Room Moderator

What Is This Role

This is an attendee-facing position that ensures overall presenter readiness, primarily related to technology and announcing presenters and breaks throughout the day.

Duties

  • Assist presenters with audio and visual equipment
  • Make sure the presenter is present and ready prior to talk
  • Welcome and announce speakers
  • Thank our sponsors
  • Hand out speaker bags (including gifts) on-stage
  • Announce lunch/coffee breaks, etc

Accessibility

  • Requires interacting with people
  • May feature loud sounds/noises/flashes
  • Not wheelchair-friendly

Before The Talk

  • Report to the volunteer reg desk on the mezzanine level. You should pick up the presenter gift bags and a printed schedule for the talks you will be covering. Head over to alloted talk room.
    • Your schedule will indicate which presenters should receive gifts
    • Presenter gift bags will be clearly labeled with Presenter Name, Talk Title, Theatre, Day, Time
  • Make sure the presenter checks in with you 5-10 minutes before their start time. If they haven’t checked in, flag to radioed con staff, i.e. a Safety Ops member or a Staff member.
  • Ask the presenter if they want to be introduced based on their bio in Sched or whether they will intro themselves. Remind folks to submit or upvote questions via the sli.do event.
  • Open the safari browser on your phone and navigate to admin.sli.do. Make sure you are in the correct slido room for the talk. If you are proctoring a panel, please work with the panel moderator on how to use slido.
  • Bring up the presenter’s presentation on the in-room Chromebook. There are 4 format options:

Google Slides Presentations

  • Plug Chromebook in to adapter
  • Set Chromebook external screen to Extend mode (separate screens)
  • Open appropriate presentation in Google Slides from tab in chrome
  • Present with presenter mode
  • Put presenter notes window on chromebook screen, presentation window on extended screen (big screens)

Office 365 Presentation

  • Plug Chromebook in to adapter
  • Set Chromebook external screen to Mirror mode (all screens show same)
  • Open appropriate presentation in Office365 from tab in chrome
  • Present

PDF Presentation

  • Plug Chromebook in to adapter
  • Set Chromebook external screen to Mirror mode (all screens show same)
  • Open appropriate presentation PDF from Drive

Own Device Presentation

  • Unplug Chromebook from adapter
  • Plug speaker device in to adapter
  • The rest is at the presenter’s control

During the talk

  • Give the speaker 10 and 2 minutes warnings for 50 min talks or 5 and 1 min warnings for 25 min talks using the time signs. Hold up the STOP sign when they run out of time. Please note that this is the total time for the talk including Q&A.
  • Please make sure there is no one sitting in the stairs - this is a fire hazard.
  • Make sure to moderate the questions submitted as they come in. They won’t show up on the app until you approve them. Use your best judgment when approving questions - no inappropriate comments, no vulgarity, no attack strings. Here is a short video tutorial on question moderation.

After the talk - Announcements and Presenter Thank You

  • If there is Q&A time left, select the most upvoted or most relevant questions and read them from Sli.do to the speaker. Thank the presenter for the talk.
  • If the presenter chose to receive their gift, give them their presenter gift and a thank you card.
  • Suggested Language: “Thank you for being a presenter at BSidesSF 2023. Here is a small gift to show our appreciation. And thank you to our presenter gift sponsor, Doyensec.”
  • If they chose to donate their gift, give them a thank you card and announce a thank you for donating their gift to charity.
  • Suggested Language: “Thank you for being a presenter at BSidesSF 2023 and choosing to donate your presenter gift to charity. BSidesSF will make a donation on your behalf, and thank you to our presenter gift sponsor, Doyensec.”
  • Make sure to clear slido questions after every talk (Click the ‘Archive All’ button) in the sli.do web page.

If there is additional time, mention any of the following things:

  • “T-shirts can be purchased at coat check and t-shirt sales proceeds go to the charity of your choice!”
  • “There is a raffle you don’t want to miss using the sponsor passport in your reg bag. Visit each sponsor on your sponsor passport to get all your stamps! Submit your sponsor passport by 11:30AM on Saturday or Sunday for a chance to win something in the raffle!”
  • “Does your profile pic on Linkedin feel stale? Why not go upstairs and get it updated with our headshot photographer! Headshots are free!”