1. Presentation guidelines for Parallel Oral Presenters:

Content and Duration: Track chairs are responsible for allocating speaker times. Ideally, live presentations should run for a maximum of 10-12 minutes unless arranged differently by the track chairs. While this seems short, the idea is to make a succinct presentation with the main takeaway points which will serve as an introduction to convince the audience to read your paper/case study report. Hence, the focus should be on the most interesting element of your work. It will not be feasible to squeeze in too much information in such a short time. Speakers are requested to strictly adhere to their allocated time slots.  

Audience: Congress participants are expected to include academics, planning practitioners, and policymakers. City leaders and politicians are also invited to speak during the plenary events. 

Presentations: For those using PowerPoint in their presentation, please use the 16:9 slide format and ensure that you provide all relevant references and proper attributions. You may also use the recommended presentation template that we provided on the website. Note that all materials will be accessible online to all registered participants even after the virtual Congress. Therefore, please do not include sensitive information that cannot be shared publicly. 

Presenting Author/Speaker: As in the pre-recorded video guidelines, we request live presenters to keep it to one presenter only. If you have more than one person who would like to present, consider if you can break it into two different topics. For example, one presenter delivers a 4-minute presentation of the methodology, and a second person does the same discussing the outcomes.

During the virtual parallel session, you will be sharing your screen with the audience. Have in mind that your picture-in-picture video window will be also visible on the screen. To make sure your virtual presentation goes smoothly, you must:

•    be online and available 15 minutes before the session.
•    have a reliable and fast internet connection.
•    test your microphone and video camera.
•    test your slides 
•    have a non-distracting environment around you during the presentation.

2. Detailed Zoom Guide for Presenters

Zoom Setup: Please download and install Zoom Client for Meetings onto your device well in advance. We recommend using a computer, laptop or tablet instead of a mobile phone. 

Presentation Tips: To improve your virtual presentation skills, check out the following pages: 

• https://blog.zoom.us/webinar-recording-improve-your-virtual-presentation-skills/
• https://visme.co/blog/zoom-presentation/ 

How to join the session as presenter:

*All registered participants (presenters and regular attendees) will receive an email reminder containing the links to access all meetings the day before the scheduled events and on the day itself. Similarly, these links will be available on each session in the Detailed Programme.

1. Be online and arrive 15 minutes before the session.
2. There are two ways to join a session and you may choose whatever is most convenient for you:

• If you already know exactly which session you are speaking at, you may simply click on the appropriate link in the email you will receive the day before the scheduled event and on the day itself. 
• If you do not know yet which session you are speaking at, you must first log in to your account on the Congress website and find the session you are speaking at the 'My Schedule' or 'Sessions I am speaking at' tabs on your Dashboard. When you click on the session, it will redirect you to that session in the detailed congress programme. The session displays the countdown and fifteen minutes before the session begins, it shows the 'Join on Zoom' button.

During the Session:

1. Each presenter/speaker will be allowed to share a screen during his/her presentation. In case of technical problems with screen sharing, the host/administrator will use the presentation file submitted by the presenting author and take control of the screen for that presenter.  
2. The Session Chairs and the host/administrator will mute all microphones during the entire session, particularly during the presentations
3. Familiarize yourself with the participant controls in the lower corner of the Zoom screen:
4. Using the icons in the lower corner of the Zoom screen, you can:

• Mute/Unmute your microphone (far left)
• Turn on/off camera ("Start/Stop Video")
• View participant list – opens a pop-out screen that includes a "Raise Hand" icon that you may use to raise a virtual hand
• Share your screen (the host/administrator will give you the ability to do so)
• "Rename" - Change your screen name that is seen in the participant list and video window.
• Somewhere on your Zoom screen, you will also see a choice to toggle between the "speaker" and "gallery" view. "Speaker view" shows the active speaker. "Gallery view" tiles all the session participants.

How to ask questions:

• Option 1: Chat You can join the discussion with other attendees by sending messages to "everyone" or you can chat privately with the Session Chairs by selecting their name from the dropdown list. Learn more about the Chat box here.
• Option 2: Q&A Depending on the format of the session (to be determined by the session chairs), participants may pose questions by using the Zoom function "raise hand". The moderator can then announce who is next to speak and the hosts can switch on the microphone and optionally the camera for this person.

Sharing your Screen: The instructions to share your screen when presenting can be found here.

Sharing Computer Sound During Screen Sharing: The instructions to share computer sound (when sharing a video or audio clip) can be found here.

Breaks: In between the time slots of each (virtual) Congress day, there will be a 30-minute break. You may get a snack, stretch, and come back refreshed. 

Zoom Virtual Background: You may use virtual backgrounds as you prefer. You may also download here the official virtual background for the ISOCARP 2021 Congress. Please note that this feature works best with green physical background and in a room with sufficient lighting. Check out the instructions to set up Zoom virtual backgrounds via this link.