Most sessions at the ASSA meetings follow a relatively simple format: talk/discussant x 4.
This has the advantage of allowing people to switch between sessions at the 30/60/90-minute points, but other than that do you feel it is a good format? To me it feels a bit limiting.
Claudia Sahm and I are organising a session on Cognitive Economics (8am, Sunday 6th Jan) and we have decided to vary the standard format a bit: we are still presenting 4 papers but in just 22 minutes each, allowing half an hour for a panel discussion at the end. In the panel, George Loewenstein, Miles Kimball and I will discuss developments in the cognitive economics field and relate this back to the four papers. The discussion will allow some time for audience Q&A too, but we will limit Q&A during the papers themselves to clarification questions.
Would be interested in any other variations on the format that you have seen, and what you think worked well or did not.