I was having a great conversation with Mark Milroy, CAE, Vice President of Learning at ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership. He has seen ALOT of panel proposals come through his office – most of which say, “I’ll put great people on the panel and make it interesting for the audience. We’ll use humor, stories, and have audience Q&A.“
That’s not enough. If you want your panel proposal to be approved, take the time to develop your game plan:
The legendary SXSW conference has a ton of panels. So many, they created the “Panel Picker” where they say, “The more specific a proposal is, the better. Seriously. We mean it. Specificity demands a lot more thought and planning — and pre-event thought and planning are the two biggest keys to a successful session. For example, a topic like “How Free Downloads Hurt Radiohead” would work better than the more general “Free Downloads and the Future of Music.”
It all boils down to uniqueness and specificity. No one wants to see the same old boring white table panel discussion with microphones and tent cards. What are you going to do to stand out, be noticed and deliver amazing value to the attendees? And the more specific you can be, the better.
For more tips on planning a powerful panel, listen to this podcast.
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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.
Photo source: Design Pickle