I led my first writer/reader panel nearly 30 years ago. In many ways, Giving a Good Panel is even trickier than Giving a Good Session. The latter is solely dependent upon your skills and knowledge, but the former requires a degree of cooperation, a balancing of knowledge and time, and a seriously good moderator.
Over the years, I’ve seen both brilliant and disastrous panels. This can be easily measured. Did everyone stay riveted in their seats? Or did the back half of the room empty in a steady trickle? I’ve seen panels drop 75% of their attendees in the first 10 minutes. Ugly.
Over the many conferences I’ve attended and spoken at, I’ve constantly asked myself and others what makes a panel stellar rather than mediocre (or best left early). And a lot of it can be traced to preparedness.
Giving a good panel doesn’t just happen; it takes thought and practice, so here are my favorite tips. I’ve provided an abbreviated form of this to conference speakers with good results.
Do the math
Most conference panels are 45–60 minutes. That means the panel should run 35 or 45 minutes to leave time for audience Q&A.
They also typically have three to five speakers. So, if five people answer five questions at three minutes per answer, that’s 40 minutes. If one of them is an uncontrolled talker (perhaps awesome in story and relevance, but still given to long answers), running even five to six minutes per answer will shut out others badly.
On the panel
- If you tend to think and speak in long sentences or stories, monitor yourself so that the moderator doesn’t have to.
- Test yourself:
- Look at the topic of your panel and think up a good question that you’re excited about answering.
- Now, go look in the bathroom mirror (or better yet, at a willing friend), start the stopwatch on your phone, turn it face down, and then give a succinct (and perhaps amusing, with a story attached) answer. Stop the clock. Three to five minutes, right?
- Now, set the timer function for 60 seconds, leave it face up, and try the answer again. Think up five more questions and do the same. This will give you a feel for a good average answer length.
- Why do I set the strict 60 seconds for training yourself? First, if you’re a good speaker, you’ll think up more to add during the panel itself, but you’ll feel the time better. Second, keeping the answer succinct leaves more time for other panelists to riff off your answer and turn it into a discussion—which is what makes for the best panels.
- Are you an “um”er or “uh”er? Stop it! How? Use the voice recorder app on your phone and listen to yourself give your practice answers. Listen back at 1x (normal) speed. Try again. Becoming conscious of that habit is the first step to killing it.
- When it’s a question to the whole group, feel free to pass if you don’t have something relevant to offer. Share the time. It keeps things moving.
- Lively discussion and humor among the panelists can make for a very good panel.
- Stay on topic. Yes, one idea leads to another. Before you let it lead you there, ask yourself if it is on topic.
Moderators
Moderating a panel well is a more involved and complex skill.
- There are two major types of panel moderators. One is the pure moderator, offering questions, cutting off (tactfully) runaway speakers, keeping the discussion lively, and possibly shifting questions on the fly to clarify key points. The other is a “speaking moderator.” You could easily take a seat on the panel, and you may often answer a question as you go. First tip: do so only after the other panelists have had a chance to speak. This offers you the chance to clarify, enhance, or fill in missing points. Remember, you’re the one with the overview role for making it a complete and satisfying experience for the audience. Second tip: let the audience know that you are a speaking moderator; otherwise they may get confused by this altered but powerful structure.
- Pre-panel preparation:
- Research your panelists: hit their websites or have a quick online meeting with them before the conference. Part of giving a good panel is knowing how to play to their strengths. “Lisa, your chapter opening lines are like fired arrows. How do you think about creating those?” “Chris, you write in massive series. What are your thoughts on mid-point entries into that series?”
- Send your panelists a draft list of questions or solicit questions they would like to be asked. In a list of 10, assume that you will only get to five.
- Pre-panel at the show:
- Set up a pre-panel meet-up or arrive as quickly as possible before the panel.
- Meet each person and check their preferred name pronunciation. Do they go by their writer initials, or their first name, etc.? (I like to be introduced by my pen name, M. L. Buchman, but call me Matt after that.)
- There may be a room timekeeper. Tell them what timings you want them to wave at you. Note where they’re sitting before you start.
- Check the conference app if there is one. Questions may have been pre-submitted. You can use these to shift your questions slightly or even credit one to an audience member, creating buy-in.
- The panel itself:
- The real key here is that you set the tone of the session. If you start with energy and excitement about the topic, the panel and the audience will key off that. If you don’t, they’ll key off that just as thoroughly.
- Time is short, so keep introductions very short. Perhaps start with, “If you want to know more about these folks, their bios are in the program/app.”
- If you feel that isn’t enough? Have them go down the table with a topic-appropriate one-line intro: “I’m Bill and I have 35 romance novels and 50 short stories.” “I spend six figures monthly on social media ads and net seven figures.” Jump right in with your questions. Make sure you start with one that everyone has seen so they’ve had time to think about it. Preferably one to which there are short answers to get things moving.
- If someone rambles, don’t hesitate to cut them off—nicely. “Bert, let me interrupt to ask you real quickly, what’s the key point you want people to take away about this?” Or less gently: “Yep, Erin talks even more than I do.” Then laugh.
- Consider panelist-directed questions (based on research above): “Here’s a question for Val and Jonas….”
- Once rolling, don’t be afraid to toss in a new question or spin one off of an ongoing discussion. This is a very useful tool to redirect a discussion that is rambling or running too long.
- Timing:
- Keep an eye on the clock. A watch or a clock app (that your phone doesn’t blank out in 30 seconds) should be on the desk in front of you. (Try the Big Red Clock app.)
- At 20 minutes to the end of time, make sure you’ve hit your key questions. Ask any missing ones now.
- By 15 minutes to end of time, work on your wrap-up, lightning-round questions, or however you want to close out the panel.
- Find a moment to check any conference app, as questions may be funneled to you this way. If you are a “speaking moderator,” feel free to do a few quick answers yourself. By 10 minutes to the end, open up questions from the floor.
- Always repeat the question for the other participants, the audience, and the recording.
- At two minutes to end, “Time for one last quick question.”
- At time, “Thank you all for coming.” If there’s an app: “Please take a minute right now and go to the description of this session in the app. Hit the link to rate this session. That really helps us know what we’re doing right and what we can do better.”
Post-panel
- Be sure to thank the other panelists. Hopefully, they helped make you look good. Thank them for that.
- Move immediately away from the desk. If there are people with questions, get out of the way for the next panelists before answering any questions.
- If the conversations are likely to run longer, get everybody out in the hallway so the next panel can get set up and started on time. Remember, politeness is the key here.
Thorough prep and planning are essential. Do not assume that you simply “know” a topic well enough. There’s more to giving a good panel than that. As a moderator: prep your panel beforehand by learning about them and formulating questions together. (This process can also be started by any panelist.) During the session, watch the three keys carefully: on topic, on time, and on energy.
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USA Today and Amazon No. 1 bestseller M. L. “Matt” Buchman is the author of 75-plus novels, 200 short stories, and lots of audiobooks. PW says of his action-adventure thrillers: “Tom Clancy fans open to a strong female lead will clamor for more.” Booklist declared his military romance novels: “3X Top 10 Romance of the Year.” A project manager with a geophysics degree, he’s designed and built houses, flown and jumped out of planes, solo-sailed a 50-foot sailboat, and bicycled solo around the world … and he quilts.