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The week prior to the talk, the Zoom host, MIT faculty host, and the guest speaker will do a practice run on the following set-up:
Set-up
The Zoom host, MIT faculty host, and the guest speaker will convene prior to when the seminar commences. All will be sure to turn off their calendar, phone, and email notifications to avoid sound disruption. It should be established during the set-up between the Speaker and the Faculty Host during the initial setup whether the MIT Faculty Host would like to be shown at the end of the talk when posing the chat questions to the Speaker, or if the spotlight should remain on the speaker for the remainder of the talk.
Talk Commencement, Screen Hand-off
The Zoom Host will provide an optional virtual background to the MIT Faculty Host and to the Speaker. This will be visible until the MIT faculty enters to introduce the speaker. The Zoom Host will black off his/her camera and change the virtual screen to a welcome screen showing the title of the talk and the Speaker's name, title and university/organization. He/she will be muted throughout the event (but not during the pretalk pre-talk set-up).)
At the beginning of the talk, the Zoom Host will put the spotlight onto the MIT Faculty Host, who will then introduce the speaker. S/he should also mention that questions posed throughout the talk in the chat will be posed after the talk. After his/her introduction, the Faculty Host will move the spotlight to the Speaker who will begin his/her talk.
Talk Duration to the End of Talk
Throughout the talk, the Zoom Host will manage chat hecklers, either disabling their chat or putting them in the Zoom naughty chair (the waiting room). The Zoom Host will also copy/past questions from the chat to send to the Faculty Host (or designated postdoc). Depending on the prescribed agreement between the MIT Faculty Host and the Speaker as to whose screen should remain visible, the Speaker and the host may hand over the spotlight to one another.
The MIT Faculty Host (or designated postdoc) will field the questions to pose at the end of the talk. The talk should be ideally about an hour, with fifteen minutes of Q&A, but should the talk run over that time, the questions that the MIT Faculty Host deems as best should be posed first. The Zoom Host will monitor the remaining time and will send alerts at ten, five, and the each remaining subsequent time minute markers. At the end of the talk and Q&A, the MIT Faculty Host will thank the speaker, thank the audience for attending, and bestow salutations for the close of the event. After salutations, the Zoom Host will end the meeting for all.
After adjusting the aforementioned settings in Zoom Preferences and in Zoom, share a background screen with the MIT will The background screen (if the seminar group has one)
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