The Virtual International Day of the Midwife organising committee is now calling for volunteer Facilitators to run the hourly sessions of the conference. Facilitators should have experience of online meetings or conferences, and be comfortable with online meeting software. Facilitators who are interested in VIDM but who have not worked at the conference before may be invited to shadow an experienced colleague for one or more sessions in 2020, as preparation for running sessions in 2021. This is a volunteer role which many facilitators in past years have valued as a way of broadening their experience.
Facilitators must have a reasonable internet connection and they must also have a microphone and headset available. Webcams are not essential as they will not be used during the conference. However, a webcam would be useful during practice sessions as it will help facilitators build their relationships with their speakers/presenters.
Facilitators must be competent working in English. We welcome speakers of other languages, and we will probably have presentations in Spanish or French this year. There may also be proposals for sessions in other languages.
We will be in touch with facilitators in early March 2020 to make sure they are familiar and comfortable with how to run online conference sessions. Once a facilitator has been paired with their presenter(s), they will be expected to arrange a practice session with each presenter, to take place in late March or early April.
During the conference, every session will be overseen by a Master Facilitator, who is there to support the volunteer facilitators. During the practice period in April, there will also be “surgery” style sessions where a Master Facilitator will be present in the virtual practice room to offer support to speakers and facilitators, for example helping them to get used to the environment.
Thank you for your interest. The Call for Facilitators has now closed.
