Session Leaders in a Traditional Paper Session

The 2020 physical meeting of the Academy of Management scheduled for 7-11 August 2020 in Vancouver has been cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. A 2020 virtual Annual Meeting is in development. Please click here for an update from AOM President Jacqueline Coyle-Shapiro.

For an informational guide used at past phusical Annual Meetings, please download these slides, presented as a PDF file. Information and support, including FAQs, will soon be available for the virtual meeting for 2020.

Your role as a "session leader" in a traditional paper session may be formally defined as Chair or Discussant. Where there is a separate Chair, this person handles introductions and time keeping, and the Discussant guides the content of the session.

Preparing for the Session

• Check for changes to your session.
  • Check the Online Program and the Program Addendum for any updates/changes to your session.
  • Papers will continue to be withdrawn even until the actual sessions take place at the Meeting. Please check periodically for withdrawn papers in your session(s).
• Make sure everyone gets copies of the papers (authors should also get copies of other papers to promote a panel discussion).
• Assist presenters who do not have a laptop or cannot bring a laptop to the meeting by coordinating with the other presenters who do have a laptop. Laptops are required for presentations in a traditional paper session.
• Contact the presenters in advance of the annual meeting to ensure that they are all set for their presentations.
• If there is a Discussant, coordinate to set up debates, themes, puzzles that could be addressed and carried through the session.
• Discuss the session structure and time usage with presenters well in advance.

During the Session

• Don't give the standard boilerplate about time and take up too much time doing it. Tell the presenters the rules before the session.
• Start out with a few words about the subject matter of the session and how each paper will contribute toward exploring that research domain.Create an informal first-name atmosphere in the session to encourage discussion.
• To ensure fairness, session Chairs must shut down presenters who do not conform to the prescribed time limits.