A panel discussion is when an organizer asks a number of different speakers or members of a community to all come up on stage together and have a moderated discussion. Usually these discussions are centered around a topic, and there is some broader narrative that the organizer and moderator want to discover or convey. Panels consist of at least:
- A moderator
- Two or more guests
A moderator and a single guest is not a panel, it is usually called an interview or a fireside chat or something like that. This repository doesn't cover interviewing best practices. I may write that up, but I am really focused on the lessons I have learned organizing a number of different panels, and what the responsibilities of each participant are.
This section contains a rough outline for putting together a panel. We will discuss most of these points in some detail in following sections. The rough outline (from the point of view of the organizer and moderator) is:
- Before the event
- Deciding you are going to host a panel as part of some event or as a standalone discussion
- Coming up with the overall theme of the panel.
- Picking a date and finding a venue. As this is more general 'event planning' stuff, I will not go into it further.
- Creating the candidate list of panelists
- Reaching out to the panelists and gauging their interest
- Getting confirmation from your panelists
- Researching your panelists to find out what they're most qualified to speak to
- Creating a panel goal and topic statement
- Creating a candidate list of questions
- Having a pre-call with your panelists (either individually or as a conference call)
- Sharing your list of candidate questions so they can be prepared
- Verifying that your panelists will be able to attend the panel
- At the event
- Meeting before the panel to check that everyone feels comfortable with their participation
- Making sure the panelists have comfortable appropriate places to sit on stage
- Making water available to your panelists during the panel
- Introducing your panelists and actually hosting and moderating the panel
- Moderating the Q&A after the panel (if you chose to have one.)
- Thanking your panelists
- After the event
- Reaching out to your panelists a few days later for feedback as to how the panel could have been better
- Feeling great that you moderated a well run panel which was really valuable to the audience as well as the panelists
- Getting bitten by the bug and planning your next panel
Yes, I understand this is a long list, and I am sure I have missed a few steps, but I think it's important to recognize a few things:
- There is nothing more precious a gift that someones attention. Moderating a panel is the responsibility of the gift of your audiences attention as well as your panelists. It's a privileged position
- Panels are not an easy organic format. A panel where people bicker with each other, or where there is stunning silence while the moderator scrambles to ask a question is a very bad experience
- This is a time in life where preparation will definitely show. A well run panel is a thing of beauty, and the audience will know if it was a phoned in effort.
Running a great panel is an amazing responsibility and opportunity. Treat it appropriately.
By far, this is the part I see inexperienced moderators inadequately address the most often. A great panel doesn't come together on the stage. A great panel is the culmination of, on average, 20+ hours of pre-work. If you're unwilling or unable to commit to roughly that order of magnitude of work, you should not chose to run a panel. It is not acceptable to cut this part of the process out, it is disrespectful to the audience as well as the panelists. If done well, it will be wildly rewarding and the fruits of your efforts will be obvious to all involved.
Why do you want to host a panel? What is it about the format that you feel will likely drive a more compelling narrative than presentations? Panels are great when you want to have a portfolio of different perspectives on stage simultaneously, and you feel confident that you can weave a narrative of interplay and give and take. You should decide to host a panel if there is some subjective questions that you think would be shaped by different experiences, or if there is some controversy in your field that you want to surface from the position of multiple experts. At the root of it, you should run a panel when some topic is big and interesting enough that it is unlikely to receive the best treatment from a single point of view.
Your theme should be broad enough to allow for multiple perspectives and points of view, but not so broad as to be useless. A very narrow theme can be constraining and leave the panelists mostly repeating each other's points, or discussing fine but not meaningful differences in position. On the contrary, a very broad theme an lead to a meandering discussion without a central thesis. The theme should be interesting, have an element of controversy, and be relevant and actionable to the audience.
For example:
- 'Women in Technology' is too broad a theme, that will likely lead to generalized statements and platitudes
- 'Recruiting and Retaining Women in Software Startups' is probably narrow enough to be interesting, but still allow interesting conversation
Or for example:
- 'Updates in GCC 7.3' is too narrow a theme, that is likely better done as a focused presentation
- 'Advancements and the Future of Compilers' is still quite narrow, but it will allow for some subjective discussion
Those are just two arbitrary examples, and I will add more as I have more time. You want to make sure that it's not a topic that has already been thoroughly explored. But the core idea is that you want it to be narrow enough that experts can say deep things, you want it to have some subjectivity so that the conversation can include your panelists specific and unique opinion, and most of all you want it to sound interesting.
My only note here is that you should be picking a date at least 2-3 months out. It is not acceptable to spring a panel request on someone a week or two in advance unless there's an extenuating circumstance (such as another panelist dropped out.) Since your panelists are likely experts, they're probably busy. Be respectful of their scheduling and time, and give them plenty of opportunity to work your panel into their schedule, not just logistically, but intellectually. Your panelists will likely want to have time to think about the topic and make sure they can say something compelling. They became experts through hard work and passion, give them time to leverage that hard work and passion towards your panel as well.
This is very important not to screw up. Your panel should have:
- Experts
- Diversity
Experts is pretty self explanatory. They should be able to contribute some non-trivial insight to the overall discussion. But that's not the part where moderators and organizers screw up. They screw up on diversity.
So, by diversity and representation I explicitly mean your panel must have:
- Women
- People of color
- People of different ages
- People from different ethnicities
- People with different experiences
- People who are differently abled
Yes. This likely makes it that your immediately social network is not the right place to draw the panelists. Even the most well meaning diversity minded individual likely has a high degree of Homophily. This isn't a guide to making more diverse friends, but it's something we should all be doing. Another thing to note is that intersectionality is wonderful to represent in a panel, and it's something that will make your panel more interesting and enjoyable.
The moderator is likely going to have to reach outside of their immediate group and leverage existing resources to find experts who are different from them. This is absolutely a required part of your work as a panelist. Fortunately, there are a lot of amazing resources for this. Ask around, find lists online, reach out to organizers in the community. I believe that if you make a heartfelt effort to find diverse panelists, and make it known to the world that you're seeking help in finding an amazing diverse panel, that the world will point you to the appropriate resources. There's Forbes articles or lists or entire entire societies like WiMLDS. If you need specific help, reach out to me directly and I will help you.
Decide how many panelists you want to have, 4 is a good number. I try to make a candidate list that's at least 2x the size of the panel that I want to host. Create a google sheets spreadsheet and write them all down. I use a sheet with the following format.
| name | reached out | confirmed | first call | sent followup | sent logistics | sent thanks | notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mike | m@m.c | /mikec | Y | N | |||||
| jan | j@j.c | /janftw | Y | Y | |||||
| bill | b@b.co | /billg | Y | Y |
Where I keep track of my reachout. This is basically a spreadsheet as a purpose built CRM. In it, the columns I track are:
- Name of the panelist
- Preferred email address of the panelist
- LinkedIn URL of the panelist
- Whether I reached out
- Whether they've confirmed
- A link to the calendar invite for the first call
- Whether I sent them a followup
- Whether I sent them logistics information
- Whether I sent them thanks
- Notes about the panelist
Now you have to email the panelists and see if they're willing to donate their time to your panel. I suggest something like the following template.
Hello $panelist!
This is Eduardo Ariño de la Rubia, I heard about you through your blog post about <...> on the <...> blog. I am organizing ConferenceCon, a conference all about the joy of having conferences. I will be moderating a panel on <...>. I think your experience and point of view would be amazing to have on my panel. The conference will be happening $DATE at $VENUE, and I would like to invite you to be a part of this by sharing your experiences on my panel.
Please let me know if you need any additional information, or if you think you may be able to make it! I really look forward to hearing from you. Thanks!
Eduardo
Make sure to actually customize it for each panelist, and speak explicitly to what about their experience made you reach out. A lot of people don't know if they really belong on a panel, and can feel a bit overwhelmed when they're asked (especially if it's their first time being asked to be on a panel.) Reassuring them that you are familiar with their work and referencing a specific thing they did can make them feel much more at ease.
Email it, set "reached out" to YES and wait. You are asking someone to make and modify their plans at least a few months in advance.
I would suggest waiting at least 7 days before sending a followup. As a rule you will get a distribution of response times, some people will respond immediately, some will take a very long time. You really only need two more email templates from hereon out. You need the email you send out to nudge people who did not respond. Forward your original email to them and say:
Hello $panelist!
I wanted to bump this in your inbox! I think that you have some really amazing experiences and would love to have you contribute to my panel at ConferenceCon. I hope to hear back soon! Thanks! << FORWARDED EMAIL>>
However, if you sent out 8 emails and you only needed four panelists, you may need the email for "we have already filled up our whole panel." It looks something like this:
Hello $panelist!
I have to admit, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the response! I just said yes to someone else for the panel, and as of right now we're probably at capacity. However, as you know, sometimes people drop out of these things. If you think you may be interested in being on standby, I'd love to comp your ticket to ConferenceCon and will let you know if anything changes and I need you to jump in and join the conversation. Thanks again for you response and see you at ConferenceCon!
As a rule, you want to accept folks in the order they respond, at least within 1-2 day blocks. If a panelist sends you an email that they are excited to be on your panel, they've accepted your invitation and if you still have room on your panel, they will be on stage with you.
Mark them as confirmed on your spreadsheet and wait for the roster to fill up. In the scenario where you find yourself one panelist short, and no one on standby, I usually suggest asking your panelists if they have anyone they would be willing to nominate. In my experience, panelists often know each other from other panels, and can help fill in any gaps. Once a panelist has agreed to be on your panel, they want it to be the very best panel it can be too.
You to find out what they're most qualified to speak to specifically. Look at their LinkedIn page, look at their github page, but not just their projects, see if they contributed to any other projects or filed issues. Look at their social media and at previous talks they may have given. Search for them in Google scholar... basically be exhaustive. Look at their background specifically through the lens of the theme of the panel. The goals in researching your panelists are:
- Find out what these panelists are experts in
- Figure out where they have commonality and differences
- Extracting broader themes that they all share that can shape your panel
You want to synthesize what you learn about all of your panelists. Things like "all of you have nonprofit experience" or "only some of you have a PhD". Basically broad things that you can end up working into the set of candidate questions that you will end up using in the panel. Write these notes on the spreadsheet.
In a google doc, write down the goal statement for your panel. A goal is the "desired end state of the world." It is not a statement like "we are going to discuss " your goals statement should be something like "our audience will learn at least 5 useful things about WHATEVER they can take and implement in their business" or perhaps something like "the audience will hear how experts made these tough decisions and understand the tradeoffs they care about." It may sound cheesy to take the time to write a goal statement, but it's important to be able to really understand what you want to share with your audience, as it will really help in the next section.
How long is your panel? A good panel is about 40 minutes long. 30 for moderated discussion and 10 for questions from the audience. Your panel can be 60 minutes long, but honestly I think that is too long for the average panel, but it can be done. For the average panel, you're going to want to write a list of about 10 candidate questions, maybe 15. Writing questions is it's own challenging set of skills.
You can start with generic lists of questions like this one. You can also listen to other panels that are in a related space and get some ideas. However, the very best questions will come from a diagnostic process. Think about the goal of your panel, think about the earlier themes that you synthesized when you were researching your panelists, and ask yourself what are the questions that you would have to ask that would get you to the very root of the discussion. Diagnostic questions that are "why" questions are really great, because they ask the panelist to tell us about how they came to a conclusion.
A lot of moderators think they need to come up with "gotcha" style questions or controversial questions. I think that's a bit of an overrated maneuver, but you should definitely have questions that ask both upside as well as downside. Asking about failure, asking about times where panelists were wrong or misled, asking about when panelists held a wrong position and what compelled them to learn, can be some of the best moments in a panel.
Create a google doc with these 10 to 15 questions. Format it nicely, wordsmith them so that they're the very best version of themselves. If you happen to be friends with a great editor, having a second set of eyes at this phase can really make a difference.
It is critical to have a pre-call with your panelists. The goal of this call is to surface to them the candidate list of questions, get initial feedback from them on how they would like to shape the conversation, and to verify that the panelists are reasonable human beings who are going to be a compelling panel. It very rarely happens, but you may have a pre-call and find out that someone has been focused on something really differently, or that perhaps they just don't have any chemistry either with the moderator or any of the other panelists. In those rare circumstances where it's clear that the panelist is not a good match, the most humane thing to do is to have an honest conversation and figure out if it's fixable. No one wants to be on a panel where they're going to be uncomfortable.
Email your panelists a calendar scheduling tool with a number of candidate times to have calls. I suggest using doodle. This will allow people to give you an assortment of times where they can join a call. You want to have a good mix of times after and before work, as well as times on the weekend. It's very unlikely that you will be able to find a time where everyone can contribute. I suggest sending the link to doodle with a short email like this:
Hello $panelist!
I wanted to set up a quick 30 minute call to get panelists together on the phone, go over some of the questions, and get everyones' buy in on the direction of the panel. Click here to schedule on doodle! Thanks!
Once everyone has responded to the doodle, try to find a time where everyone can join the call at once. If it doesn't exist, then it's perfectly fine to schedule as many calls as it takes, but you really want to try to get as many panelists on the phone at the same time. That will give you the best feeling as to how the panel itself will run. Send everyone appropriate calendar invites, and add links to the events in the spreadsheet.
This call is a pretty standard conference call.
- Have everyone introduce themselves
- Thank them all for their willingness to do this panel
- Tell them the goals of the panel
- Discuss the candidate questions
- Note any feedback and followup
The key to discussing the candidate questions is to have enough of a conversation where you can gauge which questions are going to make panelists engage, and which ones are not interesting to the panel. You really want to see if there's questions where the panelists both have different but reasonable positions. Those are great questions because they provide your audience with multiple points of view that may inform and educate.
Make sure to ask your panelists for questions they wish you would have asked, or how they would modify the questions. Your panelists are literally experts in the field, that is why you asked them to be on the panel in the first place. You want them to feel like the questions are really compelling and that they can't wait to discuss them. If they do start discussing them amongst themselves, let it go for a minute or two, but promptly remind them to save it for the panel!
Keep notes during this conversation, since you will be using what you learn during this conversation as your final editing pass for the candidate questions.
After you have had your calls with your panelists, it's time to send them a followup email. In this email you want to thank them for their time on the call, remind them of the goals of the panel, and then share with them the edited list of candidate questions. I always like to remind the panelists in this email that this is not the exhaustive set of questions that you may ask, and you reserve the right to ask questions not on this list, but that likely you will focus on these.
Mark that you followed up on your spreadsheet
A week or two before the panel is officially scheduled, send out one last email to your panelists verifying that they are still able to attend. This email should contain logistical information such as:
- What time the panel will be held
- What room it will be held in
- Any changes to the schedule
- Where you will be the day before and the day of if they need you
- Your phone number and how to reach you
Sending a really good version of this email can make your panel feel very professional, and it will make your panelists cared about. They are experts, and receiving a thoughtful email with all the logistics questions they may have pre-answered will put them at ease that they're in good hands.
Mark that you sent the logistic information in the spreadsheet.
The day of the event can be really fun or really stressful for you and your panelists. It is your responsibility as the host and the moderator to make sure your panelists are taken care of, and at their best for your panel. At this point you should have a list of your questions nicely printed out in a note, and a pen to take notes during the panel.
You want to meet with your panelists, either as a group or as one on one, to check that everyone feels comfortable with their participation. You want to take a moment with each one of your panelists and connect with them. Remind them how exciting the conference has been, ask them their favorite thing they've seen so far, and help them realize they're part of something fun and special. This meeting should be relatively informal, it's just a quick touch base. You do want to make sure that the panelists look fine. This is your chance to make sure that they're in a good shape to be on the panel. Sometimes you may have to make a last minute decision and ask someone to sit out a panel if they're sick, or if they had a little too much to drink. It's very very rare, but understand that as the moderator your responsibility is to the panel as a whole and to the audience, and sometimes this requires making a hard choice.
Not everyone is the same size and shape. Some people are differently abled and have to use mobility devices. Think about this before the panel starts, preferably on the day of the panel, but before the conference starts in case the podium needs to be modified or one of your panelists needs to take a different route in order to use an accessible entrance.
Make sure that everyone will have access to somewhere to sit where they will look their best and be comfortable. Not everyone can sit on a really tall stool or a little squat chair. Take stock of your panelists now that you have seen them, and ask yourself if you have any hesitation that one of them won't be comfortable in seating.
Whether it's little bottles of water, or glasses and a pitcher, panelists should have water available. It's hot under all those lights, and if they're speaking they may get a little hoarse. This may mean that you need to have little tables, or that simply people can keep a bottle of water by their feet. It doesn't need to be fancy, but your panelists must be able to keep themselves hydrated through your panel.
Once on stage, take the mic and introduce yourself to the audience. Tell them in 15-30 seconds what the name of the panel is, and what you hope to accomplish. One by one, introduce your panelists. These introductions should be short but meaningful, convey why people want to pay attention to these folks. Then look in your notes, pick your first question, and moderate the panel.
I won't be too prescriptive as to what moderating a panel actually means (which, considering how nitpicky I was about everything else, may come as a surprise to you), but I believe every moderator has to come up with their own style. Your job as a moderator is to keep the conversation going. Make sure that everyone is getting a chance to answer, really listen to what your panelists are saying, and always make sure that you're asking the next most interesting question based on what your panelists are saying to each other. The order of your questions is much less important than the content, and matching it to what's happening in your panel in the moment. In special circumstances, an emergent question will become obvious to you and you will want to ad-lib and ask it. It's an advanced move, but if you come up with a brilliant question on the spot, go for it. Note that your panelists have never heard this question so it may surprise them, but that can make for an amazing opportunity.
Basically, do everything in your power to make the conversation as wonderful as possible, and work hard to steer it so address that goal you set out to solve so many months ago.
Keep your eyes on the timekeeper and manage the clock well. You don't want to go over time, and you don't want to end prematurely.
Not all panels have a Q&A afterwards. Maybe your venue isn't set up to take questions to the audience or you just don't feel the topic is right for a Q&A format. However, if you are going to run a Q&A, this is the little speech I want you to give before you open up the questions:
We are now in the Q&A session. Questions are a short phrase that attempts to clarify something. This is not your time to prove how smart you are or tell a long meandering tale. If I can tell you're not getting to a question soon, I will interrupt you and ask you to clarify. I don't want to discourage you from asking questions, I think your questions will be a great part of this panel. So, now that the groundrules have been set, let's ask some questions!
It doesn't have to be word-for-word this speech, but you have to set the groundrules. An amazing panel can totally be turned sour if the audience Q&A is not moderated properly.
After you introduce the ground rules, try to make sure the first question is asked by someone who is not a white man. Ideally, a woman would ask the first question, because of all the diverse groups who might be in attendance, gender is probably the category easiest to hear through voice. Starting with a diverse voice has been shown to increase diversity throughout the Q&A session. It can be uncomfortable to prioritize this-- the person who put their hand up first is probably a man. Take a pause, feel free to pretend like the lights are in your eyes and you can't see for a second.
Every time that someone asks a question, repeat it over the loudspeaker. It's important that everyone hears the question. Keep your eyes on the timekeeper and manage the clock well. Once you're in the last few minutes, tell the audience that you will take 2 more questions. Before you take the last question, tell the audience: "this is the last question."
As you are wrapping things you, give your panelists an opportunity to say one last thought, and thank them for their time. Tell the audience to thank the panelists and applaud. Congratulations, you just ran a panel.
Reaching out to your panelists a few days later for feedback as to how the panel could have been better is a really useful thing. Once they've had a few days to think, they may be able to give you really great candid feedback about how the experience could have been better. The biggest predictor of running a panel is having run a previous panel. So now that you're probably going to run a second panel, it's time to get really great at it. As a final thing, send one last thank you email, if there is a link to the recording, make sure to include it. This was a great shared experience, and being thankful makes it even more special.
Mark that you sent thanks in the spreadsheet.
Wow! You moderated a well run panel which was really valuable to the audience as well as the panelists. This is a really cool contribution, good job :) You should feel pretty great about it and your twitter is probably blowing up. Not everyone has the courage to step up and do the hard work that it takes to put together a great panel, and you did. Awesome.
It happens to the best of us. See you at the next meeting of moderators anonymous :)
I know this is goofy, but I am mostly adding this for myself. The URL for this guide is https://earino.github.io/hosting_a_panel/ :-)