisps, and coffee.