Talkmeister

Role of the talk coordinater (aka "Talkmeister")

We need volunteers to help coordinate the talk in each room.

Your job as a talk coordinator, named "Talkmeister" will be basic logistics:

• make sure you can find the speaker(s)
• greet them nicely, let them know how you'll be helping.
• tell them when the event starts and stops
• help them with the microphone/video setup, if needed
• provide water for the speaker to drink
• help the video team
  • the video team usually have a "room coordinator" (or Director) in each talkroom, who make sure videoteam are there, etc..
  • make sure the speaker and the video team is ready before starting the talk
• make sure the speaker knows when the talk starts and stops!
  • all talks are 45 minutes long
  • talks stop 15 minutes before the next talk begins
  • at the start of the session, clearly announce the topic of the session, and (briefly!) introduce the speaker.
  • give the speaker an indication when 10 minutes, 5 minutes, and 1 minute remain in their talk.
  • stop them when their talk is up!
• during discussion/Q&A, run microphones for questions from audience, if needed.

How to volunteer

Volunteer organization might be a bit different for each DebConf. But the conference management system (penta) is used to coordinate the talkmeister role. Please sign up there:

• Penta volunteer scheduleing (pick the role "Talkmeister")

If you're willing to volunteer to coordinate multiple talks (please do!), then please try to sign up for several talks contiguously. e.g. pick a talk room, and coordinate every talk in that room before (or after) lunch.

Videoteam vs. Talkmeister roles

<h01ger> i totally see benefits in having this seperated, and vice versa
<tiago> h01ger, not sure, I can call for volunteers and assign them, but not monitoring, that'd take me the whole conference....
<h01ger> i dont think talkmaster needs much monitoring / i do think thats monitoring the videoteam room coordinator can do: ask for a talkmaster if none is there
<tiago> so I suggest that we consider talkmeister as a different role, and use video room coordinator to assume in case talkmeister fails to show up
<h01ger> so we keep it seperated but videoteam helps to make sure this role is occupied?!
<tiago> perfect
<h01ger> indeed