Professional Panel Moderator Kristin Arnold asks Dr. Chip Bell, professional speaker and panel moderator how he refers to a panel discussion at meetings, conferences and conventions.
Video Transcript
Kristin: Chip, how do you represent your panels to the audience and panel members? Do you call them panels?
Chip: You are there as a catalyst, as a facilitator. You’re there to help make their conversation with the audience easier. So the facile side of a facilitating is always about how to make it easy for that conversation to occur. When I coach panels, I use that language a lot. “We’re going to have a conversation. This is not – I think every moderator probably starts there, is, “Let’s have a conversation. This is not about grandstanding. You can do that on your own time,” but here they’re looking for a conversation with customers about a particular topic – it’s like a focus group but public.
So, using language that helps them sort of get into the space of this is like a fireside chat and everybody wants to have their turn and their time and so helping them think that way often creates great conversation and there a lot of tricks of, “What happens if they go silent?” “What happens if nobody else has to say– How do we get them going?”
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Kristin Arnold, professional panel moderator, and high stakes meeting facilitator is on a crusade to make all panel discussions informative, interactive, and interesting. Specifically, she wants to help YOU become a better panel moderator. Why? Because 95% of annual meetings have panel discussions – and according to the 2014 Panel Report, it’s a fifty-fifty proposition they are any good at all! Expectations decrease dramatically when your attendees walk in and see the traditional draped head-table with microphones on short stands. There are sooooo many other ways to have a stimulating conversation! So let’s increase the probability of success for your next panel discussion with these resources.
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