Stage manager

Stage Managers are responsible for a specific lecture hall (Saal) and all the talks within a 4 hour time slot. In short, stage managers make sure the talks go as smoothly as possible, including technical issues and crowd management.

How to Become a Stage Manager?

Stage Manager Angels are not automatically enabled, since a specific skillset and some introduction to the job is needed. Orientation meetings are being held at specific times. Please refer to the Engelsystem for specific dates!

Assigning shifts

Stage manager need to attend an orientation and have their Engelsystem account authorized to sign up for Stage manager shifts. To do this, attend a meeting or get in touch with one of the Herald Archangels. One of them will be present during every regular angel meeting. You'll get a short briefing of what to do, but you should get the idea from this page as well, so read it!

Sign-ups will happen at the meeting at 2100 hours (Day 0) as well as on the following days. Please attend if you're interested. You can find all Stage manager meetings here: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2016/wiki/Session:Stage_Manager_Angel_Introduction

Job Description

In years before the 32c2, this Job has been part of the Heralds duty. You need to cooperate closely with your herald and understand what the job of a herald includes.

You can find more information about Heralds here: Heralds. The Stagemanager keeps the information flowing and makes sure that everyone is on the same page how a Talk will be handled. Last minute changes, delays, announcements and problems in the Saal are all handled by the Stagemanager. The most important part of the job is to inform the Herald of everything necessary that he needs to deliver a great moderation and a complete set of announcements. Keep in mind that the Herald is most likely blinded by the bright lights and can probably not see everything that the Stagemanagers or the audience can. So in a sense, you are also a 2nd pair of eyes, hands and mouth for the Herald.

Before a Talk

• 15 Minutes before the talk, please go to the designated area for room coordinators and get to know these people:
  • A/V technician
  • your Herald
  • Subtitle Coordinator
  • Signal Angel

• Find the Stagemanager that worked the shift before yours and get the Duty-DECT for this Hall handed over to you. Also ask if there are any last-minute announcements that your Herald needs to know about

• As soon as the speaker arrives, introduce yourself to the speaker. Go through the following info and questions:
  • Prepare the Audio- and Video setup with the A/V Technican
  • Do you need a special (something to) DVI/HDMI or if really necessary even VGA adapter?
  • Have them connect their video first. If there is a problem, notify the AV-Technician immediately.
  • Do you need an Audio Out for your presentation? (If Yes, tell this the Audio Person for the Saal-Audio)
  • How much time will you have for Q&A?
  • Would you like some water?
  • Work out a system for notifying the speaker how much time is left. (Hand signals for 10, 5, 1, and 0 minutes left or use available cards. Make sure the speaker knows to acknowledge you with a nod of the head or other gesture so they realize how much time is left.)

• Inform the Audio and Visual angels of how the talk will be handled. (e.g. the speaker opted out for recording or has special requirements)
  • If necessary, ask the previous speaker to clear the stage, along with the group who has questions for them to move out of the conference room.
• Work to set up the current speaker
  • If there will be audio from the speaker's laptop, have the CCH personnel work with the speaker to set the proper laptop audio level.
  • Point out places of interest to your speaker (signal angel, cameras, question mics etc...)

• Before the Talk begins, check all Angels wether they are ready to go, this includes:
  • Audio
  • Video
  • Camera
  • Subtitles
  • Signalangel

• At the appropriate time before, you will be giving the Herald a signal to start the moderation, so that the Talk starts on time.
  • Communicate with your Herald how many Announcements there are and how much time the Herald needs to introduce the next Talk
  • Tell your Herald wether every team is good to go (Audio, Video, Camera, Subtitles, Signalangel)
• Translation
  • all Talks will be translated from German to English or vice versa, depending on the talk language.
  • some Talks in Saal 1 and Saal2 will be translated into a second language. if the second language is available, you will receive a call from translation 7-10min before the talk.
  • Please remind your herald to announce the translations.

• If there is a Q&A session, be sure to make sure the microphones in the audience will be turned on.
• Fill up all available seats in the room if there is an over capacity crowd

During a Talk

• Check that the entrance doors/emergency exits are not blocked. Walk around the room and ask people in front of exits and aisles to clear out. If attendees start piling up inside, ask them to find and take available seats
  • There are NO SAVED SEATS once a talk begins. Fill all available seats.
  • If the room is too crowded, ask attendees to go outside and watch the video stream.
  • 'If you are unable to enforce emergency exit routes or other security requirements, please call 110 from your DECT'
  • During the Talk you should regularly check all emergency exits.
• Notify the speaker of how much time is left with the pre-agreed signals. Make sure they acknowledge your signals.
• Unless there is no talk following, allow ABSOLUTE maximum of 5min over time if necessary. Do everything within your power to allow speaker(s) to gracefully end their session.

After a Talk

• Ask the previous speaker to clear the stage, along with the group who has questions for them to head to a breakout room.
• Stick around, fix problems if any.
• Check the stage, if necessary remove trash from the stage
• Help to set up the stage for the next talk (Tables, Chairs)
• Talk to the other Angels in the lecture hall

• Q&A
  • The Herald can not very well see whats going on in the Saal due to very bright lights. stand by to signal the herald on which microphone there are people that want to ask a question
  • Communicate with pre-agreed hand signals with the signal angel and tell the Speaker with gestures how many questions the signal angel has, because the herald might not be able to see the signal angel, due to the bright lights

Stagemanager Angel Briefing

The Stagemanagers meet on these Dates for the Introduction meeting: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2016/wiki/Session:Stage_Manager_Angel_Introduction Currently, they are all planned in Hall A.1, but as that room was already reserved for several other groups, the times vary.

Communication

Rocket Chat

We run an opensource "Slack alternative" chat server called Rocket.chat that we are using to communicate during and before the event. As this is the first time that we are trying such a solution, we are herby asking you to give us some feedback on this new communication channel.

The Server can be found here: https://heralds.events.ccc.de/channel/stagemanager This service provides free Apps for Android and Apple

Important Numbers

What?	Number	When?
Himmel	1023	Call in case your fellow Angels (Video/Audio/Raum) are not present.
Speakersdesk	1020	Call in case your speaker is not present!
Security	110	Security Issues
CERT	112	Medical Emergency
VOC	1600	Call in case there are technical (Video) issues that you can not resolve through the VOC-Angels in the Saal
Infodesk	1111	Call if there is a conflict with the schedule or an attendee has a question you cannot answer.
Lindworm	5463	Call if you are overwhelmed or need assistance
Ijon	4566	Call if you are overwhelmed or need assistance
all Stagemanagers	1602