ACCJ Speaker Internal Protocol
The following internal guidelines are intended to assist the ACCJ Secretariat and the ACCJ Leaders in ensuring that both speakers and audience members have positive impressions of events and of the ACCJ as an organization.
The guidelines should be reviewed in advance of each event so that any necessary advance arrangements can be timely made to ensure smooth execution of the event.
Engaging/Soliciting Speakers
Committee leaders are responsible to ensure that the speaker’s topic is well understood and appropriately represented in event announcements. It is advisable for the speaker to contribute to drafting the event announcement or, at a minimum, provide a final review.
Committee leaders should engage sufficiently with the speaker before the event to confirm that the speaker will stay on topic and to ensure that the speaker understands the ACCJ’s expectations of speakers, including that speakers should refrain from self-promotion in their presentation.
Committee leaders should also confirm whether the speaker intends to show slides as part of the presentation and ensure timely processing of any such materials.
Advance preparation by Committee Coordinator
Committee Coordinator should provide the following materials to the committee leader(s) before the event:
Attendance list
Order of program
Head table chart (if speaker event)
Advance preparation by Committee Leaders
Committee Leaders should review the speaker biography, order of program and attendance list for the event.
Committee Leaders should coordinate among themselves prior to event date who will be responsible for each of the following:
Greeting/escorting the speaker
Greeting any other “VIPs” in the audience and, if feasible, introducing them to the speaker
Greeting guests
Acting as master of ceremonies
Introducing the speaker
Note: In ordinary cases, a suitable committee leader will introduce the speaker. To the extent possible, high level speakers should be introduced by an elected leader (e.g., President, Vice President, Governor) present or by an ACCJ member with an established relationship with the speaker.)Facilitating Q&A
Thanking the speaker and presenting the certificate of appreciation and thank-you gift
Closing the session
Greeting
High level speakers should be met at the entrance of the venue by the ACCJ Executive Director and high-ranking leader(s), and escorted to the room where the event will be held.
Master of Ceremonies
The master of ceremonies has overall responsibility for ensuring that the entire event runs smoothly. He/she should ensure that each person at the event with an assigned role is aware of that role in advance of the event and comes to the event prepared for the role. Most importantly, the master of ceremonies should coordinate with the person designated to introduce the speaker to ensure that an appropriate speaker introduction script is prepared in advance.
The master of ceremonies should also be prepared to keep the event moving along with the appropriate atmosphere or otherwise correct or rescue any situation that goes wrong during an event.
Speaker Introduction
The master of ceremonies should lead off with any prefatory remarks, then either introduce the speaker or invite the person designated to introduce the speaker to do so. The speaker introduction script should be arranged and rehearsed in advance. The introduction should be thoughtful and appropriate for the event, rather than simply reading the bio provided by the speaker or saying “Today’s speaker is Person X; please join me in welcoming him/her.” If possible/appropriate, the introduction should incorporate some little piece of information garnered from talking to the speaker during the meal.
Questions and Answers Session (Q&A)
One pre-assigned Committee Leader should facilitate Q&A. This facilitator should:
Be prepared to ask one or two questions if there is not a showing of hands when questions are first solicited or if there are insufficient questions to fill the time and;
Remind attendees to ask one question at a time and to identify themselves before posing their question.
Presentation of the Certificate of Appreciation and Thank-You Gift
After the Q&A the designated Committee Leader should step to the podium with the Certificate of Appreciation and gift (in the case of a high level speaker, the designated Committee Leader should invite the ranking elected leader to present the speaker with the certificate, together with “a small token of appreciation from the ACCJ”).
The leader should not rush through this – take the time to present the items nicely.
The leader should remove the certificate from the envelope, held up and presented nicely together with “a small token of appreciation from the ACCJ.”
If appropriate, a photo is taken (leaders should consider in advance the most appropriate timing for the photo and coordinate with the ACCJ staff).
Panel Discussions
When the event is a panel discussion, in addition to the above, the following practices should be observed:
Panel moderator should communicate with panelists well in advance of the event to ensure that expectations, including speaker order, etc., are understood by all.
The structure of seating on stage should be determined in advance.
If the structure of the panel is to allow each panelist to present prepared remarks before discussion, the panel moderator should ensure that each panelist knows the allotted time and sticks to it.
Confirm whether panelists expect to use slides. In general, this should be discouraged in the case of panels but if it is unavoidable, the panel moderator should ensure that the number of slides is limited in the interest of efficient use of time and to avoid having any panelist dominate over the others.
The panel moderator should act as host/facilitator, providing a “bridge” between panelist presentations by making some small observation regarding the remarks of the panelist that just finished and then turning over to the next panelist by way of a lead-in question or other appropriate remark. Panel moderators should avoid simply calling out the names of each panelist when it’s their turn to speak.
If the structure of the panel is that the panel moderator will pose questions and then give one or more panelists the opportunity to respond, the questions should be given to the panelists in advance so that it can be determined which panelists will speak to which questions.
Panelists should be given some guidance on time limits for their responses, to ensure that no one panelist dominates.
It is not necessary to give each panelist the opportunity to answer each question.
The panel moderator should again host/facilitate by providing some observation or other appropriate remark that also contributes to the discussion when moving from one panelist to the next.
Allow plenty of time for Q&A from the floor.
Consider limiting how many panelists will respond to each question from the floor; giving each panelist the opportunity to respond to each question often causes loss of momentum.
