The Rookie’s Guide to Prepping a Conference Panel
You have agreed to moderate a panel discussion on [insert topic here] at a conference in a few months. There are five participants on the panel, including yourself. Your task is to guide a 30-minute discussion among this group with no slides or prepared remarks.
You are excited. And terrified. How do you make sure this isn’t a train wreck?
First, there are worse things than train wrecks. At least everyone will watch a train wreck. What you want to avoid is boring the audience.
Here is a suggestion.
If you can wrangle all of the participants, have a practice panel on Zoom, Google Meet, etc. about a week before the main event. Run through some questions and record the meeting.
Watch the recording after the meeting and make note of the following:
Who talked a lot? And who said very little? Chances are this pattern will repeat itself on stage if you let it. Make a note to design a few questions exclusively for the low talker. And have a strategy for preventing the dominant talker from taking over the panel. For example, don’t be afraid to interrupt the big talker and toss the ball to another panelist. It’s as easy as “That’s great Bob. Jane, what do you think?” If you don’t take control, Bob will.
What questions or topics generated the most engaging discussion? Keep those questions. Conversely, if a topic falls flat on the call, it will likely flop on stage too. Make the appropriate adjustments.
After the call, create a one-page prep memo to share with the panelists. This will summarize how the session will flow (timing, etc.) and offer a few likely discussion topics, ideally those that performed best on the practice call. I prefer topics over questions. This sets an expectation for an organic vs. scripted discussion. I'm not too fond of scripted panels.
If the call was great, the panel should be too. If the call was a struggle, the recording will allow you to deconstruct what went wrong and create a plan to fix it. For example, you might adjust the discussion topics if some fell flat. Or you could manage the panel more assertively if the panelists were reluctant to jump in.
If you do not have much experience in running panels, this technique will help you keep the train on its tracks.
