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Welcome, In-Person Session Presenters!

This page is for confirmed presenters participating in an in-person session at the 2026 ER&L Fest. See below for important information regarding your presentation requirements, how to upload your attendee-facing slides, how to have the slides available for you on the in-room laptop, what to expect in your session room, and more.

Quick Links

 

Important Dates

  • Speaker Portal Access: mid-Dec
  • Event App Credentials Sent: Feb 11
  • Practice Day: Feb 18
  • Upload Attendee Materials: Mar 1
  • Enable Audience Polls: Mar 1
  • Revisit online platform to answer late questions from attendees: Mar 9

Register

Live Session Presenter Checklist

  1. Register for the conference ASAP.
  2. Build your in-room presentation slides and script.
  3. Log into the Speaker Portal to update your speaker profile.
  4. Upload digital materials for attendees via the Speaker Portal by Wed, Feb 18 (no later than Sun, Mar 1)
  5. Optional:
    1. Build Polls by Practice Day, Wed, Feb 18 (no later than Sun, Mar 1).
    2. Attend Practice Day on Wed, Feb 18, between 1:00-3:00 pm Central Time.
    3. Upload your in-room presentation slides to the Dropbox for in-room slides by Sun, Mar 1.
  6. Mar 1-4: Speaker Ready Room open; visit anytime during the conference.
  7. Return to the Online Conference Platform to resolve all questions left by attendees by the end of Mon, Mar 9.

What is an In-Person Session?

Live sessions are incredibly valuable to the community because they provide the most interactive experiences for your peers in Austin. Speaking slots for these sessions are limited, and your presentation could represent some of the most important and timely work in our field.

  • Live Sessions are 50-minute presentations delivered in person in Austin.
  • Sessions consist of 30 minutes for presentation and 20 minutes for Q&A.
  • Q&A will include the ER&L audience, facilitated by a conference volunteer or moderator.
  • Select live sessions will be featured daily on our online livestream for online attendees to watch in real-time.
  • All live sessions will be delivered in Austin, recorded, captioned, and made available for on-demand viewing in the Virtual Conference.

REQUIRED

  1. A live presentation in Austin. At least one presenter from your session must be in Austin to present. Thirty (30) minutes is allotted for your speaking/ presenting and twenty (20) minutes is allotted for a question and answer period at the end of your speaking portion.
  2. Presentation Slides for your use during your presentation.
  3. Upload Digital Materials for Attendees if applicable: Slides, Handouts, etc.

OPTIONAL

  1. One or more Attendee Polls to engage attendees with topics presented in your talk.
  2. Plan a Community Connection.

*About Remote Presenters

The majority of the presenters for your live session must be in the session room in Austin. In-person sessions are most effective when all speakers are present in the room. We understand issues arise that make this impossible. In those instances, remote presenters may be brought in via a pre-set Zoom link prepared by the speaker(s). The Zoom meeting must be conducted on the ER&L-provided laptop at the podium. Please review the guidelines ER&L staff have created to ensure a smooth experience for your remote presenter and the audience. 

ER&L Remote Presenter Guidelines

If NO live session speakers are able to attend in Austin, your presentation will be changed to a virtual session with our studio or a pre-recorded session. We understand that unexpected things (injury, illness, unavoidable conflicts) will arise, and we are pleased to offer a pre-recorded format as a flexible and low-stress alternative.

What to Expect during Your Session

All Presentation rooms include:

  • PC laptop with a link to our DropBox folder with your supplied presentation file.
  • Microphone(s)
  • Large Projection Screen(s)
  • Wi-Fi
  • Electrical outlet access
  • Lectern
  • Panel Table with Chairs

If you do not upload your file by March 1, you must bring the file with you to Austin on a USB jump/ flash drive. Refrain from using programs that are only accessible on a Mac when creating your slides.

ACCESSIBILITY

Every submitter was asked to indicate whether any accommodations were needed, but we’re still here to assist you in having a comfortable and safe experience. Contact us at hello@electroniclibrarian.org with questions.

Speaker Portal

Log into the Speaker Portal to update your speaker profile. Here are some suggestions for building your profile:

  • Please upload a recent photo or headshot. If you prefer not to upload a photo, your initials or the conference logo will be in place of a photo. 
  • Add a biography to let your audience get to know you!
  • Add additional links to LinkedIn, Google Scholar, personal websites, etc. 

Please remember that your profile is public and not limited to attendees.

Practice Day (Wed, Feb 18)

ER&L provides presenters an opportunity to go through the ER&L platform prior to the start of the conference. This designated time is meant for you to review your session listing on the Event App and ensure that all of the information is correct prior to the start of the conference. You are not expected to do a run-through of your actual presentation. 

On practice day, live presenters should complete the short practice day checklist to familiarize themselves with the app and attendee interaction features.  

ER&L Staff will be online during this time to answer questions and walk you through the process. This day is for testing. ER&L will remove all of the comments made on Practice Day and start with a clean slate for ER&L.

PRACTICE DAY CHECKLIST

  1. Log into the Event App.
  2. Update your profile.
  3. Type a comment into the Lobby chat.
  4. Locate your session on the Schedule tab.
  5. Enter a text comment into your Session chat.
  6. Review the session description and attached digital materials.
  7. Optional: Create a poll for your session via the ‘Backstage’ tab. Enable all polls upon completion or no later than March 1.

Practice in Austin (Speaker Ready Room)

Presenters of all session types are welcome to meet and practice in the Speaker Ready Room (Room 105, M1). Work out your nerves or just work in a private room with access to power, dry-erase boards, and a lectern to practice your presentation.

Building Your Slides

  • The confirmed aspect ratio for your slide creation is 16:9.
  • The title slide will include presentation title, presenter name, affiliation, and photo.
  • Ensure Proper Attribution. At ER&L, the expectation is that all presenters are required to include proper citations and attributions on all images, graphics, and research outputs that are not original.
  • Ensure no commercial activities or any advertising may be included in your slides. Non-compliance with this rule will result in slide or presentation removal and will impact future eligibility for presentation at ER&L.
  • Review our Presentation Tips and Accessibility Guidelines.
  • Optional: Use ER&L Fest backgrounds linked at the top of this page.

Uploading Your Slides for YOUR Use

  • These Presentation files are for YOU, the live session presenter. These slides will be linked on the in-room PC laptop for you to use during your presentation.
  • This upload is NOT the version for attendees to download.
  • If you do not upload your file by March 1, bring it with you to Austin on a jump drive.

HOW TO UPLOAD SLIDES FOR YOUR USE

  1. Save your presentation in a format that is compatible with a PC.
  2. Upload your file to our private Dropbox for in-room slides.
  3. You may upload an updated version up until the day of your presentation.
  4. If you do not upload your file by March 1, bring it with you to Austin on a jump drive.

Uploading Digital Materials for Attendees

  • Presenters of all session types should upload session slides and other digital materials such as templates, documentation, and samples to augment their presentation.
  • These files are uploaded via your Speaker Portal.
  • Presentation files will be available to all attendees on the Online Conference Platform and Event App page associated with your session.
  • One presenter should supply the slides.
  • Presenters may choose not to share slides, however, we strongly encourage sharing the presented information since that is the core of what we’re facilitating at the conference.

HOW TO UPLOAD MATERIALS FOR ATTENDEES

Log into your Speaker Portal:

  1. Click the Sessions tab.
  2. Locate the session (if you are presenting multiple, you will have multiple listed.)
  3. Click ‘Session Files’.
  4. Click ‘Add New File’.
  5. Browse for the file.
  6. Give the file a description/ title that will appear for attendees.
  7. Make sure ‘Is Private’ is UNchecked.
  8. Click ‘Add File’.

Using Polls for Audience Interaction

  • Polls are a great way to connect with in-person attendees.
  • We recommend 2-3 polls per session.
  • Presenters will be able to configure polls in the ‘Backstage’ tab in the Online Conference platform.
  • Answers from the online attendees are calculated and displayed in real-time.
  • We recommend having polls created and enabled when the conference starts so online attendees can answer the polls as soon as your session starts.

HOW TO MANAGE POLLS

Log into the Online Conference Portal:

  1. Click the ‘Backstage’ tab in the left menu; there, you will see the session(s) in which you are speaking.
  2. Select your session and click on the ‘Polls and Q&A’ tab.
  3. Click on ‘Add New Poll’ to add a new poll and to modify existing polls.
  4. To enable the poll, check ‘Enable’; a red dot will appear at the top of the Poll tab.
  5. To disable a poll, check ‘Disable’

Online Attendee Interaction

ER&L will record, caption, and upload your session video to the Online Conference platform. All attendees will be able to watch your presentation on-demand after the conference. The platform provides three adjacent spaces for online audience interaction:

  • Chat: Attendees can comment and upvote.
  • Q&A: attendees can ask questions or upvote questions already asked.
  • Polls: you will optionally set up for your audience. 

Online audience interaction will be available until March 31. Presenters have no obligation to respond unless they wish to do so. If you prefer comments and questions to be sent to you directly after the conference, post your email address in the Comments/ Chat tab indicating your willingness to accept additional questions directly.

Registration

The discounted speaker registration rate is $595 for the in-person conference and $395 for the online conference. All accepted presenters are expected to register prior to the conference, whether attending online or in person.

ER&L will work with any accepted presenter to ensure attendance. If you require discounted or waived registration due to hardship or lack of employer funds to enable your participation, please contact the ER&L Team at hello@electroniclibrarian.org.

Code of Conduct

ER&L’s Code of Conduct and Commitment to Accessibility and Inclusivity apply to presenters and attendees.

Land Acknowledgement

The organizers of ER&L would like to acknowledge that we are meeting on the Indigenous lands of Turtle Island, the ancestral name for what now is called North America.

Moreover, we would like to acknowledge the Alabama-Coushatta, Caddo, Carrizo/ Comecrudo, Coahuiltecan, Comanche, Kickapoo, Lipan Apache, Tonkawa and Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo, and all the American Indian and Indigenous Peoples and communities who have been or have become a part of these lands and territories in Texas, where we hold the ER&L conference.

ER&L appreciates the work of the Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) Academic Council at UT Austin for their work, cited above. Read the UT Libraries Land Acknowledgement Statement with Calls to Action here.