Professional Panel Moderator Kristin Arnold asks Mark Sanborn, Leadership Keynote Speaker, panel moderator, and member of the US Speaker Hall of Fame to share his favorite closing question to ask the panelists during a panel discussion at meetings, conferences and conventions.
Video Transcript
Kristin: So Mark, what’s your favorite closing question to the panelists?
Mark: Well I like to give the panelist an opportunity for a really concise and powerful idea. So it would be a variation around, “If you could share just one idea with the audience that would be the most important for them to remember about what we’ve discussed today what would that be?” That gives them a chance to summarize and to emphasize what it is they shared. Or I might say what’s the one thing you would wish you had a chance to say today that you haven’t, because that gives them a chance to add something in there that they might feel later like wow I wish I had an opportunity to say that. And the idea is to frame it in such a way that they know that it needs to be more of a sound bite than a soliloquy.
It needs to be concise rather than expanded because it’s the recency effect. The audience is going to most remember what they hear last so even if you had a dynamite panel but it ends flat, overall the perception can be that it was a flat panel.
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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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