EGU24 - Convener guidelines and rules

Thank you for your willingness to participate in the organization of the EGU General Assembly as a convener. Here we provide information to help you in all stages of proposing and convening a session. Information will be added to this page step-by-step as we approach the event.

The scientific programme of the EGU General Assembly is organized by the Programme Committee, including Chairs and Science Officers of different Programme Groups (PGs).
Conveners are assisted by the staff of Copernicus Meetings, which inform them by email of all the deadlines and milestones with regard to the organization of their sessions. Conveners use the Copernicus Office Meeting Organizer online system to submit and organize their sessions (see below). Copernicus Meetings can be contacted at egu24@copernicus.org.

For a glimpse of what is expected from conveners during the EGU General Assembly, you are invited to watch this short video.

Useful links

The weeks before the conference and last-minute duties

Conveners are strongly encouraged to review their session information through the session modification tool up to the scheduled presentation time.

Conveners should also:

Select a minimum of two chairpersons per session time block, as is appropriate for your format. Conveners should ensure that at least one chairperson can run the on-site session in the conference centre, and a second chairperson can moderate and interact with the virtual attendees and presenters. For PICO sessions, conveners should be aware that two on-site chairs will be needed, one to take care of on-site presenters, and one to manage the interactions of the on-site attendees with the virtual presenters via the large presentation screen.
Nominate 3 to 5 judges per presentation participating in the OSPP contest for posters and PICO presentations.
Add public information to the session for people to read in the virtual programme.
Use the mailing list tool (individual emails are not shown) to contact the authors presenting in the session for any final information and essential communication.
Make sure that authors are all attending and have uploaded their presentation files (at least 24 hours prior to the session start).
Let authors know of any planned events associated with the session.

Session modification

The session modification tool enables conveners to modify the title as well as the description of their session before the final programme is published. If the modifications are significant, conveners must first directly contact their Programme Group chair or scientific officer to discuss the proposed changes.

Once the programme is published, conveners can add public information on the session, to be visible in the programme. This supplementary information appears in addition to the session description, which is already available and visible, and should be concise.

The session modification tool also provides conveners with up-to-date information and statistics about the contributions to their session during the whole period of the session and programme organisation. Conveners can access the session programme and monitor their session after logging in by using the convener login link.

The lead convener can make changes to the co-convener team (adding/removing co-conveners, changing the order of co-conveners) using the session modification tool until the programme is published. Once the programme is published, it will no longer be possible to make changes to the co-convener listing.

The session modification tool also provides a convener mail tool. This mail tool allows conveners to communicate session-relevant items to the authors of their session. This mail tool is to be used to communicate only EGU General Assembly-related matters. We encourage announcements of special issues in the EGU's topical journals or the EGU's proceedings series Advances in Geosciences, but do not allow advertisement of special issues with other publishers.

We encourage the use of gender-neutral language in all communications. Some examples can be found in this guide and related blog post.

Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Contest

In the session dashboard, please check if any poster or PICO presenters participate in the OSPP contest. For each participating presentation, at least three judges need to be identified by the session conveners via the linked OSPP nominator tool. Conveners can choose volunteers from the list of available judges, chairs or conveners of the session, or add colleagues as judges (making sure beforehand they agree to serve as a judge and that they will attend EGU). Judges are not allowed to be co-authors of the abstract they evaluate; they need to have earned a PhD or equivalent; and cannot participate in the OSPP contest.

Daily programme

If you have any last minute modifications to your session programme, please forward this information directly to egu24@copernicus.org. If feasible, these changes will be included in the daily programme of each lecture room and PICO spot to be displayed on-site. Changes to the on-site daily programme are only possible until 8 April 2024.

Late withdrawals and no-shows

We kindly ask authors to withdraw abstracts as early as possible when they realise they will not be able to present their work. If an oral presentation in a session programme is marked as withdrawn, the conveners can make constructive use of the time, e.g., with discussions, with an oral summary of posters of the session, or with a standby oral presentation given by a poster author. If a poster author agrees to give an oral presentation, please send the programme change before 9 April 2024 to egu24@copernicus.org, including the relevant abstract number.

No-shows are monitored at presentation time for all sessions. If an abstract was not presented and not withdrawn, or withdrawn after the scheduled presentation, and no prior warning was given to the conveners in either case, the abstract will be withdrawn from the online programme. The title will be marked with "withdrawn after no-show".

At the conference

Conveners are responsible for the smooth operation of their session and should:

Check that the session chairpersons are in attendance.
Make sure to keep sessions on time. All oral presentation times include the time for questions and change over to the next speaker.
Keep in mind that the fully-hybrid session approach involves speakers and audience split in virtual and on-site groups. Virtual presenters need the same attention as on-site presenters and questions can come from on-site attendees as well as virtual attendees through the Zoom chat.
Ensure that presenters stand directly behind the lectern throughout their presentation in order for them to be properly framed by the video camera and thus viewable by the virtual attendees. Presenters must also make use of the lectern microphone, so that virtual attendees in Zoom can follow the session.
For attendees in the room or PICO Spot, these audience members must also make sure they use the microphone available to them when asking a question or making a comment. Apart from allowing the virtual attendees to hear the question, it also helps any attendees who may be hard of hearing, deaf or who have auditory processing issues, to follow the session. Large rooms have mounted microphones, where people can queue by the end of the presentation.
Convener nominated chairpersons must also use the designated chairperson microphone when moderating the session. It is the responsibility of the chairperson to remind presenters and audience members to always use the microphone when speaking, or repeat questions through their own microphone.
Presenters can indicate specific information on their presentation with the wireless presenter device provided at the lectern. The wireless presenter device transmits the pointing signal both projected screen in the room, and on Zoom for the virtual attendees.
Ensure that at least one of the chairpersons is present in Gather.Town. during virtual poster sessions.
Carefully review the presenter guidelines, and share them with presenters in your session.
Enjoy the session, the science, and the networking opportunities at the EGU General Assembly!

Convener teams and convenerships

The EGU strongly encourages conveners to build their teams and organize their sessions considering and promoting under-represented demographics, in particular including: (i) multiple countries and institutes, (ii) different career stages, with particular attention to the participation of Early Career Scientists, as well as (iii) different genders and all other forms of diversity.
The EGU Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee created the EDI session logo to be added to your session if your convener team fulfils the 3 criteria of diversity in gender, career stage, and geographic affiliation. An automatic check and assignment of this EDI logo is applied if all conveners have filled their user profile. If individual conveners have not filled their user profile, you will be asked to manually indicate whether the diversity criteria are fulfilled. We then kindly ask you to encourage your colleagues to complete their profile online. Please note that the EDI logo only appears on the listed session following session programme finalization.
A convener team consists of a minimum of 2 active conveners (1 convener and 1 co-convener) and a maximum of 5 conveners (1 convener and 4 co-conveners) per session.
Our rule is that one can have a maximum of 3 (co-)convenerships in total in the Programme Group-led sessions, with one as lead convener. One additional co-convenership for Union Symposia and Great Debates is allowed. Short Courses are not counted towards the number of convenerships.
Please check with all co-conveners that they agree to take part in the proposed session.
Authors (first and co-authors) cannot have a solicited presentation in a session they (co-)convene.
Conveners do not automatically obtain discounts or waivers on the abstract processing charges or the registration fee. If eligible, they can apply to EGU participation support schemes when applications are open during the call-for-abstracts.
Conveners should comply to the EGU General Assembly rules of conduct.

Copernicus Office Meeting Organizer online system

Practical information

Previous tools/tasks

Public call-for-session proposals

Session proposals can be submitted during the public call-for-session, before the session submission deadline: 14 September 2023.

During the call-for-session proposals, EGU accepts proposals for the following sessions (check their respective guidelines for further information):

Regular scientific sessions (organized by a leading PG)
Inter- and Transdisciplinary sessions (ITS)
Education and Outreach sessions (EOS)
Union Symposia (US) and Great Debates (GDB)
Short courses (SC)

To submit a session proposal to the EGU General Assembly programme, please first have a look at the provisional skeleton programme implemented by the PG Chairs.

When submitting a session, the following steps are required:

Submit your session proposal to one Programme Group (PG) only. This will be the leading PG of your session and the PG Chair will be responsible for the organization of your session in the programme. Programme Groups and their Chairs and Science Officers are listed here.
Define your session with a title and a short description (200–2500 characters). Avoid submitting a session that is similar to sessions already suggested. Rather, contact conveners or directly propose modifications to already suggested sessions if you would like to be involved.
Identify the lead convener and co-conveners (more information below).
Optionally, identify (co-)conveners as Early Career Scientists (ECS), if applicable.
Identify one of the conveners as being responsible for the Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) competition in your session.
Define keywords from the EGU keyword list. Keywords are used by PG Chairs to identify potential session similarities when finalizing the programme and during session scheduling. They are not used for online search tools. Typing in the keyword box will bring up suggestions from the EGU keyword list.
Indicate other Programme Groups to suggest potential co-organization with other PGs, if relevant (see below). This is a suggestion only; the final decision is taken by the PG Chairs when they finalize their programme.
Indicate whether your session is to be co-sponsored by a colleague science organization (see below).
Consider organizing a special issue about your session in one of the EGU's open-access journals. A subject-based selection is given in the proposal form for further information. Please take a look at the list of the EGU's topical journals as well as EGU's proceedings series Advances in Geosciences.

The Programme Group Chairs and officers will build their PG session programme from the sessions proposed.

Conveners will be informed of the status of the session they proposed by email in October. The Chair of the Programme Group where the session was proposed can accept the sessions as they were proposed, suggest changes for the sake of clarity of the final programme, and also request conveners of sessions that are similar to merge.

Session submission: general information

Session co-organization and co-sponsoring

Support application assignment & rating (December)

Abstract submission & solicited abstract TANs (November to January)

During abstract submission, conveners are encouraged to promote their session. At any time, conveners can see the abstracts already submitted to their session by using the convener login link. We ask conveners to consider diversity in country, career stage, gender, and scientific approaches when encouraging colleagues to submit abstracts to their session.

Conveners can also plan to have a solicited abstract in their session, if relevant. Solicited presentations provide a means to highlight a specific overarching topic within a session. Solicited abstracts can be for oral, PICO, or poster presentations, but conveners should keep in mind that the type of presentation is not guaranteed until the meeting programme is finalized by the Programme Committee.

In order to allow enough room for the presentations coming from the public call for abstracts, some rules and guidelines apply.

A session can only have one solicited abstract per time block. Although numbers may vary from year to year, and according to the session format, a time block usually comprises around 15 to 22 abstracts.
(Co-)conveners cannot be a solicited speaker in a session they convene.
(Co-)conveners cannot be the presenting author, and are discouraged from being a co-author, in oral presentations in a session they convene.

Overall, considering all sessions in the programme of the General Assembly, authors are allowed, as first author, to submit either one regular abstract plus one solicited abstract, OR two solicited abstracts. An exception to this rule is however possible: authors can submit a second regular abstract if submitted to sessions led by the Education and Outreach Sessions (EOS) Programme Group. Under this exception, the maximum number of abstracts, including solicited abstracts, remains two.

Since the system limits authors to one the regular abstract submission as first author, authors who have a second abstract to submit (following the rules presented above) will need to provide a transaction number (TAN) when submitting their second abstract, whether this second abstract is a solicited or a regular (e.g. EOS) abstract.

In order to provide a TAN for the submission of a solicited abstract, conveners can generate one TAN per session directly through their session overview when logged in. This TAN must be sent directly to the author of the solicited abstract. The author can submit their second abstract through the system using this TAN. Additional TANs, if justified, can be provided by the Programme Group chair to the main convener of a session.

We suggest conveners to send their TAN as early as possible to their solicited author to avoid last-minute problems. Conveners are also encouraged to get in contact with their Programme Group chair for further clarifications, if needed.

Finally, please note that the final status of a 'solicited abstract' is only defined and displayed in the programme later, when conveners prepare the presentation selection during the SOIII phase.

SOI – abstract implementation & late abstracts (January)

Automatic cancellation of sessions without enough abstracts

Sessions with five (5) or fewer abstracts after the abstract deadline will automatically be cancelled and withdrawn from the programme. Authors of abstracts in these sessions will be given the opportunity to transfer their abstract to another session. Conveners of these cancelled and withdrawn sessions will have no more convening requirements that year, but are encouraged to resubmit their session proposal for the following year's General Assembly.

Review of abstracts

For the remaining sessions, the abstract implementation phase (SOI) will open straight away. Conveners are asked to review the abstracts originally submitted to their session and the abstracts that are suggested to be transferred to their session that are pertinent and closely related to the topic of their session.

Abstracts should be clear, concise, and written in English, with correct spelling and good sentence structure. If any questions arise during the process, conveners should contact their Programme Group chair.

Late abstracts

During SOI conveners can upload late contributions from authors that have faced difficulties in submitting their abstract by the abstract submission deadline. Late abstract submissions can only be uploaded by the session conveners and are subsequently approved by the Programme Group chair. They have a strict deadline of 17 January 2024, 13:00 CET. Abstracts sent by authors to conveners at a later stage cannot be accepted.

Late abstract submissions have an increased abstract processing charge (APC), which needs to be paid by the authors. Payment can be processed following one of these options:

author's credit card (the author gives the convener the details of their credit card),
convener's credit card or PayPal (conveners should then ask directly to the author for reimbursement as they cannot be reimbursed by the EGU),
convener's request at the time of entering the late abstract in the system that the author be sent an invoice to pay the APC. In this case, a PDF invoice is automatically sent to the author by email and the late abstract will only be available for scheduling upon payment by the author.

As in regular submissions, first authors of late abstracts are also required to become EGU members before abstract submission.

Abstracts of public interest

In SOI, conveners may select a limited number of abstracts (maximum of three) in their session if they consider there are abstracts of great relevance to a broader scientific audience. The 'abstracts of public interest' check box allows conveners to select the abstracts to be highlighted to the general attendees of the meeting.

Session mergers

Sessions that have received few submissions or are very similar in scope can be merged. Conveners can merge sessions themselves in the SOI abstract implementation tool, after informing the Programme Group chair of their intention. Conveners should also inform the authors and give them time to request a transfer to a different session if the merge is not to their satisfaction.

When merging sessions, we recommend conveners follow this procedure:

Contact your Programme Group chair to discuss your merging plans (e.g. with which other session/s you would like to merge).
Ensure that all conveners of sessions that plan to be merged agree which session will be the base for the merge and which session/s will move into the merge (e.g. the session that received more abstracts could be used as the base session).
Agree on the updated title, description, and list of conveners of the new merged session.
Mark all abstracts in the session/s that will be moving to be transferred to the new merged session.
Accept all abstracts moved into the new merged session. This should result in one session that contains all the abstracts from the merged sessions. Those session descriptions will now be empty and can be 'withdrawn' to complete the merge.

It is recommended that the list of conveners, the session title, and the description of the session be adapted first (in the session modification tool) in the case of a session merger. This is to guarantee the best representation of the ideas and topics in the final session.

SOII – session tagging

SOIII – presentation selection

In SOIII, conveners organize the presentations in their session. EGU strongly encourages conveners to consider and promote under-represented demographics, in particular including: (i) multiple countries and institutes, (ii) different career stages, with particular attention to the participation of early career scientists, (iii) different genders and all other forms of diversity, and (iv) diverse scientific approaches.

Conveners are asked to do the following:

For oral/poster sessions, subdivide the abstracts into oral, on-site poster, and virtual poster presentations. For poster-only and PICO sessions, the abstracts are already marked as posters or PICO presentations (on-site or virtual).
For all types of sessions, define the order (sequence) of the talks and posters, or PICO presentations.
Assign solicited abstracts (see below). Conveners should aim for no more than one solicited presentation per time block. Conveners can (but are not obliged to) attribute a 10-minute, 20-minute, or 30-minute time slot (their choice) to one solicited presentation per time block.
Define at least two chairpersons for every time block, who will both be present on-site at the conference. If none of the conveners aim to be present on-site, a chairperson who is not a convener can also be appointed.

Conveners should keep in mind that:

Conveners must keep the scheduled presentations within the time block(s) assigned to their session. Each time block has a duration of 105 minutes.
Each oral presentation has a total duration of 10 minutes. This includes the time for questions and change over.
Conveners can schedule a slot of 5 minutes for an introduction to their session.
Conveners are encouraged to use the button "Add subtitle" to structure their session in a meaningful and lively way, to a maximum of 3 uses per time block. This could be utilized for closure or discussion following a sequence of three to four presentations sharing a similar topic.
(Co-)conveners cannot be the presenting author, and are discouraged from being a co-author, in oral presentations in a session they convene.
After SOIII, a draft session programme is generated with the specific times for the presentations in the session. Any missing information from SOIII will be filled in by the Programme Group chair. After finalization, all authors receive their letter of schedule by email, mentioning the day, time and location of their presentation.

Additional information on solicited abstracts

Conveners can assign the status of "solicited" to an oral, poster, or PICO presentation when they compile their programme in SOIII. Solicited presentations are those abstracts that conveners would particularly like to highlight in their session. Conveners should note the following:

A session can only have one solicited abstract per time block. In very rare circumstances, Programme Group chairs can decide if an exception to this rule can be made.
Authors (first and co-authors) cannot have a solicited presentation in a session they (co-)convene.
Conveners can indicate the name(s) of the solicited presenter(s) at the end of the description of their session. This can be done by using the session modification tool, with access through the convener login link in the session programme.
Authors of solicited abstracts do not receive discounted abstract processing charges, registration fees, or travel reimbursement.

The main time blocks of the General Assembly

Time block (TB)	Time (CEST)
TB1	08:30–10:15
AM Coffee break	10:15–10:45
TB2	10:45–12:30
Lunch	12:30–14:00
TB3	14:00–15:45
PM Coffee break	15:45–16:15
TB4	16:15–18:00
Networking	18:00–19:00
Medal & Award lectures, evening events	19:00 & onward

Convener guidelines and rules