I am a Stage Moderator, What should I do?¶

You have been selected as a stage moderator/lead? Don’t worry, this document will be guiding you through all the things you will be doing as a stage lead.

As a stage lead you will be representing PyCon India team for the audience as well as the speakers. You will also be the someone who is guiding the audience coming to your stage. So, please read through this document carefully to make it a smooth experience for everyone.

Platforms¶

Before we get into more details, head over to the I am a speaker, help me setup! document and understand the whole flow as experienced by the speakers. We will wait for you here!

You will be handling the StreamYard (Hopin backstage) part as mentioned in the above document.

Warning

Based on audience’s network bandwidth, they might have delay upto 30 seconds. So, if you are expecting the audience to post questions or comment something, make sure you wait for at least 10 to 15 seconds.

Prerequisites¶

The pre-recorded backup videos will be shared with you before the conference, so make sure you have downloaded all the videos for your stage.
Use Google Chrome only to login to StreamYard. On other browsers you may face issues if you have to play a pre-recorded video.
Close all the unnecessary applications, so that your browser gets to use all the resources, if possible create a new browser profile where there are no open tabs.

How to access StreamYard¶

To access your StreamYard stage with moderator rights:

Go to https://hopin.com/sign_in and login with the credentials you have received from the team.
Open the PyCon India 2021 event.
Go to Venue > Stages.
Click on the Backstage text in front of your stage name, and it will open the StreamYard for you.

Note

If the above instructions don’t work for you, try to click on the Preview Event button on the right side, and repeat the above steps.

Speaker check-in¶

Speaker will check-in to StreamYard 15 minutes before their talk. Make sure you interact with them when they join, and acknowledge their check-in. If they don’t notify you about the method of taking Q&A, ask them if they would like to do the Q&A at the end or offline on Zulip.

Lead: Hello, would you like to take questions at the end of your talk?

Speaker: Yes, that would be around 27 minutes.

Lead: Sure, I will notify you when 5 minutes are remaining by playing a ring sound.

The speaker will also share their screen as soon as they join and check-in. If they don’t, ask them to share their screen.

Lead: Speaker, can you please share your screen as well?

Speaker: Yes, doing that.

Going live¶

When you click on the Go Live button on StreamYard, it starts streaming to the Hopin stage. You will be going live for each segment and ending the stream once the segment finishes.

Note

Each stage will have maximum two talks and then there will be a break in-between. This group of talks is referred as one segment. In case of stage 1, the keynotes, panel discussions, lightening talks are considered as separate segments.

Making announcements¶

Once you go live or starting with the next talk from the segment, consider doing following things.

Add yourself to the stream, so that audience can see and hear you.
Greet your audience and welcome them to the segment or talk.
Talk about the stage 4 and 5 which are “.extend()” and the “Neurodiversity and Experience Sharing”.

Don’t forget to checkout the stage 4 and 5 where the “.extend()” and “Neurodiversity and Experience Sharing” tracks are happening. You can find more details about them in the program guide or in the Reception tab.
Q&A happening at the end

Make sure you post the questions in the Q&A sub-tab of the stage chat, questions from the chat might get missed.
Offline Q&A

The speaker will be taking the questions offline on Zulip later.

The above announcements might feel repetitive, but these are better to have in case of an online conference. Because, people might join the conference at any time, they might be jumping from one stage to other.

Conference announcements¶

You might receive some extra announcements like ad-hoc lightening talk CFP, BoFs, panel discussions, keynotes happening on the main stage and more. So, make sure you announce those in beginning and end of the segment or in-between talks.

People are more likely to listen to the announcements made live on the stage by you than the text ones from Hopin.

Note

These announcements will be relayed to you via a shared document, so just keep an eye on that document.

During the talk¶

Once you are done with the initial greeting and announcements:

Add the speaker to the stream.
Very briefly introduce them along with their talk’s name (they will be introducing themselves during the talk).
Add the speaker’s screen to the stream, and hand it over to them by removing yourself from the stream.

While the talk is going on, the Hopin volunteers for your stage will add the questions to a shared document. Create banners for those questions.

The next speaker might also check-in, so attend them as well.

Running out of time¶

You will be notifying the speaker that they have reached the 25 minute’s mark during their talk.

Add yourself to the stream.
Play a ring sound on your microphone (don’t say anything else).

Taking the Q&A¶

Once the speaker is done with their talk, do the following things:

Add yourself to the stream.
Ask the audience to add their questions in the Q&A tab (you might need to wait till the questions pop-up).
Show the question banner and read out the question for the speaker. Repeat this till you have time.

Offline Q&A¶

If there is no time to take the Q&A live, the questions will be taken on the Zulip stream.

Announce the Zulip stream name i.e. #2021/stage/1 and ask the audience to join that stream if they have questions for the speaker.

The speaker will be available on the #2021/stage/1 Zulip stream to take questions.

Creating the banners¶

Banners are a way to show text on the screen to the audience. We will be using these banners for questions as well as for any other announcements. Open the Banners section on the right side.

Banners for questions¶

Open one of the folders, or create a new folder by clicking on Create folder logo on top.

Click on + Create a banner, paste the question in the text box (without the attendee name) , then Save it.

To show the banner, just clik on it. The following image shows a question banner:

Note

It is upto the stage leads how they want to manage the banner folders. You can create one folder for per talk, so that it is easy to collaborate when creating the banners. It also makes it easy to delete old banners in one click.

Banners for announcement¶

Banners for the announcements can be added in a similar way, the only difference is the type of the banner. Announcement banners have the Scroll across bottom (ticker) option ticked.

When you show a ticker banner, this is how it looks like:

Stopping the broadcast¶

When the last speaker of a segment is done with their talks, do the following before stopping the broadcast.

Do the conference announcements which you have received.
- If a keynote, panel discussion, or lightening talks are going to happen next, create a ticker banner for that. And keep showing that for at least 5 minutes. If people come to your stage, they will understand that they are supposed to go to some other place.
Tell the audience about Networking tab on Hopin.

There is a Networking tab on the conference platform where you will get randomly paired with other attendees, so try it out.
Talk about BoF sessions, hallway tracks.

In the Sessions tab on Hopin you can find hallway tracks as well as BoF sessions. Feel free to participate in those and interact with other attendees.

Stop the broadcast by clicking on the Stop broadcast button on right.

Warning

No segment should be more that 1 hours 15 minutes (1.25 hours). So, make sure you end it at the correct time and start a new one for the next segment. Remember, keynotes, panel discussions, and lightening talks are separate segments on stage 1.

Specific scenarios¶

Following are some of the specific scenarios which you might come across, and have to handle during the conference.

Branding stuff on StreamYard¶

The Brand tab on right side changes the color scheme, background etc. Make sure you have selected the PyCon India 2021 brand.

Playing a pre-recorded talk¶

If the speaker is having connection issues in-between the talk, you will be playing the pre-recorded version of their talk. And ask the speaker to be on Hopin to answer the questions there itself.

Note

Before playing the pre-recorded talk, confirm with the speaker coordinator (on #2021/speaker-lounge) that the speaker won’t be able to join back on StreamYard.

Click on the Share button at the bottom, and then Video file.
You might need to select show all files in the file picker dialogue based on your operating system.
Once you select a file, it will get added as one entity on the backstage, just add it to the stream and it will start playing.

In case you have to share your Chrome tab, make sure you share the audio as well.

When the talk ends too early¶

If the talk ends 5 or more minutes early, you can create a ticker saying we will be starting in 5 minutes with the next talk. And ask the attendees to checkout Networking tab, or posters in the meanwhile.