Organising an event? Here's how to put together a great panel

Hi team

It has been networking season, with June busy for meetings and conferences.

I went to the Page International Exchange, for Chief Communications Officers, to the European Association for Communication Directors Summit, and to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. All of these events have been intellectually stimulating (and physically draining!) and super great for keeping in touch with what is happening in the industry and beyond.

And...reader, in the last month I have sat through and participated in enough panels to last a lifetime.

Having worked for nearly a decade at the Word Economic Forum, I feel I have some experience in this regard, so for what it is worth, here is Mike’s guide how to organise a good panel. It is not definitive and this has never been my actual job, so I’m criticising from the sidelines a bit here. Please do let me know what I have got wrong or missed out in the comments.?

Why do people come?

People come to conferences for (mainly) three things:

1. To meet people. New people they have never met, and professional contacts they have met before and are happy to reconnect with;
2. To learn new things;
3. To be seen as having industry expertise, and perhaps open up new opportunities.

At big meetings like Cannes Lions or Davos, there is a whole separate track around doing business deals. Let’s not go there just now.?

Why do panels?

On the learn new things point from above, panel sessions - groups of people on stage talking through a topic, often do much of the work.

Panels serve several purposes:

• They allow people to showcase their industry experience and expertise;
• They give people a “role”, and so increase the attractiveness of a particular event in the competition for people’s time;
• They *might* help the audience learn something new.

They can also be extraordinarily dull, waste people’s time, and invite people to multitask on their phones or laptops while participants on stage rabbit on. After a day of sitting through lots of panels, participants tend to hit the bar hard out of sheer exhaustion, so I guess they serve that purpose as well.

Designing a panel? Here are some things to keep in mind

When you are putting together your conference programme, think about these things:

1. Could this be a workshop rather than a panel?

Workshops can be difficult to organise and require good, strong leadership to pull off well. And a good workshop is worth 5 panels to a participant because they:

• Learn more by doing, and
• Get to know other participants more deeply by interacting with them in an active way.

2. How diverse is the panel?

Who are these people and why are they on stage together? Are they all white males, or Asian females, or all from the same organisation, or all coming at the subject from the same position? The best panels are those where participants come at subjects from different directions, disagree about some things, can add perspective and build on each other’s contributions, or collectively answer complex questions.

3. How good is the moderator?

It is a difficult job to moderate a panel well. Most panelists don’t know how to behave on stage. They have come with their talking points or their product or services to spruik, the moderator introduces them, asks the first question, and then they just keep talking and talking. Butting in is difficult and seems rude for the moderator. And then of course, each panelist should be given equal airspace, so the moderator is trapped into letting each person on stage rob the audience of their lives.?

The moderator has to establish authority early, ask specific and interesting questions, and then shape the speakers responses. This is easier said than done. If you are organising a panel, think carefully about who is asking the questions - there is a reason why journalists make good moderators, they have been trained to ask pointed questions and probe for answers when they don’t get them.

4. How well structured is the panel?

Panels shouldn't just be a free for all. That way lies chaos, boredom and the monologue sales pitch.

Instead, prepare a formal “session structure” that outlines who is on the panel, the “objective” for the session - so what questions will the panel answer, and what value will the audience get in exchange for their time. It should also include any interesting points about participant’s backgrounds, a minute-by-minute running order for the session, and some starting questions for the moderator.

4. How well prepared is the panel?

For most participants, appearing on a conference panel is not their first priority. Perhaps they haven’t thought about it too deeply, or it just appeared on their schedule. It is your job to get them to think about it, to take it seriously and to prepare - maybe even do some research and come with some case studies or numbers.

Share the session structure with the panelists well before the meeting, have a pre-session briefing call, and then remind them of it on the day. Invite panelists to convene 30 minutes before the session so that they can get to know each other, and the moderator can ask pre-questions and line things up for show time.?

Do all that, and you have a half a chance of having an interesting session that adds value to the audience and the panelists as well.?

I hope this is helpful, please do share with anyone you know who may be organising a meeting.