Session Moderators

Thank You for Volunteering

The ASC 2026 Program Committee sincerely appreciates your willingness to serve as a Session Moderator. Moderators play an important role in ensuring that technical sessions run smoothly and that presenters and attendees have a positive conference experience.

Working as a Moderator Team

Each session is assigned two Session Moderators. Together, moderators help ensure sessions begin and end on time, support presenters, facilitate audience interaction, and complete the required Session Moderator Report.

Moderators are encouraged to work together and divide responsibilities in the manner that best supports their assigned session.

General Responsibilities (All Moderators)

• You may be assigned to either an Oral Session or a Poster Session. Please review the section below that applies to your assignment.
• Become familiar with your assigned session and presenters.
• Contact conference staff if assistance is needed.
• Complete the Session Moderator Report immediately following your session and return it to the Speaker Ready Room following your session (preferably) or at the end of the day of your assigned session(s).

ORAL Session Moderators

Oral Session Moderators help ensure that technical presentations stay on schedule and that sessions run professionally and efficiently.

Before your assigned session, you may check with the staff in the Speaker Ready Room to confirm that all presentations have been submitted and loaded onto the session laptop.

Key Responsibilities

• Arrive at your assigned session 5 to 10 minutes before the scheduled start time to familiarize yourself with lighting controls, computer, laser pointer, slide controls, microphones, and the general layout of the room (viewing angles, doors, noise, etc.).
• Introduce yourself to presenters and confirm pronunciation of names.
• Verify presentation order and timing.
• Begin and end the session on time.
• Announce the title of the session.
• Introduce yourselves and explain the ground rules:
  • Invited orals at 30 minutes = 25 min (warn at 23) + 5 min for questions.
  • Invited orals at 20 minutes = 17 min (warn at 15) + 3 min for questions.
  • Contributed oral = 12 min (warn at 10) + 3 min for questions.
• Introduce speakers (name, affiliation, title).
  • The two moderators can alternate this task.
• Keep presentations within the allotted time.
  • Be polite but firm when enforcing the presentation times: Stand, ask the speaker to conclude. Keep control of the session time!
  • At your discretion, talks may encroach into question time, but then you should defer questions to private discussions.
• Facilitate audience questions or ask your own questions to encourage participation in Q&A from all speakers.
• Every presentation must be exactly as scheduled. If a speaker does not show on time for his/her presentation, the next speaker shall not begin the presentation until the scheduled time. Moderators may fill the time before the next presentation starts by allowing more questions or initiating discussion on the subject of the session.
• PLEASE! Do not let anyone walk away with the laser pointer!

Session Moderator Report (Important)
Oral session moderators are responsible for completing the Session Moderator Report.

• The report will be provided in the session room (typically placed on top of the laptop on the speaker podium).
• Please complete it at the end of your session.
  • Please be sure to provide an estimate the audience size.
• Return the completed report to the drop-off station located in the Speaker Ready Room.

Other Oral Session Information

• Session rooms setup: Speaker stage with podium and microphone, wireless handheld microphone (for Q&A), laptop computer (with pre-loaded presentations), laser pointer, timer.
• Virtual or hybrid format for presentations is not supported.
• PowerPoint tip: F5 will start the presentation, ESC exits.
• Acrobat tip: Ctrl – L will enter full-screen mode, ESC exits.

POSTER Session Moderators

Poster Session Moderators help ensure an organized, accessible, and engaging poster session environment.

Key Responsibilities

• • Arrive at your assigned room at least 5 to 10 minutes before the session begins.
  • Familiarize yourself with the poster locations and assignments.
  • Help attendees locate posters if needed.
  • Encourage discussion with the poster presenter.
  • Walk the session multiple times as in some cases, an author may need to attend to more than one poster and thus might not be present during your first survey.

Session Moderator Report (Important)
Poster session moderators are responsible for completing the Session Moderator Report.

• • Pick up your poster session report(s) from the conference staff in the Speaker Ready Room.
  • Complete it at the end of your session.
  • Return the completed report to the drop-off station located in the Speaker Ready Room.

Poster Presentation Rules

• • • One author must be present for the majority of the poster presentation time slot.
    • Poster presenters with more than one poster at the same time will be instructed to leave a note on their designated poster boards to state when they will be available.
    • Posters that have been mounted but do not have an attendant, or posters that are missing entirely, must be recorded on the Session Moderator Report.