Royal Geographical Society - Conference session formats

This page has additional guidance for session organisers on potential session formats (in-person, hybrid, or online) and session types (papers, panel, workshop, etc.)

Session formats and ways to participate

Conference sessions may be in-person, hybrid, or online. When submitting your session proposal you will be asked to indicate how you and your contributors plan to participate (including 'unsure' as options).

Our suggested rubric is as follows:

In-person sessions - presenters and chair will all attend in person at Newcastle University
Hybrid sessions - at least three of the presenters and the chair will attend in person
Online sessions - presenters and chair will all take part online

Resources mean we will not be able to deliver 'fully’ hybrid across the whole event (i.e. synchronous equivalence of experience of delegates online and in-person). If you would like to apply for a hybrid format for your session, please give as many details as possible on the session proposal form about specifically what you would like to do (e.g. one remote presenter joining an in-person session using Zoom). There are more potential suggested formats below.

Given available resource, we cannot guarantee to accommodate all requests, particularly for hybrid options. Please note that if the majority of the presenters in a live session are online, the session will likely be scheduled online. To access the session proposal form, please see our guidance for session organisers.

Chair's plenary lectures and journal-sponsored lectures

Live in-person, livestreamed to virtual platform (recorded and subsequently uploaded); facility to submit questions live using online tool or platform
Journals and other sponsors wishing to organise livestreamed lectures at the conference should please contact ac2022@rgs.org now to discuss.

Organised and open sessions

Live/synchronous

Live and in-person only: people in a room, not recorded.
Live in-person, also recorded (using Panopto): recording uploaded to the virtual platform to watch on-demand (asynchronous catch-up).
Live hybrid: presenters in-person and online; audience in person and online, with online attendees and presenters joining via a Zoom virtual session. It is likely that there will be a very limited number of slots for this option given availability of suitable rooms, kit, and technical support.
Live hybrid: presenters in-person with attendees online (joining through a Zoom virtual session) and able to ask questions through an online platform. This model will be 'low production values'.
Live online: all happens in virtual room, accessed through Zoom as the virtual platform, with live presentations. We are also working on options to ensure there are physical spaces on the conference site where those attending in-person can sit to join virtual sessions.

Asynchronous

Uploading supplementary content to virtual platform, including recorded presentations
Upload of recorded sessions to watch on catch-up demand
Use of asynchronous Q&A function to comment on both of these

Satellite events

There are also opportunities to hold satellite events before and after the conference. We expect the majority of our Research Group AGMs to be held online as satellite events again this year. If you have a sufficiently strong response to your call for papers (enough for a day's set of sessions), we may ask you to develop this as a satellite event outside the main conference programme.

Session types

We would like to encourage a wide range of session types at the conference, including papers; panels; discussions or workshops; community building and networking; social events; digital shorts; and posters.

The below guides were previously developed by the conference organisers and the Participatory Geographies Research Group (PyGyRG).

Session organisers are not limited to the suggestions described below when proposing their session for conference, but the suggested session formats are designed to:

Encourage a wide range of contributions and the active involvement of a wide range of people
Address the heightened importance of impact and engagement, including the place of research in society
Be suitable for a range of outputs and follow-up activities, from book and journal publications to blogs and practitioner interventions

All session organisers are encouraged to explore these options and/or develop their own, in discussion with RGS-IBG and their Research Groups. If you have an idea for another session format you think would work well, let us know!

Papers session

Hints and tips for planning a session of conference papers, ranging from a keynote presentation to 15-minute research papers and 5-minute interactive short papers:

Read session format guidance

Panel session

Suggested formats and tips for session chairs about organising and facilitating a panel discussion session:

Read session format guidance

Split session

Advice on preparing a session occupying two timeslots, combining a more traditional papers session with a second session of an interactive format (for example World Cafe, roundtable, etc.):

Read session format guidance

World cafe

Advice and tips for organising a session that mimics a cafe environment, encouraging sustained discussion and conversation between participants across a range of topics:

Read session format guidance

Roundtable

Recommendations for a session format that encourages audience participation from the outset, focusing on a central theme or topic, with either expert-led or audience-led discussion:

Read session format guidance

Work in progress

Advice and hints for a session format that allows participants to workshop a piece of work in progress with small groups of session participants, working towards the completion of the work, especially if there is a question or challenge to address:

Read session format guidance

Speed networking: making research connections

Suggestions for an innovative and fun session in which participants discuss a challenge, question or topic 1:1 with a new partner every five minutes, before encouraging more in-depth discussion in small groups or in a roundtable format:

Read session format guidance