Instructions online conference

Table of contents

  1. General information
  2. Information for participants
  3. Information for presenters
  4. Information for session chairs

General information

During the online conference, we will use Zoom for all conference sessions and meetings. For the best conference experience, please download Zoom Client for Meetings onto your laptop or desktop via https://zoom.us/download (note that the Web-browser or App version does not offer all functionalities, e.g., regarding the use of breakout rooms).

The program with all the conference sessions and the Zoom links can be found on https://iccl2021.nl/zoom/ (you will receive the required password by email). Furthermore, every day, before the start of the first session, you will also receive an email with the Zoom links of the sessions of that day. Use the Zoom links with your Zoom account to join the meetings about 5 minutes before the start of the session (10 minutes for presenters and the session chair). The technical moderator of the session will let you in from the waiting room. Our recommendation is to turn on your webcam by default to engage more with other participants and to contribute to a more lively conference experience. When presenting or asking questions, we kindly ask you to turn on your webcam. However, during the presentations, we ask only the presenter to turn on the webcam while others turn it off to keep the focus on the presentation itself.

Besides the conference sessions, we will also enable an ICCL Lounge Area. This lounge area is an open Zoom meeting with no waiting room. You can join this meeting at any time during the conference to have a chat or discussion with other participants. Within the lounge area, we can start breakout rooms when participants want to chat within smaller groups. The lounge area is also the place to go for technical support. If you experience any technical problems, please do not hesitate to contact us through the chat in the lounge area (depending on the question, we might start a breakout room to discuss the matter).

The complete program is available on www.iccl2021.nl/program. This includes a high-level overview, a detailed program, the book of abstracts, and a link to the full papers in the conference proceedings of Springer’s Lecture Notes in Computer Science (note that these full papers are only freely accessible during a period of 4 weeks around the conference dates, and only through the link provided on our website).

Initial Zoom setup

Please install Zoom Client for Meetings in advance (https://zoom.us/download). We recommend that you try your microphone and webcam before joining the session (https://zoom.us/test; https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362283-Testing-computer-or-device-audio; https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362313-How-Do-I-Test-My-Video-).

How to join a session

View the password-protected page https://iccl2021.nl/zoom/ and find the session you are interested in. Click on the link of the corresponding session to go to the corresponding Zoom meeting. If you are joining the session before the host has started the meeting, please wait in the lobby until the host starts the session.

Breaks

Conferencing, online and in-person can be exhausting! We need to take breaks. These breaks are included in the schedule! Stand up and stretch, get a snack, come back refreshed! If you leave Zoom on, make sure that your microphone is muted during the break. And do you want to connect with others, then take a look at the ICCL Lounge Area.

In case you have any further questions, you can also contact us at iccl2021@easychair.org.

Information for participants

We are happy to welcome you as a participant at the ICCL2021 online conference! Besides the participants, every session is composed of presenters, a session chair, and a technical moderator. The technical moderator is the host of the Zoom session.

Session structure

  • Ultimately 15 minutes before the session, the technical moderator will start the designated Zoom meeting.
  • When joining a session, you first need to wait in the waiting room until the technical moderator provides you access. First access will be given to the presenters and the session chair. Once they received their instructions, all other participants are given access, which typically happens 5 minutes upfront.
  • At the beginning of the session, the session chair will welcome you and introduce the first presenter.

Discussion

The session chair will mute your microphone during the entire session. In the discussion after the presentation, he/she can unmute participants. This discussion will be moderated by the session chair:

  • During the presentations, all participants will be muted but can submit questions through the chat. Questions submitted in that form will be asked by the session chair following a FIFO policy.
  • The session chair will have the ability to unmute participants to elaborate on their questions. Please note that due to the limited time for discussion, participants may want to continue the discussion outside the session, for example in the ICCL Lounge Area.
  • Besides the questions posed during the presentation in the chat, participants can also use the ‘raise hand’ option provided in zoom and be unmuted by the session chair to start the discussion.
  • When asking a question, please turn on your webcam.

How to ask questions

Option 1: chat

You can join the discussion with other attendees by sending messages to “Everyone” or you can chat privately with the session chair by selecting their name from the drop-down list. Learn more about https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/203650445-Using-in-meeting-chat.

We request participants to use the Q&A side-panel on the right of the Zoom window to place your question anytime during the presentation or during the discussion. At the end of a presentation, the session chair will select and ask the presenter to answer some of the questions in the sequence they were submitted and within the allotted time period and will try to cover as many questions as possible depending on the allotted time.

Option 2: raise your hand

Following the presentation and once all questions placed during the presentation have been answered, you can raise your hand to ask the presenter a question through the microphone. The session chair will indicate your turn and unmute you.

Please check the following link for more information on the controls that you have available as an attendee (e.g., applause, chat with other participants, etc.): https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/200941109-Attendee-controls-in-a-meeting

Information for presenters

We are happy to welcome you as a presenter at the ICCL2021 online conference! Next to the presenters, every session has a session chair and a technical moderator. The technical moderator is the host of the Zoom session; he or she will make all presenters and the session chair the co-hosts of the session (https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362603-Host-and-co-host-controls-in-a-meeting). Also, the technical moderator will admit participants, keep an eye on the chat, admit any latecomers, and will help participants with connection problems. The session chair’s task is to introduce you (briefly; mainly your name and institute), to lead the discussions, to give turns, keep an eye on the chat and he or she is responsible for timekeeping. So, you can concentrate on the content and on answering questions. Regarding the webcam, make sure you enabled it upon entry, during your presentation, and when you are answering questions; during the presentations of others, you can disable it.

Before the session

  • Ultimately 15 minutes before the session, the technical moderator will start the designated Zoom meeting.
  • When joining a session, you first need to wait in the waiting room until the technical moderator provides you access.
  • As a presenter, you need to join the session 10 minutes before the scheduled start (this also holds for the session chair). Then you receive some instructions and the host will make you a co-host.
  • Participants start joining the meeting from 5 minutes before the session onwards.

During the session

  • At the beginning of the session, the session chair will welcome you and introduce the first presenter. The presentations should take 20-25 minutes, so there is still some time for discussion and to switch between presentations.
  • The session chair will indicate when it is your turn to present, by briefly introducing you (the order of talks is the same as the one provided in the conference schedule). At that moment, you can start sharing your screen and give your presentation. Make sure that your webcam is enabled and your microphone is not muted.
  • Presentations should not exceed 25 minutes, otherwise the other talks will have less time. We recommend you to take this limitation into account when preparing and giving your talk.

Discussion

After each presentation, we will have a live discussion moderated by the session chair:

  • During the presentations, all participants will be muted but can submit questions through the chat. Questions submitted in that form will be asked by the session chair following a FIFO policy.
  • The session chair will have the ability to unmute participants to elaborate on their questions. Please note that due to the limited time for discussion, participants may want to continue the discussion outside the session, for example in the ICCL Lounge Area.
  • Besides the questions posed during the presentation in the chat, participants can also use the ‘raise hand’ option provided in zoom and be unmuted by the session chair to start the discussion.

Information for session chairs

We are glad that you are chairing a session at the ICCL2021 online conference! As a session chair, you will be assisted by a technical moderator, who takes care of the technical issues. The technical moderator is the host of the Zoom session; he or she will make you and the speakers the co-hosts of the session (https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362603-Host-and-co-host-controls-in-a-meeting). Also, the technical moderator will admit participants, keep an eye on the chat, admit any latecomers, and will help participants with connection problems. Your role as a session chair is the following. Regarding the webcam, make sure you enabled it before, between, and after the presentations.

Before the session

  • Check who are the speakers of your session. This information is available in the schedule provided on https://iccl2021.nl/program/.
  • Please make sure to have the information of each paper to introduce them timely before each presentation.
  • Ultimately 15 minutes before the session, the technical moderator will start the designated Zoom meeting.
  • When joining a session, you first need to wait in the waiting room until the technical moderator provides you access.
  • As session chair, you need to join the session 10 minutes before the scheduled start (this also holds for the presenters). Then you receive some instructions and the host will make you a co-host.
  • When starting the session we recommend you to turn on your video to engage the attendees during the session introduction. This can be done by selecting a video connection when joining a zoom meeting.
  • Participants start joining the meeting from 5 minutes before the session onwards.

During the session

  • When introducing the session, explain to the participants that they can ask questions during the presentation in the chat but also live during the discussion after the presentation. For asking questions live after a presentation, they have to raise their hand as all will be muted by default. Indicate that we will follow a FIFO policy, so questions asked during the presentation will follow that order and have priority over ‘raising’ hands.
  • Introduce the speakers (very briefly, just name and the university is sufficient)
  • After introducing the session and presenters, we recommend you turn off the video so that the attendees can focus on the talk video and ask the attendees to do it as well. Once that, you can mute all participants by clicking “Mute all”.
  • You can manage the attendee by clicking on the “View all attendees” link under the participants’ panel.

Responsibilities of the session chair in the discussion

  • As organizers, we would like to ensure a smooth and productive virtual conference.
  • During the presentation, please keep track of the questions on the Q&A side-panel on the right of the Zoom window.
  • After the presentation, unmute yourself and indicate that the round of questions starts. Please make sure to ask orally the questions and according to the time when they were first submitted. If there are not many questions, feel free to ask some of your own.
  • Depending on the question, the audience may need to clarify their questions. In that case, invite the person who asked the question on the chat to use the microphone and unmute him/her.
  • If there is time remaining and some attendees raised their hand, unmute that participant so he/she can ask his question.
  • Please be mindful of the Q&A time limit. We cannot introduce delays in one talk as it will push others behind.
  • After a question has been addressed, please indicate it is answered and continue with the next.
  • Please collect the unanswered questions, to later provide them to the author.

Ending

  • When the session is scheduled to end, please announce that it is time to wrap up the session. Thank everyone for his or her contribution as a presenter or attendee.
  • To ensure that the next sessions will start on time, we urge you not to go more than 5 minutes overtime. If the discussion is still going on, then you can ask the audience to continue the discussion in the ICCL Lounge Area.