Peer sessions, the heart of every peer conference, are the sessions generated by the roundtable and peer session signup processes.
During peer session determination and
scheduling the initial form of each chosen peer session—presentation, panel,
discussion, workshop, simulation, tour or excursion—becomes clear. Sometimes
the actual session strays a little from what was originally proposed; for
example when a presenter discovers that there are two people present who have
valuable experience to contribute, or an attendee is discovered to know
considerably more than her fellow panelists. Peer sessions handle such straggling on the fly, with the help of a short printed handout
given to each participant in advance—the Peer Session Primer. 
This handout gives attendees the information they need to participate in a peer session.
Although the mix of
session formats varies from conference to conference, I have noticed that peer
conferences tend to have a much higher proportion of discussion-based sessions
than traditional conferences.
A peer session,
whatever its form or subject, is informal. The number of attendees at any
session is small, usually less than fifteen, encouraging a casual atmosphere.
As a result, peer session presentations or panels are very different from
traditional conference presentations or panels. Because topics are determined
at short notice, no one attending a session expects polished speeches, thus
providing an unthreatening environment for attendees who have discovered that
they have something of value to share. In general, questions during the session
are welcomed.
Every peer session has
a facilitator assigned before the session takes place (for a presentation, the
presenter is the facilitator.) Another handout, Peer Session Facilitation, gives session facilitators appropriate guidance.
Finally, it’s
important to capture what happens during a conference’s peer sessions by
creating a record of each session’s activities and content. With more than one peer session taking place simultaneously, I recommend that a scribe
be found for each session. The scribe is responsible for recording the names of
people present (using a circulated attendance sheet) and creating notes on peer session content. The scribes’ work is then posted on a conference web site
or wiki, together with links to any other resources mentioned during the
session, for the benefit of all attendees.