The Ig Nobel organizers have the definitive solution to this problem youtu.be/xAnVNXaa5oA

Bob Geldof did this for Live Aid…a traffic light with Green, Yellow, and “You won’t see red…we’ll cut power…”

I WANT THIS

For the @sociologicalsci.bsky.social conference last spring, organizer @vaiseys.bsky.social bought a couple of large (18"? 24"?) digital timers with loud buzzers. Speaker could see the timer, but session organizer controlled it (with a remote). Lo and behold, very few speakers went long.

One of my proudest professional moments

Definitely belongs under "service to the profession" on your CV. (So does the conference, of course, but I mean the tech innovation.)

Looks like stagetimer.io and they’re great.

Went to a Unix conference years ago where they shot ping pong balls at the speakers when their time was up

“Please stop - cocktail hour is waiting”

Kari Lake?

Yes.

Every conference, period

She’s still talking, so same results as we get right now?

But the “[Insert academic here] is waiting” bit could exacerbate the problem depending on which intradisciplinary feud is ascendant at the moment.

Two of them - one for the speakers, one audience-facing for Q&A.

“stop talking, that’s a comment not a question.”

Also like a penalty scoreboard where people who have “more of a comment than a question,” have to display how many times they’ve done this.

When I'm speaking at a conference I always start off the Q&A with - "please ask short, simple questions to be respectful of everyone's time, and so that we can get to as many questions as possible". Assuming lots of people want to ask questions, of course 😄

No phrase could get an academic off stage faster

My provost has us doing some things PechaKucha style with timed slides. It was terrifying at first but now I like it.

I sort of enjoy the hastily scribbled note on paper ripped from a notebook and slid over to the speaker.

Operated from a central location, so the junior scientists moderating the panel aren't influenced by how famous the blowhard is. And a trapdoor at the lecturn...