Static:Heralds

Heralds are the main spokesperson and speaker liaison before and during a lecture. Their primary function is to make sure the speaker is introduced, well equipped and speaks no longer than his or her allotted time.

Can I be a Herald Angel?

For this year, the 34c3, we decided to not create a Call for Heralds. Leipzig creates many challenges for all Teams, this is why we decided not to do the time-consuming Call for Heralds. We will instead run with experienced Heralds from past C3-Events. We already wrote emails to everyone, so if you haven't received an email so far, you are unfortunately not part of the 34c3-Heralds Team.

It is also worth noting, that many Heralds expressed the wish to do more then one shift on stage. In the last years we had so many Heralds, that most Heralds only did one shift. This year we are limiting the amount of Heralds by not training new Heralds, so that there is a fair chance of two shifts per Herald.

Communication

We run an opensource "Slack alternative" chat server called Rocket.chat that we are using to communicate during and before the event.

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

In the past, we established a low-traffic mailing list for the heralds of the CCC events. You could sign up here to get the latest news and announcements, but we don't use the mailinglist anymore, because we switched to the RT-system for the Casting-Process and the Rocket-Chat to manage all your request.

Job Description

The Herald is typically seen as the person who announces the speaker at the beginning of a talk/lecture/... (see Static:Schedule). That is just the easy part of the job! Being a Herald Angel involves the following:

1. Being familiar with your Speaker and their topic, enough to give a good introduction.
2. Being in the room at least 15 minutes prior to your shift.
3. Crowd-Control the audience
4. Making announcements
5. Introduce the speaker and the talk
6. Manage the Q&A

Herald Angel Briefing

In years before the 32c3, Herald Angels also did the tasks of the Stage managers. This year we will be splitting these tasks again. As a Herald, you need to cooperate closely with your stage manager and understand what the job of a stage manager includes. You can find more information here: Static:Stage_manager

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

Before the Congress

• Stay in touch with the Fahrplan and look up if something in your shift changed
• Prepare your Introductions. A How-To can be found here.

Preparation before the Talks

• Have your:
  • Talkcards
  • Announcements sheet (obtain from the Herald Coordinators/Herald Archangels if any)
  • Brief speaker introduction (make yourself familiar with your Speaker and the topic in advance!)
    • Contact the Speaker of your talks and ask the following questions
      • How would you like to be introduced? (modify your introduction slightly)
      • How do you properly pronounce your name?
      • How much time will you have for Q&A?
      • Make sure the speaker knows to repeat all questions into the microphone.
• Know the proper room and show up 15 minutes prior to the session. Identify the working Herald Angel. (Talk changes happen, be prepared!)
• DECT phone handy

Before a Talk

• 15 Minutes before the talk, please go to the designated area for room coordinators and get to know these people, so you know where they sit and you can recognize them:
  • A/V Technican
  • your Stagemanager
  • Subtitle Coordinator
  • Signal Angel

• Translation
  • All Talks will be translated in german or english, depending on wether they are in english or german
  • Check with your stage manager which live translations are offered. Announce the translation and the phone numbers in the target language of the translation. A translation angel might be available to help you with the announcement.
  • This year there wont be translation via DECT!
  • Your StageManager can press a button and this way show the Translation-Infoscreen on the Beamer. Ask him to do this at a pre-arranged keyword and explain to the audience how to listen to a (live) translation by installing the App and joining the right Room

Starting a Talk

• Kill time if the speaker needs more time to set up
  • Ask how people are enjoying the congress
• Crowd-Control
  • If needed seat the people so most people can attend live
• Make any announcements prior to introducing the speaker.
  • Sometimes there are changes to the schedule to announce
  • Remind people to ask questions into the microphone, since they are being broadcasted and recorded
  • In Saal1 and Saal2 there are two screens with live subtitles. Please inform the Crowd about this and ask them to provide the seats in front of them for audio-impaired persons, if asked. Also inform the crowd that the Subtitles are available on live.c3subtitles.de, which is optimized for usage on mobile devices
• Make a short break (~5-10sec) so the VOC knows where to cut the video
• Introduce the speaker
  • This can be as simple as, "(Speaker) will now talk about (Topic). Let's give (Him or Her) a warm round of applause!"
  • But, there are ways to create even better Introductions and we have created a Wikipage with a simple How-To to for you.

During Q&A

• If necessary, take the mic during Q&A and say "three more questions" or "one more question"
• communicate silent with your stage manager to know how may questions may be taken
• Be ready with a microphone or microphone stands to make sure the audience can ask questions into a microphone. (This is especially important for those watching a stream!)
• Try hard to have a 'personal' Microphone, which you can mute/unmute immediately without help from your Audioangel, so you can interfere in any possible situation.

When Your Speaker is Finished

• Take the stage and thank the Speaker Publicly. Ask for a Round of Applause.
• Wait 5-10sec so the VOC knows where to cut the video
• Make the necessary announcements
  • Remind the audience of any announcements
  • Mention the next upcoming talk
  • Ask the audience to please remove any trash with them as they leave
  • Check your Herald-Talk-Cards for any other relevant Announcements