Researcher Education and Development Scholarship Conference

Below we publicly share the briefing document we have created for all REDS Conference 2026 session Chairs, in case you can make use of it for your conferences and events.

Pulling together lots of ideas about what has made us feel welcome, included, and ready to be at our best, we produced this guide with the intention of helping Chairs to feel relaxed, prepared, and ready to help their presenters shine!

The REDS Conference operates a Co-Chair system for all conference sessions including the keynotes, panels, reflections and group discussions. We do this to ensure there is back up in case a Chair’s wi-fi fails, or in case of illness on the day, and also to enable you to work together to feel you have a supportive partner in a busy online environment.

To ensure things run smoothly, it is helpful to discuss the ideas below. If you are able to make time for a conversation with your Co-Chair before the event, please do.

Good Chairing takes a session from good to great. Chairs manage the session ensuring timing, orderliness and flow. They also lead the session which requires them to be prepared, visible, and attentive.

The REDS Conference Delivery Team asks you to:

1. Make sure you log in early to get through any Zoom updates or log in problems, ahead of time.

2. Ensure you read our Code of Practice, and consider how you will align with it to make the conference inclusive, accessible and welcoming.

Some ideas for how to do this are below:

A Before the session

Contact the presenters:

• Introduce yourselves and your role so they know what to expect on the day.
• Confirm times and timings with them so they know where, when, and how long to speak for.
• Use this opportunity to confirm names, titles, pronunciations, and pronouns (details can have changed in the months since abstracts were submitted). Please practice name pronunciations ahead of time. Consider that to publicly say, ‘have I pronounced that right?’ to only the people with non-western names constitutes an unwelcome microaggression – yet we hear it done in front of an audience so often.
• To make your presenters look smart and prestigious, prepare a professional fact about each of them. If you like, you could ask them for an interesting fact about themselves for you to use in their intro too.
• Read the abstracts and prepare a way to introduce the presentations without simply reading out the title.

B At the session

Welcome the audience and set the tone:

• Mute those who forget or unmute themselves. Remove repeated interrupters to the waiting room.
• Note to the audience where the applause reaction can be found on Zoom.
• Note explicitly that delegates do not have permission to audio/video record, transcribe, or screenshot presentations unless the presenter explicitly gives them this.
• Note the strict time limits for presenters and that this enables movement between streams with minimal disruption.
• Set the Zoom timer each time, so presenters can see a visual cue of the countdown. If they are not concluding with a minute to go, offer a verbal 1 min warning — e.g. “That’s your signal to wrap up in the next 60seconds”.
• 5min for questions means there will only be time for 2-3. Remind delegates it’s one question per person, not two, not more. Questions can also be put in the Chat – encourage this, as it’s good for presenters to see the engagement with their work and reflect on the questions, even if in they don’t have time to answer them all.
• Remind delegates we are here to appreciate the research being presented. Not to promote our own work. We don’t want to endure the eye rolling that follows ‘it’s more of a comment than a question’ or ‘some work I myself have done is…’.
• Prepare a question for each presentation, as a backup in case it’s a quiet audience. To maximise discussion you could prepare one that the audience can also respond to e.g. “What one thing would you like the delegates here to do with the ideas you have presented today?” Or “What do you think are the obvious next steps for this work?”.
• At time, close the questions down. Note that unless the presenter invites further discussion, it’s additional and unexpected volunteered work to give personal replies to chat comments or emails after the session.
• Thank presenters and delegates.

Handy phrases to deescalate conflict (this has have never been needed at the REDS Conference, but just in case):

“Some of the ideas you have presented have clearly had an emotional/controversial impact on the audience. I’m sure you will reflect on that learning later, for now we won’t focus on that point anymore.”

“I want to draw your eye to phrasing in the REDS Code of Practice that you have agreed to, where it says…

or

“We expect cooperation from all participants to help ensure a safe, supportive and welcoming environment”

or

“A reminder of the standards we expect as per the REDS Code of Practice: you can make sure you are playing your part to create a welcoming and inclusive space by using the correct personal pronouns, learning and pronouncing names correctly, using respectful and affirming language when discussing difference or differences of opinion…”

or

“As we note in our Code of Practice we expect our event to be a bullying-free and harassment-free experience for everyone…”

and

“…And because of that I will close down that line of discussion and move to the next question.”

• If needed, remove those who don’t comply with the request to abide by Code of Practice to the waiting room. (Note, we have never had to use this option).
• Refer any questions or issues about / criticisms of the Code of Practice or others’ conduct to the REDS inbox (redsconference@glasgow.ac.uk), which will be constantly monitored throughout the conference.

C After the session

• If anything undesirable, has happened, please inform the REDS Delivery Team ASAP on redsconference@glasgow.ac.uk
• If anything brilliant happened, please post it on your LinkedIn (or other social account) with the hashtag #REDSConference2026 and tag us the REDS Conference account.
• Relax, you did a great job!