Powerful Panels Blog
June 10, 2015
How much research should a moderator do in preparation for a panel discussion? For some, not a lot is required because they are a seasoned moderator […]
June 3, 2015
I see it all the time: A panel that lacks visual diversity.  It’s a bunch of middle-aged white men as panelists and no women or minorities.  In […]
May 27, 2015
A recent Rasmussen poll found that 46 percent of Americans want ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos banned from all 2016 campaign coverage following the revelation last week […]
May 27, 2015
When putting together a powerful panel, you want the ideal panelists – a handful of interesting people with different experiences and perspectives.  In other words, look […]
May 20, 2015
“Oh, we don’t use panels at our conferences,” says the meeting organizer for a well-known conference.
May 15, 2015
I was facilitating a roundtable discussion at an un-named conference recently and watched an A/V perfect storm – a confluence of events that, individually would have been no […]
May 7, 2015
These are tough questions to ask a high-profile political figure:
April 24, 2015
Obviously, everyone has an opinion. But if you have a lot to say about the topic, then you should be a panelist and not the moderator. […]
April 16, 2015
Question:  I am moderating an upcoming panel with a wide range of panelists: One bona fide expert who has written a ton of books on the […]
April 10, 2015
A key skill of any panel moderator is to inspire conversation between the panelists. After the initial remarks (either through an initial presentation or first “hot […]
March 20, 2015
Yesterday, two seemingly unrelated items about panels hit the national media.
March 12, 2015
A recipe for panel disaster is allowing the panelists to “just show up” and expect brilliance to spring forth.  Sure, it could happen if the panelists […]
March 6, 2015
Is there such a thing as too many panels? Â Absolutely.
January 30, 2015
I stumbled upon a picture of a panel recently and cringed.  The moderator and panelists are sitting on simple, four legged barstools with an itty bitty […]
January 20, 2015
A few years back, I moderated two panels of my peers at the National Speakers Association’s CSP/CPAE Summit in Coral Gables, FL.  The Summit had about […]
