Guidelines for session conveners

The Programme Committee (PC) will select the sessions making up the ESWW2024 programme from mid to late April. During this time there may be some iterations on the session abstracts with the convenors. Following this, the convenor’s work on the sessions in preparation for ESWW will run in 2 rounds.

Round 1: selection of abstracts for oral presentations, 7th – 26th June 2024.

23rd April
Call opens for oral and poster abstracts

6th June (inclusive)
Deadline for oral abstract submission

18th June (inclusive)
Deadline for convenors to suggest any abstract transfers to other sessions (plenary/parallel)

26th June (inclusive)
Deadline for convenors to provide feedback on their sessions.

Session convenors have the can (optionally) to seek up to one invited abstract (to be submitted by the close of the oral abstract call).The PC will decide on the time slots assigned to each session on the 17th June, based on the number of abstracts a session receives. If a session receives only a few submissions it may be merged with another appropriate session.

Convenors are required to provide the following session feedback:

  • To assign abstracts as oral/poster/decline.
  • To provide a proposed plan for their session, i.e., a suggested list of speakers in order of appearance, duration of talk, and whether they are “invited” or “contributed” abstracts. For information on presentation lengths, please refer to the specific guidelines given below.

Following an EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) review of oral sessions by the PC, the proposed session plans will be approved so that all the abstract submitters can be notified in early July and the ESWW programme subsequently released.

Guidelines for lengths of talks:

  • There are two types of oral presentations: contributed talks lasting 15 minutes, and invited talks lasting 15 or 30 minutes (at the discretion of the convenors, and including time for questions). Invited talks can only be allocated 30 minutes if the session has been granted a total oral time of 90 minutes or more.
  • At the discretion of the convenors, up to 15 minutes of oral time can be allocated to allow for short poster summaries (preferentially for those abstracts requesting an oral but assigned as a poster, and targeting 3 minutes duration each).
  • If one or more speakers withdraw after the programme has been published, convenors should be prepared to employ the corresponding oral time by either reallocating an abstract originally requesting an oral presentation but assigned as a poster, by planning a suitable short discussion that engages the expected audience, or by planning short poster summaries.

Sessions will be hybrid and so participation through oral or poster (or panel discussion for plenary sessions) can be onsite or online.

Round 2: selection of abstracts for remaining poster presentations and appointment of Chairs, 5th-13th September 2024.

4th September (inclusive)
Deadline for poster-only abstract submissions.

10th September (inclusive)
Deadline for convenors to suggest any poster abstract transfers to other sessions (plenary/parallel).

13th September (inclusive)
Deadline for convenors to accept/decline remaining posters submitted after the oral deadline and to assign Chairs.

Following the deadline for poster abstracts, convenors will transfer/accept/decline poster abstracts and will appoint two to four session Chairs per allocated time slot. At least one Chair should be a convenor. At least one Chair will be attending in-person, in Coimbra. At least one Chair will take responsibility to monitor online comments. Different or the same Chairs can be allocated for different time slots.

After the convenor feedback deadline, poster presenters will be notified and the programme will be finalised and released.

How are posters to be organised

(Instructions will be published later in the year)

How to track and review abstracts

(Instructions will be published later in the year)

Additional information for plenary convenors

Anticipated plenary session duration is 90 minutes. Oral presentations are usually 15 minutes in duration (see above guidelines on talk duration). Convenors are welcome to arrange their session as they wish. A plenary session plan could include: a solicited abstract, a panel discussion, short poster overviews. Based on past feedback, successful plenary sessions often took the form of a 5 min introduction, 4*15 minute talks, a 20 minute discussion, concluding with a 5 minute summary.

Convenors have the option to organise a panel discussion as part of their session. If planning a panel discussion, panellists need not have submitted an abstract. All plenary speakers should be unique although they may have a talk in a parallel session. Convenors are advised to directly communicate with panellists in advance of the session to ensure a well-organised discussion.