High Density Sessions
By Chuck Lubbers, AEJMC Public Relations Division
If you are scheduled to present a paper during a high density session at the upcoming AEJMC meeting, this format may be new to you. Below is the format for a high density sessions. This information provides the basics of the format and attempts to outline the reasons for its use.
Rationale:
The high density format may be thought of as a cross between a traditional paper presentation panel and a poster session. The hybrid allows more individuals to be placed on the panel (thus the name “high density”). The key is that the individual presentations must be SHORT to allow for individual discussion with members of the audience. To insure this, your chair and discussant will be strictly enforcing the timelines discussed below. This format allows the audience members to hear the detail on those research projects that interest them the most.
Format:
Presenters will be given 4 minutes to provide an overview or summary of their paper. This time limit will be strictly enforced. You will be stopped if you exceed the time limit. No questions are taken between presentations. Since you have a short time for presentation, you are encouraged to limit audio-visual and lengthy discussions. Think of this as an executive summary or an extended abstract.
The discussant for the panel will not comment on the individual papers. The discussant’s function is to facilitate discussions between the presenters and the audience members. To achieve this goal, presenters are asked to spread out in the room so that individuals who would like to speak to them may do so. Audience members will then be able to spend some time hearing more about or asking questions about those research presentations that most interest them. To help the audience members find the proper presenter, a sign will be made with your paper title and authors. These will be taped to the walls around the room (or at tables, if available). After all the presentations are over, you must go to the area with your sign.
Presenters should prepare handouts containing outlines, key points, executive summaries, etc. for their study to distribute to the audience members. This one-page handout will help the members of the audience comprehend your brief presentations and select those papers they would like to hear more about. There will be no audio-visual equipment available.
If the guidelines outlined here are followed correctly, there will be nearly 30 minutes for individual discussion. This will allow audience members to get more information on several papers.
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