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“What if no one has a question during the Q&A segment of my panel discussion?”
It’s a real fear and one that many panel organizers and moderators have. If you have an audience that historically doesn’t lean into audience Q&A, or you just don’t know if they will or not, you may want to proactively manage the situation.
Chip and Dan Heath, in their book The Power of Moments, use the term “to pop the cork” by having a “plant” in the audience and giving them a tough question to get the questions rolling.
But that’s not the only way to pop the cork. Here are some other ideas to get your Q&A started:
- Plant Audience Members. Have a few people in the audience prepared with thoughtful questions to break the ice.
- Get Questions from Technology. Add some interesting starter questions to the meeting app or web-based tools such as Slido or Mentimeter to let people submit and upvote questions anonymously.
- Get Questions from Cards. Distribute cards for audience members to write their questions on, and collect them during the session. Have the panelists pick from one of the cards!
- Small Group Discussions. Have the audience discuss a prompt in small groups for a few minutes, then ask each group to share a question that emerged.
- Poll the Audience. Pose a question to the audience (e.g., “How many of you have faced this issue?”) and use raised hands as a segue to a related question.
- Reward the First Questioner. Offer a small prize (e.g., a book, a free consultation, or event swag) for the first few questions.
- Finish the Sentence. Start a statement like, “One thing I wish I knew about this topic is…” and invite the audience to complete it.
- Play Q&A Bingo. Project a BINGO card on the screen and periodically ask a question from the BINGO card.
- Raffle for Question-Askers. Enter question-askers into a raffle to encourage more people to participate.
- Pick from A, B, or C. List three intriguing questions and have the audience vote on which the panel should tackle. It boosts anticipation and gives the audience agency.
- Pick a Card, Any Card. Gather the question cards and approach a panelist or audience member and dare them to “pick a card, any card.”
- Card Swap. Ask participants to write their questions on a card. Take one card and find someone to exchange cards with.
- Reverse Q&A. Invite the panelists to ask the audience questions first. This often inspires reciprocal engagement.
- Throw a Frisbee(r). Throw a foam object such as a Frisbee into the audience. The one who catches it can ask a question or insist that the person next to them asks one instead.
- Prompt a Question. Use a relevant image, quote, or data point as a visual prompt and ask the audience for their thoughts or questions.
- 1 Minute Answer & Flag. Audience asks a question. Panelist(s) get one minute to answer. Then the moderator polls the audience as to whether they want to continue the discussion or move on to the next question.
- Executive Hot Seat Q&A. Ask participants to write their most challenging questions on cards. Collect the cards and pose the questions to the executive/panelist. Each panelist is allowed one “pass” but it has to be answered!
It’s so easy to pop the cork and get the questions rolling during a panel discussion!
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For more information about how to moderate a lively & informative panel discussion, check out our free 7-part video series on how to moderate a panel and other resources to help you organize, moderate, or be a panel member.
