Advice for Workshop Directors

This guide provides helpful information and suggestions for planning and running your Workshop at the Joint Sessions 2026, based on advice from previous Directors.

If you have any further queries, please get in touch with our Events Team.

Planning

Workshop Directors are expected to:

Schedule Papers and assign discussants for the week.
Establish contact with each participant ahead of the event.
Share schedules and Workshop-specific information with the participants.
Follow up with participants to ensure they have uploaded full Papers ahead of the event.
Ensure that all participants have equal time to present and discuss.
Encourage networking and discussions outside of the Workshop.

How to get Paper Presenters' contact details:

Go to My Events in My ECPR
Click Full Details
Click Export Participant Details to download an Excel file.

ECPR can offer guidance on Workshop format and social activities, however, it is expected that the Directors coordinate these.

Scheduling

All Workshops must run for the full duration of the Joint Sessions (Tuesday 7 – Friday 10 April 2026) at the University of Innsbruck, and scheduled in Central European Time (CET).

Breaks

Two daily coffee breaks: 10:30 – 11:00 and 15:00 – 15:30, which you must incorporate into your schedules.
Lunch break: 12:30 – 13:30, which you may adjust to better align with your programming.

Workshop Director responsibilities

Start and conclude the session on time.
Use time warnings to guide Presenters, signposting when they have 5 minutes remaining, 1 minute remaining, and when it's time to stop.
Move the discussion forward when the Presenter has reached their time limit.
Allocate sufficient time to each Presenter but keep them to schedule.

Workshop Format example

For Workshops with five Papers per day with one hour for each Paper to include:

15-minute presentation
15-minute discussant-led questions*
30-minute open discussion

*Each Paper Presenter is expected to take turns to serve as a Discussant.

Communication

Share your schedule with your participants
Send us the most up-to-date version for our system.

Ahead of the event

Workshop Director should download all Papers ahead of the event.

You can download the Papers via our event app:

Log in to the event app using the same email address you registered for the event with.
Go to the Programme and select the Papers tab. Use the search bar to enter the Paper title.
Click the Information icon to view the Paper details, or click the Download icon to save a copy as a PDF.

If a participant has not uploaded/shared their Paper with you before the Workshop, please follow-up with them directly.

While we will send out our Know Before You Go guide before the event to all particiapnts, you may wish to send an email to your participants with Workshop specific information.

On the day

Equipment

All rooms are equipped with a projector with a HDMI/USBC connection.
Laptops will not be provided. Please bring your own laptop, charger and EU adaptor.

Participation and safety

Please record attendance for all Workshop participants daily. Instructions will be included on the information sheet in your Workshop room.
Set the tone at the start of the Workshop by addressing participants’ expectations and questions.
Make use of all time allocated. If time allows, encourage informal discussion at the beginning or end of each day.
Encourage Workshop participants to network outside of the sessions. You may wish to set up a group Slack or WhatsApp to connect.

Continue the conversation on social media

Use #ecprjs26 to discuss topics and pose questions to Workshop members and their broader networks, to foster a deeper discussion and collaboration.

Install the app