Please Continue To Invite Me Despite This Post
I like being on panels. Sometimes I am promised that there will be hundreds of people in the audience, and there are only 20. Sometimes I show up expecting to speak off the cuff and discover it's a keynote presentation, but no one made that clear. Once I flew all the way to Barcelona, expecting an audience of thousands at the 60,000 person GSMA conference, but only 35 were at the privacy panel. But it's always an honor to talk about issues I love and, almost always, there is someone interesting to connect with or a thought provoking new idea is raised by the audience. It's not a bad way to make a living.
BUT...I do not like being on calls about panels. It takes a call when you are invited by the organizer. Then it takes 5 emails to schedule the call with the other panelists. Then you have a call to coordinate the speakers and tell them they each are assigned 7 minutes to talk on the program. All the participants on the organizing call are multi-tasking. One speaker joins 10 minutes late. One is on mute and takes 20 seconds to respond when called on. You take some notes about what you agreed to speak about, but later can't decipher them, if you can find them.
The organizer tries to set a follow up call, but after 5 more emails, no one agrees to a time. So it is decided to continue the conversation over email, which doesnt actually happen. By the time the conference begins, all have forgotten the topics they agreed to address. One gives a promo for his business. One has 35 slides, with tons of text, which he reads. One speaker does nothing but read back the relevant laws that are applicable. The speakers all think they are the keynote and they all speak 20 minutes, leaving no QA time and only 3 minutes for the final speaker.
I have for some reason agreed to be the final speaker.
Are you a speaker? What's your strategy for dealing with these pre-panel calls?What do you do to deal with this? I know, first world problems, but I am writing this to procrastinate instead of working on a Power Point for a presentation I am supposed to be doing next week!
Jules Polonetsky is the Executive Director of the Future of Privacy Forum.
The problem is, few people are actually good moderators, and that's because it's HARD. I have been told that I *am* a good moderator, and here's what it takes to make sure that people like being on, and listening to, a panel: - If you want to tell your story, or make your ideas heard, DON'T BE A MODERATOR. Too often, event coordinators ask someone who pitched a track presentation to "turn it into" a panel. The speaker agrees because they want the exposure, and voila! Crappy panel session. - Don't fly blind. You don't need the entire panel to get on a group call, but as the moderator, you need to know what your panelists' scope of knowledge and ability to speak is. You owe it to your panel to have that understanding, to have read some of their work/blog posts/whatever. - Before the panel, send a list of 5 or 6 questions you may ask. Ask your panelists to tell you if any of those questions are out of scope. Prioritize which question will go to each panelist -- do not EVER ask every panelist the same question... except... - Don't let your panelists introduce themselves, if at all possible. Instead, introduce them briefly, and ask each one to answer the same question that level-sets who they are and why they're there for the audience. For example, "you're the head of FPF. What do you see as the most important issue FPF is tackling in 2018?" - Be tough. Cut off people that are losing the audience, or getting sales-pitchy, or going over the agreed upon time allotment. You must NOT accept a moderator slot if you are intimidated by this, or too polite, or just don't want to. Similarly, it's your role as moderator to make sure your panelists respect each OTHER - is someone steamrollering a fellow panelist? Tell them to stop - they may not appreciate it, but your audience and the other panelists will. - Assuming that you've been asked to moderate a panel you know something about, feel free to interject your opinion or share your ideas... BUT do so in the course of setting up a question for your panel - this session isn't about you, it's about them. - Above all, have a personality. Guide the conversation artfully. Read the audience and make them smile.
Author, Privacy and Trust Consultant
7 年I have a particular problem with panel presentations both as a participant and audience member. I don't find they generally convey a cohesive message. I don't learn as much from a panel presentation as from other forms of presentations. The one exception is from a purely Q&A of experts, either from the audience or driven by a moderator. In this form, one can learn specific answers that aren't found elsewhere and can sometimes ferret out whether an "expert" truly is one. To this end, I'm trying to avoid panels in the future and thus any presentations I'm on would be close knit with other participants and thus necessitate pre-event collaboration. I realize that's not everyone's model, but it works for me.
Chief Commercial Officer at Kezzler, helping to transform industries with Digital ID
9 年Just reading this was agonizing ??
Abogado en Libre Ejercicio Profesional
9 年excelente pertenecer a esta red de tan util informacion me gustaria trabajar para una de estas institucion .
AI, cybersecurity, and privacy partner at Manatt
9 年I agree with Jennifer (as usual). Loved this Jules. I was just about to pull together a dreaded panel call, and your post gave me pause. Since content should be king, I plan to send out a list a questions for the panel in advance, with suggested talking points for each participant. In my experience, this should give the panel better structure (and discipline!) and will likely elicit tweaks that highlight unique trends or panel experience.