Liaisons Planning

Planning Your Topics

Ultimately you and your section know your field of law and practice best. If you are wanting to know what was covered in the past, your CLE Program Coordinator can supply you with agendas and materials. It will also be helpful to reference any course evaluations for suggestions from previous attendees. 

Planning Your Speakers

General Information

• All speakers will receive complimentary registration for participating in the program.
• All speakers, should they need it, will receive credit for the speaking time. Speakers will receive credit for their presentation and the time prepared for it.
• Speaker order, duration, and grouping will be determined by you, your section, and/or the speakers.
• CLE will handle contacting them in regards to materials and specific day of needs.

Who Will Speak?

This is one of the most common questions. And the answer is...It depends! Here are some things to consider what is best for your section and speakers.

Individual/Paired Speakers

• Most presentations only require 1 to 2 presenters.
• If you have a single speaker for a presentation, consider talking time. An hour is just enough time for one speaker to talk and to hold the audience's attention. During any presentation exceeding an hour, the speaker can grow tired or thirsty and the audience can lose interest. Plan timed or topic breaks accordingly around this.
• If speakers are concerned about the amount of credits they will receive, it is best for them to present a topic individually or with one other presenter. This is not a frequent concern but something that can be brought up.
• Transition time between individual or paired speakers tends to be easier not only for the audience, but also for CLE and our audio/visual team.

Groups/Panels 

• Determine if there is enough time to have multiple people on a panel.
  • For example, if the session time is only 60 minutes, 3 panelists have 20 minutes of presentation time.
• Will the material be adequately covered?
  • Large panels (6+ presenters) can be great to highlight important people in your field. However, the amount of information covered may be minimal and leave your attendees with the feeling that they did not adequately learn the information.
• Is there enough transition time between sessions to get everyone presenting settled and prepared for the presentation?
  • Depending on the space and layout, it can take at least 10-15 minutes to rearrange between presentation sessions. This includes incoming speakers and the set up time for our audio/visual team.

If you are interested in how previous courses your section has conducted, your CLE Program Coordinator and Membership Services Coordinator can provide you with statistics and past agendas.