Panel discussion

A panel discussion, or simply a panel, involves a group of people gathered to discuss a topic in front of an audience, typically at scientific, business, or academic conferences, fan conventions, and on television shows.^[1] Panels usually include a moderator who guides the discussion and sometimes elicits audience questions, with the goal of being informative and entertaining.^[2][3]

A panel discussion is a specific format used in a meeting, conference, or convention.  It is a live (or recorded), in-person, virtual, or “hybrid” discussion about a specific topic amongst a selected group of experts who share differing perspectives in front of an in-person, virtual, or geographically dispersed audience.^[4]

Serving as a Panelist

The main purpose of a panel discussion is for the panelists to share their wisdom and provide insights to create real value and takeaways for the audience. It’s an “up close and personal” discussion among the panelists and with the audience.  It’s the part of the story that you can’t find on Google, YouTube, or TED.^[5] Serving as an expert panelist is an honor and a method for showcasing an individual’s expertise beyond their traditional network. A successful panelist should concisely communicate key points to the proposed questions or discussion topics in a manner that amplifies others and contributes to a collaborative session.^[6]

Film panels at fan conventions have been credited with boosting box office returns by generating advance buzz.

While you may be asked to prepare some initial remarks, there is more to being a strong, engaging panelist than just showing up and presenting your wisdom. You may or may not know your fellow panelists, the questions in advance, or the direction of the conversation. Knowing that your reputation or your company’s is on the line, it is worth taking the time to prepare to be a powerful panelist.^[7]

Moderating a Panel Discussion

Follow these tips to moderate a lively and informative panel discussion:

Select, invite and confirm interesting panelists. If panelists have not yet been selected, round up “DEEP” people who can sufficiently address the topic:

Diverse. Make sure the panel represents the demographic of the audience while ensuring a diversity of opinion and thoughts. A group that is in complete agreement can make a discussion boring.

Expertise. Invite a recognized authority or thought leader in the industry who possesses strong credentials. That person must establish credibility with the audience quickly via a biography or a 30-second introduction.

Eloquent. Panelists should be good conversationalists. Do they speak well on the phone? Did your interview with them produce a monologue or a discussion? Review video footage of your potential panelists to make sure they can keep the audience engaged and interested.

Prepared. Panelists must be willing to make a few key points and tell stories that illustrate those points. Preparation makes the difference between a mediocre panel and an amazing one.

Research. It is your job to facilitate the conversation so the audience draws value from the panel’s expertise and perspectives. To do this effectively, you must be familiar with the panelists, the topic and the expectations of the audience.

Create a panel format. You don’t have to settle for the typical long, draped table. Why not spice it up using a popular television-talk-show format? At a recent sales meeting, we did a spoof on the American TV talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and had the moderator come out in a tie, vest and sneakers, as host Ellen DeGeneres does herself.

Write the welcome and introductions. Make them short and snappy—after all, panelist biographies are printed in the program, so you don’t have to repeat them. Try projecting one slide showing each panelist’s photo (in the same seating order as in the event) along with a headline and Twitter username for each person. Then say something interesting about each one.

Compile great questions. Get the conversation started quickly with well-prepared questions. Start with broad questions to raise a conversation about current events. Next, move to stating the reasons the audience should care, and then ask specific questions to spur the panelists to share anecdotes, concrete examples and implementation ideas. Be willing to let go of your planned questions when an interesting discussion emerges.

Select the Q&A format. You don’t need to save your question-and-answer session for the end. You can take audience questions as you go, or dedicate specific times to take them. Determine how you will entertain those questions: You can have audience members line up at the microphone and take “live” questions, or you can assign microphone “runners” to go to inquirers who have their hands raised. As moderator, you can also roam the audience to take questions. Another option is to “screen” queries and prioritize them in the moment using question cards or texting or tweeting (I love using sli.do for this). Another approach is to form small groups from the audience and ask each one to discuss ideas, and have a group representative present the best question.

Determine room logistics. As a public speaker, you know how crucial the setup of the room is to the success of your speech. The same thing holds true for a panel discussion. As a general rule for panels, a snug space helps everyone hear the conversation. You’ll need to think through the furniture type and placement, screen, seating arrangement and microphones. Ideally, each moderator and panelist should have his or her own lavalier microphone, and a cordless handheld microphone should be reserved for audience interaction.

Arrive early. Meet briefly with each panelist and review the agenda and ground rules. Do a walk-through of the room. Check the microphones and your slideshow.

Keep the conversation moving. If you have prepared the panelists appropriately, and you kick off the discussion with a few good questions, the conversation will start to flow on its own. Encourage each panelist to comment on particular parts of other panelists’ statements. Be flexible about following the natural conversation path, as long as it is interesting and the audience is engaged. You may, however, need to interject a follow-up question here and there to keep the conversation moving at a brisk pace. Probe deeper, make bridges between ideas, present opposing views, catch contradictions, test the unsaid, shift gears, create transitions and intervene firmly and respectfully to keep everyone on track.

Be playful. Smile. Always be uplifting. Bring positive energy to the stage. Compliment the audience and the panelists. Never criticize, even if it’s to get a laugh.

Use callbacks. Your biggest opportunity for humor is to use “callbacks” by mentioning something that has previously been said. Listen to anything that happens spontaneously in the room that causes a laugh and seek clever ways to reference it again. Callbacks make it fun for the audience, and they make you look witty.

Put a bow on it. Let the audience know the program is coming to an end by saying “We’re almost out of time. There are a few key things to wrap up.” Then, summarize the discussion (or have your panelists do it), and offer opportunities to extend the discussion beyond the session. Share each panelist’s contact information and promote their agenda (now is the time for each one to make one short plug for their company, product or service). Make final announcements and conclude with heartfelt words of thanks and a round of applause.^[8]

Format

The typical format for a discussion panel includes a moderator in front of an audience.^[9] Kristin Arnold, MBA, CPF, CSP thinks panels should be more inspired. She offers the following 10 Tips to Improve Panel Discussions.

Television shows in the English-speaking world that feature a discussion panel format include Real Time with Bill Maher, Loose Women, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, as well as segments of the long-running Meet the Press.^[10] Quiz shows featuring this format, such as QI and Never Mind the Buzzcocks, are called panel games.

Stick with the traditional format and you’re likely to bore your audience. Instead, try these 10 tips to add more pizzazz to your panel discussions.^[11]

1 Set the stage.

You can tell that a panel is going to be duller than dirt when you walk into the room and there’s a long draped table at the front and a lectern to the side. Yawn! Create a warmer, more intimate setting with comfortable chairs set in a shallow semicircle and a small table in front or to the side. Have a welcome sign at the door and post intriguing pictures, phrases and quotations on the walls. Play upbeat, popular, age-appropriate music. Show a continuously looping slideshow with panelist bios and interesting tidbits of information about the topic.

2 Engage beforehand.

Why wait for the panel to start? Ask those registered for the event to submit questions and comments about the discussion topic through social media channels, a blog or a web-based survey. Then weave the comments and questions—as well as the names of the people submitting them, if appropriate—into the panel discussion.

3 Get them mingling.

Rather than have the panelists huddle at the front, encourage them to mingle with the audience. Suggest that they ask audience members easy questions such as, “What brings you here today?” or  “What’s your biggest challenge relating to this topic?” You, as a moderator, can ask the audience questions too. You’re establishing rapport with the audience and gathering valuable information you can incorporate into the discussion.

4 Start strong!

Grab the attention of the audience with a video, poll, relevant fact, statistic, quotation or anecdote. After you review the agenda with the audience to give them an idea of how the program will unfold, keep the momentum going with an “opening salvo,” where you give each panelist an opportunity to launch an idea, position or challenge. The purpose is to frame the ensuing discussion, not deliver answers. Here are some ideas for those opening salvos:

• Be provocative. Ask the panelists a challenging question related to the topic.
• Point/Counterpoint. Ask one panelist, “What’s your main point on this topic?” Then ask for a counterpoint—an alternative view. Depending on the topic, you can have several different points of view. Diverse viewpoints make things more interesting.
• Show and tell. Use a prop to help an audience visualize, understand, accept and remember an idea, concept or theme.

5 Vary the format.

Shake things up with an entertaining format. Take a cue from television talk shows. American talk-show host Phil Donahue used to walk through the audience and reflect the questions and conversation back to the guests (panelists) on the stage.

Or you can tone it down to a chatty, conversational style, like the popular U.S. talk show The View. The possibilities are endless!

6 Poll the audience.

At the beginning of the discussion, gauge the room with a quick survey or quiz using a show of hands or any type of audience response system. Presentation coach Karen Hough, the founder and CEO of ImprovEdge in Ohio, is a big fan of audience involvement. In an article in The Huffington Post, she writes about how she likes to “leverage a yes or no topic by asking the audience: ‘Let’s pause and see what our audience thinks of that.’ … That involves the audience and gives you fodder to comment on the panelist’s story. ‘Wow, John, less than half of our audience would have taken action as you did. Tell us how you summoned the courage to do so.’”

7 Nudge your neighbor.

Periodically, ask audience members to talk with the person sitting to their left or right about the discussion topic. Frame the question so there will be differing opinions. For example, you can ask, “What are the misconceptions around this topic?” or “Is this a fact or fiction?” Or you can ask about the discussion points that are most applicable to audience members and how they will apply the information they’ve learned. Debrief these micro discussions with the larger group by taking two or three comments as well as one or two questions from the panel at the beginning of the discussion, periodically during the event or to start off a question and answer session.

8 Crowdsource the Q&A.

Scott Kirsner, who writes about technology for the Boston Globe newspaper and moderates technology-related discussions, posted the “13 Guidelines for Great Panel Discussions”. He writes, “I can’t emphasize enough how important a Q&A period is; without one (or with an abbreviated one), it sends the message that the audience is there to be passive listeners rather than active participants.”

Let the audience drive the questions by using tools such as these:

• Question cards. Pass out index cards to the audience. At specific times during the discussion, collect and sort through the cards, selecting those that encapsulate key themes or pose intriguing questions. Or have an audience member or panelist randomly select a card.
• Smartphones. Invite the audience to text or tweet with the appropriate hashtag or phone number. Check the feed periodically and comment as appropriate. You can also use a meeting app such as www.slido.com that lets the audience create and “like” the questions so their favorites float to the top of the list.
• Small groups. Have audience members break into groups of two or three and discuss what questions they would like to ask. Pick random groups and have them ask their best question.

9 Create a tweetable sound bite.

The late Garry Marshall, a famed Hollywood movie director (Pretty Woman, The Princess Diaries), once said, “Film directors know that if people walk out of your movie repeating a phrase they heard, that movie will make money. It means audience members are taking the movie home with them.” What will your audience find themselves repeating from the panel discussion? Encourage your panelists to share their key points in “headline” form: a phrase of no more than five words that encapsulates the idea and is memorable long after the panel discussion is over.

10 Create an exclusive moment.

Audiences are looking for that moment where the curtain is pulled back on the topic. They are hoping the panelists will share their wisdom and insights—that there will be an element of surprise, a sharing of diverse viewpoints and provocative thinking. That the discussion will be spontaneous and unscripted, offering a glimpse behind the scenes and access to insider information. Audiences want an exclusive, a story you can’t find on Google, YouTube or TED.com.

Virtual Panel Discussions

Here are the top 10 tips to moderating a lively and informative virtual panel discussion:

Fan conventions

Panels at sci-fi fan conventions, such as San Diego Comic-Con and New York Comic Con, have become increasingly popular; there are typically long lines to get access to the panels.^[13] The panels often feature advance looks at upcoming films and video games.^[14] Panels and the early screenings at conventions have been credited as increasing the popularity of blockbuster films in recent years.^[15]

One of the earliest film panels was at the 1976 San Diego Comic-Con, when publicist Charles Lippincott hosted a slideshow—in front of a "somewhat skeptical" audience—for an upcoming film called Star Wars. Five years later, the Blade Runner panel at the 1981 San Diego Comic-Con featured a film featurette, before featurettes were popular. At the 2000 event, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring preview panel ushered in today's era of hugely popular panels.^[16]

Manels

A manel is a panel whose participants are all men. The term is a portmanteau word deriving from the man and panel. The Oxford Dictionaries and Cambridge Dictionaries teams both published blog posts on the word in 2017, suggesting the term was new at that time.^[17][18] In the second decade of the twenty-first century, such panels, in academia, the private sector, the media, government, and beyond, became the object of feminist critique and of extensive media discussion,^[19][20][21] as well as academic research.^[22][23] Commentators challenged conference organizers and speakers to refuse to present manels. Organisations responding included The Financial Times, whose board decided in August 2017 to end men-only conference panels, and encouraged its journalists not to participate in these elsewhere.^[24]

See also

• News conference

References