Session Chairs

Thank you for serving as a Session Chair at ECCB 2026. Your contribution is essential to ensuring that sessions run smoothly and on time.

This page provides general information for all Session Chairs. In addition, each Session Chair will receive by email a summary of their assigned session(s), including the programme, running order, speaker details and timing.

Before your session   

• Please arrive 15 minutes before the start of your session.
• Presenters have been asked to arrive 10 minutes before the start ot the session. 
• Upon arrival, you will be welcomed by:
  • one Session Manager
  • two Volunteers

They will assist with:

• confirming that all speakers (and your co-Session Chair) are present;
• checking that presentations have been uploaded;
• coordinating practical and technical matters.

Session format

Each parallel session is 60 minutes long and includes three oral presentations, comprising a mix of Proceedings (P) and Highlight (H) talks. All talks have the same format, which is: 

• Presentation: 15 minutes
• Q&A: 3 minutes

The two Session Chairs are free to divide responsibilities as they wish—for example, one chair may introduce the speakers while the other moderates the discussion (and you may switch roles for different sessions). Speaker introductions should be kept short, due to timing constraints (strict maximum: 1 minute per speaker). 

Important: please keep time strictly (see schedule below). Your role in ensuring that sessions run on time will be crucial for the good running of the conference. Indeed, multiple sessions will be running in parallel, and some attendees will want to switch between sessions. Thank you very much in advance!  

To help you with time keeping, a timer will be available and will run for each talk and Q&A session. 

Session schedule

Time	Activity
3 min	Welcome participants, introduce the session and first speaker (mention the ★ Best Proceedings Paper of the scientific area if applicable).
18 min	Talk 1 (15 min presentation + 3 min Q&A)
1 min	Introduce the next speaker
18 min	Talk 2 (15 min presentation + 3 min Q&A)
1 min	Introduce the next speaker
18 min	Talk 3 (15 min presentation + 3 min Q&A)
1 min	Thank speakers and audience, and refer to the slide announcing the next programme item

Conference rooms

Parallel sessions take place in Rooms AD, BC and EF.  There is one exception: on Monday 31 August, the Biodiversity session will take place in Room 8. During 

Rooms EF and 8 have designated overflow spaces: if either room reaches capacity, volunteers will direct additional attendees to an overflow room where the session will be streamed live.

	Room capacity	Overflow Monday	Overflow Tues- Wedn
AD	1388
BC	456
EF	280	Room 1 and 2 (100 pax ) , room 3 (35 pax)	Room 8 (90)
Room 8	90	Foyer infirmerie (via Teams) - 100 pax

Room equipment

All session rooms are equipped with:

• Presenter screen/monitor (displaying the speaker’s slides)
• Integrated microphones
• Presentation clicker and lectern
• Countdown timer