General Chairs

The General Chair/s are responsible for overseeing and coordinating the whole conference. The General Chair manages a team of people working together to organize the conference. General chairs should to be selected to cover different time zones.

General Chairs are the international leaders of the iLRN Conference.

This page provides a quick-glance overview of responsibilities, key deadlines, and ready-to-use tools for General Chairs. It is designed to minimize effort, streamline decision-making, and keep all activity anchored in one place.

🎯 At-a-Glance Responsibilities (Checklist)

• ✅ Appoint Chairs & Assign Tasks (with Steering Committee confirmation)

• ✅ Build & Maintain Timetable (with reporting structure)

• ✅ Work with Steering + Finance to set registration fees

• ✅ Oversee Budget (with Finance, Admin/Ops, Treasurer)

• ✅ Finalize Call for Papers (CfP) and send to Steering Committee

• ✅ Work with Program Chairs and Scientific Quality Assurance Team on conference structure & schedule

• ✅ Coordinate & Oversee Chairs (Program, Local, Publicity, etc.)

• ✅ Propose & Invite Keynotes/Featured Speakers (emails always via General Chairs)

• ✅ Approve Form Emails before sending

• ✅ Coordinate Publicity (with Publicity Chair and iLRN Strategic Comms & Social Media Team)

• ✅ Resolve Issues in chair teams (illness/unavailability, etc.)

• ✅ Represent the Conference as international leader

• ✅ Contribute to Opening & Closing Ceremonies

📅 Timeline & Countdown

• Live Conference Timeline (link placeholder for shared calendar / BookStack countdown)

• Major Milestones (seeded):

  • CfP finalized → Confirmed by Steering → Added to website

  • Budget finalized → Fees published

  • Keynotes invited → Featured speakers confirmed

  • Draft program released → Final program locked

  • Opening & Closing ceremonies planned

🗣 Speaker Management

• Protocol: All invitations & comms sent via General Chairs

• Templates: Speaker Invitation Email (editable copy)

• Honoraria Policy:

  • Keynote = $500 honorarium + free access

  • Featured = Free access, no honorarium

  • Both = 1 publication inline with timeline

• Tally Form: Capture Speaker Details

💰 Budget & Fees

• Fee Setting: Jointly with Steering Committee + Local Chairs

• Budget Oversight: With Finance, Treasurer, Admin/Ops Chairs

• Tip: You never set numbers alone. Always confirm collaboratively.

• Fees document

📢 Communications Protocol

• Speaker comms = General Chairs only

• Other form emails = Drafted by chairs, approved by General Chairs

• Approved Form Emails Folder

🚨 Escalation Pathways

If a chair misses a deadline:

1. Friendly reminder → via General Chairs.

2. Escalate → to Steering Committee if unresolved.

3. Reassign tasks → if chair unavailable.

📚 Quick Links

• CfP Finalization Guide

• Timeline / Countdown Page

• Approved Email Templates

• Publicity Toolkit

• Ceremonies Playbook

🪴 Notes

This is a living page. Volunteers may add:

• Sponsor/publicity templates

• Lessons learned from past General Chairs

• Sample Opening/Closing ceremony scripts

• Dashboards or visual timelines

From the Handbook:

The General Chairs have the following responsibilities:

• Appoint chairs, subject to confirmation by the iLRN Conferences Steering Committee, and assign tasks to them.

• Build a timetable with tasks to be completed leading to the successful organisation of the conference with accompanying reporting structure for committee chairs to report on progress. 

• Work with the iLRN Conferences Steering Committee and the Local Chairs to establish registration fees. 

• Work with Finance to ensure budget for conference including social events, swag, and Virtual.

• Oversee the conference budget together with the iLRN Conferences Steering Committee, the Administration and Operations Chair/s and the Treasurer.

• Work with the committee to finalise CfP. Send the final version of CfP to the steering committee. Once confirmed request details are added to the to website conference page.

• Work with Program Chairs to create the conference structure (i.e., single track or parallel tracks, workshop and tutorial scheduling, etc.). Later, work with the Program Chairs to construct a conference program (balancing papers, invited talks, business meetings, etc.).

• Coordinate and oversee the work of the Program Chairs, the Local Chair, and the other chairs. Importantly, this means ensuring that deadlines established in the timetable are met. This also includes helping to select tutorials, accept workshop proposals, identify promising sponsors, seek publicity for the conference, etc.

• Proposes Keynote/Featured Speakers to the iLRN Steering Committee and Program Chairs, and invites Keynote/Featured Speakers.

• Email comms for Speakers is always via General Chairs. 

• Keynotes and Featured speakers FREE access to conference

• Includes 1 publication inline with conference timeline

• Keynotes- $500 honorarium,  Featured $0

• Email Template: Speaker Invitiation template

• Tally form capture speaker details: https://tally.so/r/n0b6lP

• Work with the Publicity Chair to coordinate all publicity (webpages, fliers, notices, announcements, posters, etc.) and make sure no discrepancies appear.

• Resolve issues in chair teams due to unforeseen unavailability (e.g. due to illness). 

• Should there be any co-located meetings and/or conferences; the General Chair is responsible for ensuring coordination of events, programs, speakers, registration fees, etc. Co-location of meetings should be discussed with the iLRN Conferences Steering Committee in detail before being agreed to.

• The General Chair represents the conference as the international leader of the conference event.

• The General Chair must approve form emails drafted by any other committee member before they are sent on behalf of the conference. Conferences often have more than one Conference Chair. List the main contact in this application.

• Contribute to the presentation of the opening and closing ceremonies of the conference.

The role is reviewed annually.