Ladies and gentlemen,

 

Thank you very much for your commitment and contribution to the Big Data Technology Warsaw Summit 2023 program. Successful cooperation is crucial for us, therefore please read the following list of rules and information for speakers carefully.

The conference will be held on 10-11 April 2024.

We invite you to participate in the entire conference program, but if you cannot attend, please log in to the conference website at least half an hour before your speech. As speakers, you will automatically be on the list of conference participants.

Parallel roundtables discussions are part of the conference involving all participants. This session has several goals. Firstly, direct exchange of opinions and experiences on a specific issue of interest to a given, limited number of participants.
Secondly, the opportunity to meet and talk with the data roundtable leader - we chose people with extensive knowledge and experience only. Thirdly, this session promotes netwroking - we give the possibility of getting to know each other and building relationships with participants of specific meetings - people who are actually interested in a given topic.

The benefits of joining the roundtables sessions:

• Possibility to introduce more thematic diversity which means more specific topics
• Directly reaching only participants interested in a given, specific topic
• Involvement of participants - they stop being passive listeners, take an active part in the session
• Free format, conducive to interaction and exchange of experiences and building relationships
• In the case of a roundtable by a speaker who has a presentation earlier - the possibility of conducting an in-depth Q&A session for interested listeners
• Participants gain the feeling that they are working on something together (conclusions, recommendations from
roundtables - if we announce it earlier)

You are the leader / moderator of one of these discussions. Below are some helpful notes from Evention's experiences and practices at various conferences where roundtables discussion sessions took place.

General rules:

• All discussions take place simultaneously in individual virtual rooms.
• The duration of one discussion is 40 minutes
• Ideally there should be 6-12 people in one room / discussion
• We encourage moderators to use webcams during discussion pannels
• You are a discussion moderator and topic leader, not a lecturer - it is primarily about interaction with participants
• It is important to engage participants, share your knowledge, resolve doubts

It is good to define the topic of a given table in the form of a title and a list of questions that are the starting point for discussion, showing that there are question marks (certain dilemmas) and things worth talking about.

 

We have prepared a tutorial about discussion moderation for you. We encourage you to look at it:

https://evention.pl/szkolenie-dla-moderatorow-forow-dobrych-praktyk-i-dyskusji-roundtables/

The recording is available in a video version in full (just under 50 minutes) and in pill form (just over 5 minutes), as well as in audio version.

 

Tips for conducting roundtables discussions for the moderator:

1.Each table is an opportunity to scope a 40-minute community - the point is that the participants of a given table feel comfortable and that they are together - this is an important task for the table moderator

2. At the beginning, the moderator / leader "sits" at the table / in the room - so it is important that you appear there first - so that the table would not be without the host

3. For the discussion itself, it is in good practice to define the goal - to which conclusions the roundtable should lead - that is, to lead the discussion in the desired direction where it is necessary, advisable and possible.

4. It is good to have a plan, what subsequent issues / questions should lead to conclusions, so you have to be flexible about reconciling the goal with the real interests participants. It is worth having your own narrative, ready in case of poor involvement of participants, but it usually turns out that the content for the discussion is brought by the participants themselves - you just need to be able to get it out of them.

5. It is a good practice at the beginning to ask the participants to introduce themselves briefly, to know your participant's industry and what level they represent. In addition, the moderator can also ask what the most important topic / issue a given person would like to discuss on the roundtable, why they chose this particular topic (having many other alternatives at his disposal). This will allow you to assess what things are really their priority.

6. It is also valuable to ask the participants tfor their experience on thefield - whether they could possibly share some knowledge

7. If there is only enough time, it is worth asking each of the participants to briefly say what is most important he heard / remembered - what the most important conclusion from the discussion (such a small retrospective).

8. REMEMBER ABOUT TIMING! All the tables end discussions at the same time.

It is important for you to read and understand those rules. For this reason you might be reminded before your session.

In case of any doubts or questions, please contact me:

Joanna Probola
M: +48 48 533 397 633
Email: bdtws@evention.pl