I’ve been talking to a gaggle (which is not quite a google) of meeting planners over the last several years about what makes a panel discussion successful.
I’ve boiled it down to four basic criteria. You make sure you have these four items, then your panel discussion will be the hit of the conference. Miss one, and it will be okay but nothing remarkable or memorable. Miss two and you won’t surprise anyone, since audiences don’t have high expectations of panels. Miss three or four and you will have a total snooze-fest.
So here’s the deal: At the very least, you MUST:
Anything beyond these four criteria is gravy. For example, I was going to add “entertaining” to the list, but not all panels need to be entertaining to be good. I think it’s “gravy” and nice to have, but not imperative.
What do you think? Am I missing any criteria?
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Kristin Arnold, professional panel moderator and high-stakes meeting facilitator, shares her best practices for interactive, interesting, and engaging panel presentations. For more resources like this, or to have Kristin moderate your next panel visit the Powerful Panels official website.