Conference Terminology Toolkit
CONFERENCE
Regular meeting on a representational basis of several hundreds - or even thousands - of individuals belonging to a single professional, cultural, religious or other group. A congress is often convened to discuss a particular subject. Contributions to the presentation and discussion of the subject matter come only from members of the organizing body. Frequency: usually established in advance and can be either multiannual or annual. Most international or world conferences are of the former type while national conferences are more frequently held annually. A conference will often last several days and have several simultaneous sessions.PARALLEL SESSION
Session which has some correspondence, similarity, or analogy of subject and aim and is simultaneous with another session.ROUND TABLE
Group of experts meeting on an equal basis to review and discuss specialized, professional matters, either in closed session or, more frequently, before an audience and with a public discussion with a view to arousing awareness of the issues being debated, or to prompting political, institutional, social or other action.BRAINSTORMING SESSION
Group session in which all participants contribute creative ideas which are not initially judged for merit.POSTER SESSION
Display of material, usually scientific, accompanied by authors or researchers.PLENARY ASSEMBLY
Assembly composed of all the members; fully constituted; fully attended.ONE SLIDE - 5 MINUTES PRESENTATION
The ‘One-slide-five-minutes’ session are held as open ‘café’ sessions where the audience is presented with 10 short interesting presentations.RAP SESSION
Informal session with no specific agenda.CROSS PARALLEL SESSION
A session which is similar to another session involving the exchange of information (cf parallel session).PREPARATORY SESSION
Meeting of a restricted group before the official assembly in order to finalize preparations.Q&A; QUESTION TIME; QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION; OPEN FORUM
Question and answer period.BUZZ SESSION
Method to increase audience participation by dividing all participants in discussion groups each of which reports the group's findings and opinions during a following plenary session.OPENING SESSION
Meeting(s) of a predetermined duration which begin an event and in which the principal items on the agenda are usually introduced.PAPER REVIEW BOARD
Committee which assesses submitted papers to decide which are suitable for presentation and allocates them to appropriate sessions.CHAIRPERSON; CHAIRMAN; CHAIRWOMAN; CHAIR
Person selected to preside over a session or lead a committee.PRESENTER
Person explaining a given topic in an informational session either verbally or in visual form (e.g. poster).VICE-CHAIRMAN
Person selected to deputize for, or assist, the chairman in controlling and managing either a committee or a meeting session.APPLICATION TO PRESENT A POSTER
Form for presentation of a poster for inclusion in a poster session; submitted for assessment and screening by a selection committee.CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
Printed timetable of events at a meeting, including working sessions with locations and the names of speakers, and social events.REFRESHMENT BREAK
Time between sessions when refreshments are served.AUDIO RELAY
Used to overflow from one session hall to another hall with audio onlyTranslations »
SESSION COUNT DOWN SYSTEM
A technology to control the duration of a presentation.CONFERENCE DURATION
The number of days from the opening session to the closing session. Additional days for optional excursions are not included.PLENARY SESSION
Session in which all the members of the meeting participate or have the right and, sometimes, the duty to participate, with no other sessions taking place at the same time.BREAK-OUT SESSIONS
Small group sessions within a meeting organized to discuss specific subjects.WORKING SESSION
Every prearranged session of a meeting.BRIEFING (MEETING/SESSION)
Meeting of a group of people with a particular knowledge or responsibility on an area of activity to advise them of the details of their involvement.BRITES – (BRING YOUR OWN THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCES)
break-out sessionsSmall group sessions within a meeting organized to discuss specific subjects.