At ICOAS18 (1) I had the honour to chair a session. I wrapped up my findings on an irpml sheet, which I now willingly share with you.
My wrap-up sheet
I use an irpml sheet (2) in order to collect my findings after I have finished one or the other task. It deals with intentions, results, positive, mistakes, and learnings. I adapted the original question for my purpose.
What were my intentions?
- I support the ICOAS team at FIBL.
- I support the lecturers by giving them a good introduction.
- I will be on time so to settle last details before we start.
- There is some duty in this task regarding the Austrian EU presidency.
- I take an active part representing BMNT.
What are my results?
- I have read the abstracts.
- I did some research on the internet about the lecturers and their topics.
- I was interested in the webpages of the presentations and projects.
- I spared 30 minutes to nurture my knowledge about the topics on Youtube.
- I was pretty nervous.
- I sent some tweets #icoas18 in advance.
- While handing over the microphone to one lecturer during the discussion I put my hand on his shoulder so to calm him.
- I was very impressed by the research results presented.
- I enjoyed the conference.
- I was aware of my role.
- I took care of the time.
What went well?
- I settled last details with all lecturers face to face upfront the session, we had a short pre-meeting.
- I contacted the technician and the assistance.
- I publicly thank the assistance and mentioned her name.
- I contacted all lecturers by email and asked them for (A) their CV, (B) any message to be highlighted, (C) any formal title to be used.
- The ICOAS team provided all abstracts to me.
- The ICOAS team supported my preparations by answering all my questions in due time.
- We had a marvellous ambience — the Haydnsaal at Schloß Esterházy, Eisenstadt.
- Before starting I invited participants to take seats in the front part of the Haydnsaal.
- I said farewell to all lecturers, the technician, the assistance by shaking hands.
- I decided ad-hoc to begin the session by entering from behind of the audience.
- I prepared different wordings for audience, like participants, listeners, guests, ladies and gentlemen, researchers, scientists — but did not use all of them.
Which mistakes happened?
- I was not aware that I could have arranged my session in a different setting, e.g. a panel on the stage.
- I forgot to publicly say thank you to the technician.
- I did not remember the assistance’s name after having introduced myself to her.
- I missed to refer to our marvellous ambience during my moderation.
- I was not aware that a stroke of the gong will start the sessions.
What do I learn from that?
- I will introduce all persons involved during my preparation (lecturers, preparatory team, technician, assistance, myself).
- I will take care of names.
- I will ask how the sessions are announced (e.g. gong, bell, music).
- I again could chair a session at one conference next year.
Finally
I finished the book ‘The Leadership Code’ by end of January 2010. Since then I make use of this irpml exercise (2). I do it by myself, at home, at work, I confronted trainees with irpml, I used it at the end of webmeetings via the chat, I applied the irpml matrix to groups.
What have you taken home from ICOAS18?
Whoever uses this #irpml approach might also share their experiences.
XAIPE, SteVe.
2018-11-25
References and further reading
(1) ICOAS18, 6th International Conference on Organic Agriculture Science
(2) Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood und Kate Sweetman, The Leadership Code, Harvard Business Press, 2008, p. 75.
(3) How do I create essences?
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank FIBL and the ICOAS team for inviting me as chair.
About the author
Since more than 20 years Stefan Vetter is an official at BMNT. BMNT is partner in various research funding co-operations (ERA-NET, JPI, EIP, EJP) across Europe.
Source of Picture
Collage ‚ICOAS, an OASIS for Organic Argiculture Sciences‘ and picture by Stefan Vetter.
