Creating Sessions (Single and Parallel), Oral and Poster

Contact: Maria A. Power (Argonne National Laboratory Physics Division)

Creating Sessions

This page will give an overview of sessions in SPMS and how to create them.

What are Sessions?

Sessions are parts of the conference program that take place

• on a date
• at a time
• in a place
• with a content (type of presentation: invited oral, contributed oral, poster, etc.)

Sessions

The data entered into the screen

Scientific Program Administration | Sessions

is used to build session codes, which are the first part of the program codes (program codes are session codes plus a sequence number). Program codes are unique identifiers of contributions to the conference program.

Program Codes

Program codes help participants to understand the scheduling of contributions to the conference program. They are used to identify the files of contributions uploaded and downloaded to the proceedings via the upload/download scripts.

• They should be meaningful
• Use the minimal number of characters needed, (maximum of 10)
• Avoid the use of the letter O followed by the number 0

Eg. MOPO035 vs. MOP035 vs. MOP35 or even MP35

First Steps

Before creating sessions, it is necessary to have entered data into two other screens:

• Scientific Program Administration | Presentation Type (Sessions)
• Scientific Program Administration | Location Codes

More about presentation types (contribution and session) and location codes.

With the presentation type and the location, it is possible to build the session codes, which constitute the first part of the program codes.

Sessions Name

In the sessions screen:

• Enter the Session Name

This is typically a 2-4 character name that indicates:

• Day (MO, TU, WE, TH, FR, SA, SU)
• Session Type, Location, and/or timing

????Entering this information will gradually build a program code in the top field "Session". Assigning a digit to session code for each contribution will result in unique program codes for each contribution.

Creating Sessions Attributes

• select the presentation type
• select the day - the days of the week are visible in a popup list
• enter a start time
• enter an end time
• enter a title - the title of the session, entered manually, can be related to the content, for example, simply using a description such as: "Opening Plenary Session", or "Awards Session", or using the topic, for example, "Session on Technology", etc.
• select the location
• enter a sort order for the place of the session in the overall conference program.

Sort the Sessions within the Conference Schedule

Sorting the sessions within the conference schedule is used for the production of reports, the program booklet, abstracts brochure, etc.

Before entering the sort order mentioned above, it is useful to have a table of the conference schedule in hand when creating sessions. Number the sessions in the order in which the sessions should appear in the program throughout the duration of the event. Use digits such as 10, 20, 30 etc., which leave space if new sessions are added later.

Sorting the Sessions (cont.)

Begin numbering from the beginning of the conference, session by session throughout the day, followed by the next day, etc. For parallel sessions, it is usual to sort the sessions by location numbering all presentations in one hall, morning and afternoon, followed by the parallel session in a different location, morning and afternoon.

References

http://www.jacow.org/Editors/CreatingSessions http://www.jacow.org/Editors/SessionCodes http://www.jacow.org/Editors/PresentationTypeContributions http://www.jacow.org/Editors/PresentationTypeSessions