How to Keep Out the Crickets

One of the most awkward experiences you can have as a conference pro or speaker is at the end of a keynote or panel when the audience is asked if they have any questions and you are greeted with the soothing chirping of crickets. And there are 15 minutes left before the next session.

Over the years, I have seen audience participation gradually dwindle at conferences. One of these days I’ll write about why I think this is the case.

Still, there are those speakers who attract questions. And others who do not. Most speakers are among the "others".

Yet even for this latter group, there are easy ways to silence the crickets.

One is to have the speaker eat up all the time with their prepared talk and then announce, apologetically, that we are running long and there will be no time for Q&A. Everyone who does this for a living has experienced this either by accident or design.

A better way to do this is for the moderator to prepare a bank of good questions so they are ready to eat up the 5,10, or however many minutes are left for Q&A with an actual Q&A. I stick these in my back pocket -- figuratively since I rarely write anything down.

The moderator should tell the audience that if anyone has a question, they should raise their hand, step up to the mic, or follow whatever process is used for fielding audience questions. The moderator should then dive in and start asking their back-pocket questions. Ideally, a few freshly conceived questions are mixed in as well.

I have never believed in sharing these questions with speakers in advance, even if they ask. Keep it organic. They usually will accept this. And many speakers prefer to have an organic conversation. As they should in my view.

The moderator must keep an eye on the audience at all times so that no question is ignored. I have had some mishaps on this point. I'll share these someday in an article on my most embarrassing on-stage moments. There have been a few over the years. You learn to shake them off.

If an audience member does step up to the mic, the moderator can always pause their 1:1 Q&A and take the question.

If there are audience questions, that’s great. If not, there is still an awesome Q&A between the speaker and moderator. It often ends up being a blend of audience and moderator questions. And that’s what you want.

Pro tip. Cue the audience once, maybe twice that questions are welcome. If you cue the audience repeatedly it just draws attention to their lack of participation. They heard you the first time you said it.

Now you know how to keep the crickets out of the room.