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ITMEMS 3
Global Problems, Local Solutions
Cozumel, Mexico
16-20 October 2006
Below are the Guidelines for:
Guidelines for speakers and presenters(PDF File)
Introduction
Thirteen themes have been selected for discussion during ITMEMS 3. Teams
representing a wide range of expertise, institutional affiliation and geographic spread are presently working to design up to four workshops per theme to explore relevant issues, draw out experiences and lessons learned, and develop a set of action-oriented recommendations to support the effective management of coral reefs and related ecosystems over the course of the next 5 to 10 years and inform policy. The recommendations should address scales from local to global and the emphasis is on actions to extend and improve management. The workshops are the central element of ITMEMS, and enable the development of collective expert advice on action priorities for the next 5 to 10 years. Case study presentations at the start of each process will help to stimulate discussion around key questions and cutting edge issues and will inform later debate during the workshop.
The objective of the presentation
The purpose of each presentation is to illustrate and stimulate discussion of issues and questions relevant to the field of the workshop topic. Your presentation should convey as much as possible what you have learned, and not just 'tell a story'. You should find it helpful to familiarize yourself with the issues and questions identified for your workshop. The theme organizing group can provide this support.
Preparing your presentation
The purpose of all presentations is to share experiences and draw out lessons relevant to the later discussion. The conclusions arising from your experience and the recommendations that you would provide to others tackling the issues covered by the workshop are the core business. They will reflect different experience, different locations, different scales, different resource settings and different socio-economic settings so that the later discussion and outcomes can reflect the broad spectrum of management experience and concerns.
The time for presentation is brief (decided at the discretion of the organizing group) and it is very important that you prepare and rehearse your presentation so that it does not exceed the allocated time. Session organizers have been asked to be polite but very firm in insisting that speakers do not over-run.
You do not need to spend significant time on factual reporting or accounts of actions.
People will have had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the case study on the ITMEMS web site or all the people in your session will be provided with a copy of your paper as they come into the workshop.
In compiling your case study you are asked to consider the following questions and here possible, to organize your submission so that it answers them:
- The problem(s) or challenge(s) to be faced
- What was done to solve the problem(s) or manage the challenge(s)
- What worked, what didn't and why
- What you would do differently next time?
- What would you recommend to others facing the same problem(s) and/or
challenge(s)?
There is no deadline for the submission of case studies. However, you are asked to send a short abstract or a full submission (of no more than 2000 words) as soon as possible to the relevant theme organizing group. Submission must be presented in English.
Presenters of case studies are strongly encouraged to bring a poster to inform
participants unable to attend the workshop about your experience. For more information, please visit www.itmems.org.
Making your presentation
Each workshop room will be equipped with a computer and laptop for power point presentations. There will also be an overhead projector as an alternative. There will be a technical support person to operate the equipment.
You are requested to bring a CD or memory stick with your power point presentation and to lodge this with the secretariat at least 3 hours before the start of your session (or the day before if you are in next day's' morning session) so that it can be loaded onto the correct session computer.
Power point images should use large type and should capture the key points of your presentation. For people whose first language is not the same as that of the
presentation, the written key points can be a major factor in following the finer detail and being prepared for later discussion.
The people attending ITMEMS3 come from a wide range of practical and academic experience and training. It is therefore important to avoid the use of technical jargon or, if it is unavoidable, please explain technical terms on first usage. Despite the short time for our presentation, please consider those with ears tuned to different accents and allow time to speak slowly and enunciate clearly.
Follow-up
ITMEMS 3 brings together a very wide range of experience and presents a rare
opportunity for networking, peer discussion and mentoring. Some of this may occur within the workshops but discussion time is limited and inevitably the outcome focus will restrict the opportunities for substantial discussion of detail.
The program has been deliberately designed to minimize late afternoon and evening sessions with the objective of allowing time for people to discuss technical issues as peers or in a mentoring context. Where discussion is not contributing to workshop objectives, session organizers are being asked to propose that discussants set a time to complete discussion outside the workshop.
Posters
All ITMEMS3 participants and presenters are strongly encouraged to bring a poster explaining the work of their affiliated institution, initiative or programme. In the spirit of networking and collaboration, posters provide an important opportunity for sharing experiences and information with other participants in the wider Symposium, and especially those who will be attending different workshops. Please seize this chance to inform and network with your peers!" For more information, please visit www.itmems.org.
Introduction
Thirteen themes have been selected for discussion during ITMEMS 3. Teams
representing a wide range of expertise, institutional affiliation and geographic
spread are presently working to design up to four workshops per theme to
explore relevant issues, draw out experiences and lessons learned, and develop
a set of action-oriented recommendations to support the effective
management of coral reefs and related ecosystems over the course of the next 5
to 10 years and inform policy. The recommendations should address scales from
local to global and the emphasis is on actions to extend and improve
management.
The workshops are the central element of ITMEMS, and enable the development
of collective expert advice on action priorities for the next 5 to 10 years. It is
important that every participant has the opportunity to contribute to this process.
Structuring the workshops
There is no blueprint for the structure of workshops. Each workshop is allocated
a three-hour time slot, with an hour allocated for the introduction and
presentation of select case studies to kick-start discussions. The subsequent two
hours are intended for facilitated participatory discussion and the development of
a number of specific action recommendations that can be submitted, via the final
ITMEMS Statement, to ICRI and other relevant bodies.
Organizing groups will have prepared a short list of 5-7 key questions to be
answered during the workshop to help focus discussions and develop the action
recommendations.
Each workshop will require a chair/facilitator and a rapporteur.
- The presentations
It is particularly important to note that ITMEMS is not an academic or scientific
meeting. Speakers are expected to share management experiences and lessons
learned from initiatives, projects or programs that have generated significant
outcomes for the conservation and sustainable use of coral reefs and related
ecosystems.
Speakers are asked to not exceed the time allocated by the organizing group for
their presentation. The objective of the presentations is to stimulate later
discussion of workshop issues and questions. We cannot afford to lose
discussion time because of speaker overruns. You are therefore urged to be
polite but very firm in ensuring that they do not occur. This matter is covered in
the guidelines for speakers and will be emphasized in the workshop briefing.
If speakers do not keep within the allocated time, there will be a little time for
questions on matters of clarification or understanding. Questions opening up
substantial discussion should be deferred until the discussion session after all the
presentations have been made.
A copy of the Guidelines for Speakers is available.
- The facilitated discussion
The ideal number for substantial discussion that enables and encourages all
participants to express their views is in the range 12 to 20 people. Most
workshop enrolments are 2 or 3 times this size.
It is therefore intended that, following the presentations, the workshops will divide
into sub-groups that will work on workshop questions or sub-themes and develop
recommendations relevant to that question or sub-theme.
There are 2 options: Each sub-group will work on all of the questions; or the
questions will be divided between sub-groups. The decision on which approach
to take is a matter for the organizing group, taking into account the views,
interests and expertise of workshop participants.
The clear intention is that every participant will be encouraged to
contribute to the discussion and development of action recommendations.
Organizers are asked to use techniques to avoid the group discussion or "air
time" being dominated by one or two people.
Techniques that can be helpful include "nominal group listing", whereby each
participant in turn is asked to contribute to a list of priority points or solution
options which provides a framework for later discussion. It is important in using
this technique that the listing of contributions is made without discussion, rebuttal
or challenge. Once the list is complete - i.e. the group has no more points to add
- it can be helpful to identify clusters of similar points before discussion. If the list
is large and discussion time limited, another useful technique can be to
determine the most important points for the group by having participants vote for
their top 3 or 5 and structuring the discussion accordingly.
A reporting pro-forma has been developed to assist chairs/facilitators and
rapporteurs in managing and reporting discussion in relation to the workshop
issues and outputs.
At the end of the discussion period, there should be a report back by the subgroups to enable the group and the rapporteur to identify the key matters to be included in the workshop report and the final ITMEMS Statement.
- The development of action recommendations
Each workshop is expected to develop and submit a set of clear action-oriented
recommendations for submission to ICRI through the final ITMEMS Statement.
These will emerge on the back of discussion of the key questions or identified
sub-themes. Participants must also be asked to identify other bodies or
organizations to whom the recommendations should be submitted beyond ICRI.
Where participants identify matters for inclusion in the final ITMEMS Statement,
participants can be asked to provide the rapporteur with a written version of
suggested text. If discussion of the proposed text indicates that there is dissent
or a need for revision or clarification of the suggested wording, it is
recommended that you invite a small group or 2 or 3 people to come up with a
solution to report back to the group. This should avoid situations where a word
crafting issue displaces the technical content discussion.
It is almost certain that there will be important technical issues and requests for
information or briefing on issues that do not relate directly to resolution of the
workshop issues or questions. Organizing teams are asked to recognize and list
such issues for follow-up discussion outside the workshop. The program has
been deliberately designed without an intensive schedule of side meetings with
the intention of providing time for peer discussion, information exchange, network
building, and opportunistic mentoring to build networks and expertise.
Workshop reporting
The pro forma should help to achieve consistency of reporting in relation to
workshop goals. The rapporteur can be supported by voluntary notetakers, and
they will need to be identified within the discussion sub-groups.
There will be 2 reporting tasks:
- A brief overview of the workshop discussion and outcomes for inclusion in the
daily ITMEMS3 newsletter which will be published daily, and for use to update
www.itmems.org, ENB and other networks (for submission by 7pm each
evening);
- A brief overview of the workshop discussion and outcomes for inclusion in the
in the proceedings and final ITMEMS3 Statement on the priorities, issues and
actions for the future management of coral reefs and related ecosystems.
Follow-up
- Drafting the Symposium statement
The morning session of October 20, the final day, is scheduled for preparation of
the ITMEMS Statement to ICRI by the drafting group. Workshop organizers are
asked to identify a representative to the drafting group from your workshop or
group of workshops.
The drafting group will meet from time to time throughout the Symposium and the
representative will be able to advise on the approach of the Statement, and the
form of conclusions and recommendations. There will inevitably be overlap or
duplication on matters that are considered in several workshops and a role of the
workshop representative will be to identify those issues and develop a common
approach with other workshop groups.
- Networking, mentoring and technical discussions
The late afternoon and evening time slots are available for follow-up technical
networking and mentoring discussions. In most cases, these discussions will
probably occur simply through the interested parties setting a time to meet.
The morning session of October 20 is also identified as a time for those not
directly involved in the Symposium statement drafting group to take part in followup discussions with sub-plenary rooms identified for this purpose. Please advise the secretariat of specific proposals for discussions in this session.
Workshop session title:
Organising Group:
- Chair/Facilitator:
- Rapporteur:
- Notetaker:
- Presentation reports
Presentation 1
Presentation 2
etc
Separate form for each speaker covering:
- Workshop discussions
Issue/question 1
Issue/question 2
etc
Separate report for each issue/question
The issue/question:
- Major points raised in describing or analysing the issue. (These will probably be captured in flip chart lists
- Conclusions drawn*
- Recommendations to others addressing the issues*
- Local
- National
- Regional
- Global
- Information or research needs for managing the issues*
(*) If these do not reflect a general/unanimous workshop view please note whether any comments of qualification or dissent
(*) Where matters are identified for inclusion in the Symposium statement please note if the suggested text wording has been specifically agreed by the workshop. Please also note if a specific subgroup was established to develop particular forms of wording.
- Issues identified for further technical discussion
Please list any matters identified for specific networking, mentoring and technical discussions outside the workshop.
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