Online sessions

An online session is live. It runs at a set time, wherever you are, and you join the session rather than the individual paper — which is the one thing worth knowing before the day.

Finding the online schedule

Set the mode dropdown at the top of the Schedule tab to Online. It behaves like the on-site programme in every respect: day chips above the list, and a day, a time and a room on every card.

Every time you see is the conference’s local time. The schedule is not converted to yours — a session at 2:15 PM is 2:15 PM where the conference is, whatever your clock says.

The times are somebody else’s

The conference’s time zone is printed once, in the event header beside the dates. Everything in the programme is in that zone, and nothing converts to yours.

  • Find the offset in the event header — it is written once and applies to every time you will see
  • Convert what you starred, not the whole conference. My program is a handful of sessions; the programme is hundreds
  • Put them in your own calendar, with your own reminders

Your calendar is the only alarm you are going to get. Nothing on the platform knows what time it is where you are.

You join a session, not a paper

Presentations are grouped into containers — three or four papers running one after another under a session name. The joining link belongs to the container, not to the papers inside it.

  • Click the session in the schedule — the block with the name and the full time span, not the title beneath it
  • The link is in Container details, the panel that opens on the right
  • If you only want the third paper, you still come in by the same door, at the container’s start time

This is the commonest way to be locked out of a session you are registered for: looking for a link on the presentation you marked, and finding none.

If you cannot be there

A hybrid conference runs across every time zone there is and nobody is awake for all of it. Two things outlast the live hour.

  • The digital media. Every accepted contribution must have media, an online one included. It sits on the presentation page and stays up permanently
  • The discussion board. One per presentation, open from the day before the conference and never closed. A question asked a fortnight later still reaches the presenter

Live is the only part that expires. What was said in the room is gone; the work, and the conversation about it, are not.

Frequently Asked Questions

There is no link on the presentation I marked

There will not be. The joining link belongs to the container — the session that holds it. Click the session block in the schedule and look in Container details.

What time is that where I am?

You have to work it out. Times are shown in the conference’s zone and are not converted to yours — the offset is in the event header beside the dates. Convert the sessions you have starred and put them in your own calendar.

I missed it

The presentation page is still there. Every accepted contribution has digital media, it stays up permanently, and the discussion board is still open.

Is an online session recorded?

What is guaranteed is the presenter’s own digital media on the presentation page. Whether the live session itself is separately recorded is up to the conference.

Can I ask a question afterwards?

Yes — on that presentation’s discussion board. The presenter gets a notification and an email, however long afterwards it is.

Do I need to register for an online conference?

Yes. The program, the media, and the boards all sit behind a registration, and there is an Online option on the Registrations tab.