Guidelines

Code of Conduct

We expect all participants to behave respectfully, to comply with our anti-sexual harassment policy, and to raise concerns with the ICON•S Anti-Sexual Harassment Officer (Ruth Rubio Marín) or in other cases of concern with the ICON•S Secretariat.

Online Conferencing Etiquette

Mute your microphone any time you are not actively speaking.
Avoid noisy activities like typing while your microphone is on.
Turn off your camera if you need to take care of business outside of the meeting.
If you are chairing a panel and need to step away from your computer, please communicate privately with the meeting host. Notify the host when you return.

Suggestions

It is preferable to have lighting coming from in front of you or from the side rather than directly behind you.
Keep your background clear of distractions or use a sober virtual background. Sit or stand somewhere with a neutral background (or use a virtual background).
Remember to look at your webcam during your presentation and use the gestures and mannerisms you would typically use in person.

Here you can download our virtual zoom backgrounds:
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Speakers

Stick to the time limit for your presentation, usually around 10 minutes, depending on the number of speakers on your panel.

Focus on conveying your main ideas or arguments and what they contribute to the literature. You do not have to go into all details, but can leave some things for the Q&A portion of the panel.

Consider connecting your ideas to the other presentations on the panel if feasible – it usually makes for a better subsequent discussion.

Consider asking for feedback on specific points, take notes and think about what you might ask your co-panelists.

For further inspiration, please have a look at Joseph Weiler, On My Way Out – Advice to Young Scholars I: Presenting a Paper in an International (and National) Conference, Sept. 2015, available here.

Chairs

If you have not chaired a panel before and even if you have, please take a brief look at our guidelines for chairing. Thank you for your service and enjoy your session!

Before your session starts, we recommend that you send presenters of the panel you will be chairing an email in advance. In this email, you introduce yourself, provide the subject of the panel, suggest the speaking order, and set the length of time for speaker presentations.

Please inform the presenters that virtual backgrounds may be used to conceal personal spaces at home. There are specific hardware requirements, which can be accessed here. The virtual background works best with a green screen and uniform lighting.

During the session, please remember to:

Panel Structure

Communicate panel structure so your participants know what to expect from the meeting:

Introduce yourself: Say your full name the first time you begin speaking.
Introduce the subject of the panel.
Identify and introduce the speakers on your panel (you may refer the program as it includes names and institutional affiliations).

Ground Rules

After starting and before opening the meeting to attendees, remind the presenters and participants of the ground rules:

Inform the participants of the duration of the panel
Inform the participants about the speaking order for the panel.
Remind participants of online panels to mute their microphones when others are presenting or speaking.
Communicate your expectations on whether participants of online panels should have their video on.
Let participants know how they can get your attention or engage during the meeting (Enter questions in chat / Use Raise Hand)

Conduct your Panel

Inform the participants how you will conduct your panel:

Each presenter / discussant should be given roughly 10 minutes to deliver their remarks.
Co-authors should share their time. (Adjust the timing to the number of speakers.)
Inform the presenters about using the “share screen” option, if the panel is online.
Inform the participants about the time reserved for questions, comments, remarks, and discussion.
Close the panel on time.

Lead the Q&A

After the presentations, invite participants to use the hand-raising function/chat for questions, comments, remarks, and discussion. (Build a queue)

Take one or more questions at a time.
If there are no questions, start with your own questions.
Monitor the chat for conversation while you lead the meeting.

Interest Groups and Fora

ICON•S aims to encourage many different forms of collaboration and exchange among members, and the broader global public law community.

Interest groups and fora gather a core group of ICON•S members and interested attendees for discussion on a broad topic. Topics can be either fields of research and substantive issues, with a universal or regional focus, or they may relate to academia more broadly, for example the role of gender in academic publishing.

However, while fora are intended to enable discussion around a topic of general interest at the conference, interest groups are intended to enable academic cooperation and debate around a topic in the longer run and thus beyond the annual conference. Fora may serve to discuss concrete publications plans within a pre-assembled team, interest groups will typically go beyond one individual project. Both formats are open to all to attend.

Attending an Interest Group

Attendees interested in attending the group session should contact the conveners. All attendees are welcome to attend any interest group.

Timing

Interest group sessions should last no longer than 90 minutes. Conveners are asked to also consider Zoom fatigue when organizing their group meeting.

Conduct your Panel

While conveners are free to organize the group session in detail as they wish, it is suggested that each interest group address the following topics during the 90 minutes allocated to each interest group:

Brief introductions of members and their research interests (preferably by posting in the zoom chat) which leaves enough time for extended discussions with attendees (consider utilizing breakout rooms or the chat feature to involve attendees).
Discussion of 3-5 key topics that are worthy of further research or discussion in the relevant sub-field. Note, however, that the working groups are not the place for extended presentations; these should take place in panels.
Suggestions for further plans by the group between ICON•S Wroclaw in 2022 and ICON•S Wellington in 2023, such as establishing an academic network, a call to action, research collaboration or academic publications.

Helpdesk

Need help? We’ll be happy to answer your questions and provide assistance during the Conference, regardless of whether you participate in-person or online.

You can reach us via email at
icons@icon-society.org or look for us in the premises of the University where the conference will take place.

Our e-mail address will be monitored regularly throughout the conference-and especially during the online parallel panel sessions, but we may not always be able to provide an immediate reply. Please be patient and we will address your concern or query as quickly as we are able.

We thank you in advance for your understanding!

Please also consider the following points:

In order to access the online events of the ICON•S 2022 Conference, you must first log in with your ICON•S account. You will then be able to join events directly from the Conference program. If you do not have an ICON•S account yet, you can set one up here.
Online events will be held via Zoom. To facilitate a better experience, we recommend that you download and install the software in advance.
For issues relating to Zoom, please access the help centre in your preferred language: English / Español / Français / Português
For issues relating to internet connectivity, please speak directly with your internet service provider or organization’s IT department.

n.b. To facilitate a better experience at ICON•S, we recommend you download and install Zoom in advance.