Seminar organization checklist

ILRI seminars

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Checklist: organize a Livestock Live Talks seminar

The following checklist will help you (and the seminar task force) think about all the important elements to prepare these events. Livestock Live Talks are all about interactive sessions (20 min presentation, 40 min interaction), but you can organise the session in different way and e.g. involve a panel of two or more people.

Preparation and promotion

Six weeks before the seminar takes place:

• Inform the task force (send an email to Silvia at [s.silvestri@cgiar.org]to register your idea) about:

your idea - making sure it follows Livestock Live Talks principles; possible timing (month, day, time) - mind that we preferably organize these seminars every last Wednesday of the month between 3 and 4pm EAT; speaker(s) name(s) - please make sure that the speaker has demonstrated ability to give powerful performances, not just any regular scientific presentation. To do this you might want to ask the following questions to whoever is advising a speaker: * Who is saying that s/he’s a good speaker (has that person also proven their worth at public * What criteria do they give to show that they’re * Have they received public praise from external sources about their ability at public speaking? preference for lecture or interactive seminar; your possible ideas for how the Q&A or interactive conversation could be facilitated (if you don't have any we can help you with this); relevant people to invite to attend this seminar who will be the 'presenter attendant(s)', ideally one scientist and one communication expert, to make sure the presentation is good, clear, accessible, tested etc. who will be in charge of the logistics for this seminar

Five weeks before the seminar takes place:

• Once agreed with the task force, make sure that the event is on the 'events at ILRI' (and possibly 'events by ILRI') Google calendar(s);
• Prepare a short flyer to announce the seminar, following this template (save the file as a JPG, not a PPT file). This flyer is due to be sent with the email and Yammer invitation;
• Contact the IT team to make a test with all ILRI offices that confirmed their participation;

Four weeks before the seminar takes place:

• Develop a presentation following the ILRI Powerpoint Template (if you are planning to use a presentation) and share it with the task force for review. That presentation should use a font size of 36 to 40 for optimal display, and preferably use a sans-serif font (e.g. not Times New Roman);
• Announce the event at a morning coffee (Nairobi) or coffee morning (Addis);
• Prepare an invitation letter (see template below) and share it with the task force (Susan MacMillan at [s.macmillan@cgiar.org]);

Three weeks before the seminar takes place:

• Organize a draft run of your presentation to get feedback about your presentation and style, involving another scientist and a communication expert that can ensure your presentation is accessible for lay audiences;
• Incorporate feedback from the task force and your dry-run audience to improve your presentation;
• Contact separately the other ILRI offices to find out if they are planning to participate or not;
• Send the invitation by email including the link to the blog post and the flyer (if it's not too large)

Two weeks before the seminar takes place:

• Make sure the event is also posted on Yammer with relevant links to the relevant page on this wiki for more information about the session;
• Re-announce the event at a morning coffee (Nairobi) or coffee morning (Addis);
• Ask all new speakers to watch/listen/read about at least 2 of the previous seminars so they have a good idea of what to plan for.

In the week preceding the seminar:

• At latest now, share your presentation for feedback by a scientist and a communication expert - this is really crucial to ensure the presentation is interesting, understandable and well structured, and that you/the speaker have/has a good command of it;
• Set up the ICT test with the IT teams in Nairobi and Addis to ensure that the connection is good enough and communicate with both IT teams who is speaking, introducing the speaker and moderating the Q&A/interactive session (sometimes the person introducing is also moderating)
• Send a reminder email on the day of the seminar
• Prepare sufficient copies of the attendance form for the audience to sign up and enter their contact information. Download this Microsoft Word template, edit the details in the header (title, name of speaker, date, venue) then save the file and photocopy enough sheets.

Before the start of the seminar:

• Circulate the attendance sheets for members of the audience to sign up.
• Make sure that the microphone works (get in-situ IT team to test it with the speaker).
• Use lapel microphones to speak;
• Make sure the pointer works or use the mouse to show graphs (so that people connected via WebEx can follow the pointing);
• Make sure the speaker and questioners are facing the camera (and can thus be seen from other -online- locations);

During the seminar:

• If the speaker is not well known by the ILRI audience, start the seminar by asking the speaker a few questions about himself/herself, to give the audience some personal details, provide some context, add depth;
• During the presentation, hold signs with '5 minutes left' and '2 minutes left' to ensure that presenters do not exceed the time they have at hand;
• At the end of the seminar, close properly with a short summary / closing remarks, some explanations about what will happen next (documentation and next seminar) and thank the presenter and all organizers + participants attending.

After the seminar:

• Collect the filled attendance sheets and follow up by email those who indicated their interest in being added to the mailing list.
• See 'documentation and other follow-up' below

Facilitation

• Check with Silvia Silvestri (if in Nairobi) or with Ewen Le Borgne (if in Addis) to organize the facilitation of your session. If you are based outside of Addis/Nairobi, please contact Ewen at [e.leborgne@cgiar.org].
• Think about one or two questions that you/the presenter might want to engage the audience around.

Documentation and other follow-up

• Contact Susan MacMillan ([s.macmillan@cgiar.org]) to discuss the kind of blog post that could be appropriate.
• Share your Powerpoint presentation (or discuss copyrights) with Susan MacMillan ([s.macmillan@cgiar.org]) to make sure that it is posted on the ILRI slideshare account for further reference.
• (optional) Prepare a draft text for the blog post if you want to reflect about it yourself and share it with Susan MacMillan.
• Ensure that the PPT presentation is embedded in the blog post.
• Be prepared to be interviewed by the team in Nairobi or in Addis to collect your views on the seminar and for inclusion in the blog post.
• Prepare a SurveyMonkey survey, copying the latest survey to build this new one.
• Make sure that an email is sent to all ILRI staff and seminar participants with the link to the blog post and a link to the survey to gather feedback about it.

Templates you can use

Invitation letter:

Dear Sir, Madam,

ILRI is organizing a seminar on the topic of 'TOPIC' on DD MM YYYY at VENUE. We believe your attendance would be very valuable for this lively interactive event. Would you please be so kind to inform us if you are planning not to attend. You will find more information about this seminar in the attached flyer and on the following wiki page: LINK TO ADD HERE.

Looking forward to seeing you join us at the seminar! With kind regards,

The ILRI seminar task force

Email reminder:

Dear Sir, Madam,

We would like to hereby remind you that the seminar on the topic of 'TOPIC' will be held on DD MM YYYY at VENUE. We are greatly anticipating your attendance at this one-hour event.

With kind regards, The ILRI seminar task force