Guidelines and Resources:
Conference Dinner Sessions
Conference Environment
The number one thing to keep in mind is that Lilly is a very friendly conference. It is a supportive community of teacher-scholars who share your passion for teaching and learning. Lilly participants look forward to hearing what you have to say and to participating actively in your session. They will be willing to provide constructive feedback that you can use in your teaching and scholarship. So have fun with your session.
Dinner Session Format
The Conference dinner session is a new format for 2007 in which you conduct your session during either the Friday night or Saturday night Conference dinner time period at a round table with a group of six or seven participants who have preregistered for your session. Dinner presenters then may eat dinner together afterwards.
It will get a bit noisy in the room because there will be six or seven other simultaneous sessions, so you will need to speak loudly and slowly enough for participants to hear you.
Timing
Please plan your presentation to fit into the time allowed (60 minutes). Practice to be sure your timing is accurate. If, as often happens, participants wish to continue discussing your topic with you at the end of the dinner hour, invite them outside and find a convenient place to talk so that the next session can begin on time.
Audience and Presentation Tips
Your primary audience members are college and university faculty from throughout the United States and internationally. Although they will respect you as the authority on the issue you are presenting, they will also appreciate very much the opportunity to share and participate. Thus, design your session to include participants through some type of dialogue or activity. If you use PowerPoint or other media (see Technology, below), keep the slide text to a minimum and use the time to elaborate on the slide. Only in very rare circumstances should you read your slides to participants, for instance, a powerful quotation that is key to your discussion.
Arrive at the room at least 5 minutes before you are scheduled to begin to allow yourself time to check the equipment and get your materials in order.
Plan to leave the last 5-10 minutes of your session for questions. You may wish to brainstorm possible questions that might arise during the question-and-answer period and practice answers to those questions. Have a watch or clock so you are sure to stop yourself in time to answer questions. Paraphrase all questions asked to ensure both you and other audience members heard them correctly. Answer questions clearly and concisely and avoid rambling. Remember to speak to the entire audience, not just the person who asked the question.
Do not be afraid to let the group know if you don’t know the answer to a question. It might work to ask if anyone in the group has a good answer to the question, or simply note it is a great question and you will need to look into that issue.
Technology
Because of the format, technology use for this session is limited. You may bring a laptop (it must run on battery power; there will be no A/C access) and handouts. Upon your request we will provide a flipchart. Presenters must supply their own laptops.
Attendance
Dinner session attendance is on a first-come, first-served basis and is limited to seven. You may wish to bring extra handouts for those who are unable to attend your session. Take leftover handouts to the registration desk, where we will have a place for individuals who missed your session to pick them up.
If you have any questions regarding this session format, please let us know as soon as possible (wentzegw@muohio.edu).