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[navelgazer]

What does being a "first respondent" at a conference mean to you? I'm talking back and forth with a much-respected senior colleague in another field about this, and she is too busy to realize that I don't know what this means in her discipline.

So, if you were assigned the position of "first respondent," what would that mean to you? How would you prepare? (I have access to the papers.) It is different from moderating and time keeping.

[watermarkup]

In my MLA field, it means you briefly - I repeat, briefly -

1) Sum up some common feature of the papers on the panel, perhaps trying to put the papers in a slightly broader context; and
2) Make sure that you direct one question at each of the panelists; and
3) Get out of the way so that the audience members can ask the questions they've been waiting an hour to ask.

[glowdart]

In my MLA field, it means you briefly - I repeat, briefly -

1) Sum up some common feature of the papers on the panel, perhaps trying to put the papers in a slightly broader context; and
2) Make sure that you direct one question at each of the panelists; and
3) Get out of the way so that the audience members can ask the questions they've been waiting an hour to ask.

This is my experience, too, although it's just "respondent."


("First respondent" sounds like some emergency services job which requires you to put out fires in the audience's brains caused by the presenters' faulty reasoning and refusal to respect time limits.) 

[navelgazer]

In my MLA field, it means you briefly - I repeat, briefly -

1) Sum up some common feature of the papers on the panel, perhaps trying to put the papers in a slightly broader context; and
2) Make sure that you direct one question at each of the panelists; and
3) Get out of the way so that the audience members can ask the questions they've been waiting an hour to ask.

This is my experience, too, although it's just "respondent."


("First respondent" sounds like some emergency services job which requires you to put out fires in the audience's brains caused by the presenters' faulty reasoning and refusal to respect time limits.) 

Thanks. This is what I've seen as well, but all of this has happened with three days (now two!) notice, I thought/hoped it was something else. I'm still kind of in shock that I replied to a plea for moderators and ended up as a respondent, especially since another in-field person is moderating the panel. Also angry.

[seniorscholar]

Thanks. This is what I've seen as well, but all of this has happened with three days (now two!) notice, I thought/hoped it was something else. I'm still kind of in shock that I replied to a plea for moderators and ended up as a respondent, especially since another in-field person is moderating the panel. Also angry.

Why angry? Moderator isn't worth putting on a c.v.; "first respondent" is (but when I used to put it on mine -- before I had a bunch of big-deal conference presentations -- I believe we all called it "commentator"

This falls in the category of "conference 'presentations' that can be done on the plane, train, or however you're getting there"  -- I hope at least they gave you the papers in advance so you can read them, highlight, jot down notes, and write down one or two good sentences of overview, as well as putting a question at the top of each of the papers.

[totoro]

In my field (social science) we sometimes have "discussants" who give their own presentation critiquing the paper for 5 minutes say.

[alpha_bet]

Funny, I was just logging in to ask an etiquette question about this:

Supposing you're a respondent (first or otherwise).
You've got 6 hands up around the room for questions, and you're noting them down in order, trying to be fair.
Of course, everyone you've noted down to call on knows they're noted down but... they haven't necessarily seen each other, and don't know that when you don't call on them next, it's not because you've forgotten them, but because someone else had a hand up first.
Now, the question: what do you do when your boss (the conference organizer) is #6 on the list, and keeps giving you dirty looks because you're going in strict order, seemingly "skipping" him? :)

[drspouse]

Easy. Before you take the first question say "I see several questions, and I'm going to take them in order".