Breakout Session Types

Four different modalities of Breakout Sessions have been designed to amplify diverse voices and promote opportunities for delegates to share their experiences in engaging ways during IVCO 2024. The conference organisers will provide speakers and moderators with all necessary guidance and templates for the different modalities of breakout sessions.

Below you can find more information about what to expect from each type of session:

‘How-to’ Workshop

• Length: 90 minutes (5 minutes introduction by the moderator, maximum of 2 presenters speaking for 25 minutes each, 30 minutes group discussion, 5 minutes wrap-up by the moderator).
• Objective: To strengthen technical knowledge development and capacity building of delegates in relation to both research and evidence, as well as practical project management skills, particularly focusing on the needs/challenges of the volunteering and development sector.
• Description: Each session will have speakers invited to share good practices related to their organisations’ work, as well as applied research practices focused on strengthening capacities of delegates. 

Human Library Session

• Length: 90 minutes (5 minutes introduction by the moderator, 30 minutes for first round of ‘books’ presentation and discussion, 5 minutes break, 30 minutes for second round and discussion, 5 minutes break, 15 minutes of final discussion with the whole room facilitated by the moderator).
• Objective: To provide space where conference delegates informally present a piece of work/project/experience to a small group, who are then given time to ask questions and engage with the presenter in a conversational format.  Each ‘human book’ tells their story to a rotating small group, maximising the opportunities for participants to hear several overviews within a session. The informal structure invites sharing and conversation between delegates.
• Description: Each session will include speakers as ‘human books’ sharing a title for their presentation, with chapter headings outlining the detail they will cover. Their story is aimed to be short (10-15 minutes), and members of their smaller group are then invited to ask questions or respond. Groups sit in a circle, inviting conversation, and delegates rotate after each session, to go to another story in the human library in the room.
  
  

Pecha-Kucha Session

• Length: 5 minutes introduction by the moderator, maximum of 5 presenters speaking for 7 minutes each, 40 minutes facilitated group discussion, 10 minutes wrap-up by the moderator.
• Objective: To convey information or ideas through a concise and visually stimulating presentation format (Pecha-Kucha means ‘chit-chat’ in Japanese). The session combines a set of dynamic presentations to deliver compelling messages mainly through images in a short timeframe, and the presentation points can then be unpacked with the delegates during discussion.
• Description: Each session will have speakers presenting their ideas through visual slides which will be set to move automatically after 20 seconds as the presenter is speaking, for a dynamic presentation that can generate engagement and discussion with delegates in the room.
  
  

Strategy Conversation

• Length: 5 minutes introduction by the moderator, maximum of 4 presenters speaking for 10 minutes each, 10 minutes reserved for the moderator to ensure the smooth flow of the conversation, 30 minutes of group discussion, 5 minutes wrap-up by the moderator.
• Objective: To facilitate strategic discussions around the conference themes by bringing together a panel of delegates from the Forum network and beyond to share high-level, concrete insights and real-world examples that allow delegates to look at the same issue from different strategic perspectives.
• Description: Each session will have speakers invited to share experiences on strategic thinking and planning in the volunteering sector in a ’roundtable’ format.