Session Moderation

All sessions will be moderated according to a process agreed upon with members of the OCCUPY BB7 community.

The purpose of this style of Moderation

To put into practice the lessons learned by those at Occupy BB7 and those learned in other Occupies; to practice horizontality by using handsignals and ensuring a democratic exchange of ideas in each session.

Establishing the Practice – Thursday 10 am

At the opening of the conference, Cari and Igor will lead a workshop explaining the key handsignals that should be employed at all discussions throughout the conference.

Roles: There will be a moderator, a time-keeper and a stack-taker at each session.

The order of events at each session is as follows:

Introductions

A moderator introduces herself and asks for a time-keeper.

A time keeper from the audience is found. The moderator introduces the concept of the stack-taker (essentially: a speaker’s list) and asks the attendees to consider whether or not they would be willing to take on the role (the stack taker can be established at this point or after the presentations), then the moderator introduces the speakers (by announcing the title of their talks and the order in which they will speak).

The Presentations

Each speaker has twenty minutes to present their talk. The time keeper and moderator work together to ensure appropriate warnings are given at 15, 17, 19 minutes and that no presentation goes beyond 20 minutes. (A piece of paper with “5 Minutes left,” “3 Minutes,” and “1 minute left” could be used).

The Discussion

In order to encourage horizontality, the methods used during Occupy Assemblies will be employed. The stack-taker will be responsible for taking names down on the list of speakers. The moderator will consult the stack-taker lists.  The handsignals taught by Cari at the opening of the conference will be used in the sessions. We hope to project these hand signals on the backdrop at each session.