Tuesday, September 27, 2016

When an audience member hijacks the panel and the moderator

It's every panel moderator's nightmare: Losing control of the discussion. Often, that happens due to an argument between audience members and panelists, but sometimes, just one person is responsible. And in a recent high-profile panel at ComicCon, the person responsible worked for the conference.

The headline says it all: “Women in Film Production” Panel at SDCC Derailed by Male Con Staffer Who Didn’t Realize He Wasn’t There to Moderate Or, Like, Even Talk. The conference staffer present "to hold the microphone during the Q&A, be there in case something went wrong, or help if the panelists needed anything" took that mic and used it to "hijack the conversation with his own words of wisdom as a filmmaker, promoting his own filmmaking school with loads of patronizing assumptions about what the ladies did or did not know."

Panelists and moderator were stunned into silence, but later, panelist Lauren Haroutunian took to Twitter to describe in several tweets what happened, including this one:

It's a good reminder that panel moderation is not for the faint of heart, and those who would derail the discussion can be anywhere: support staff, organizers, panelists, or audience members. Here are a few tactics you should have in your back pocket when you moderate a panel, just in case it runs out of control:

  1. The ultimate muscle for any moderator: Say out loud what you wish to occur, instead of silently wishing for it or sending hand signals that may be ignored. Your announcement helps the others in the room join you in support, and gives them permission to object to the interruption.
  2. Learn how to interrupt: Being polite is important. Being polite to the detriment of the conversation is not the moderator's role. Learning correct, polite ways to interrupt an overly long speaker, be she in the audience or on the panel, will help you keep the proceedings on time and on topic.
  3. Learn how to manage the long-winded, off-topic question, which often derails the panel, by handling the questioner deftly and firmly.
  4. When the topic is controversial, prepare for what might derail the panel, rather than assume all will go smoothly. This is where working with your panelists in advance is essential. Many moderators share my ebook with the entire panel, so they know the full range of what needs to be anticipated.

(Creative Commons licensed photo from ComicCon by Hina Ichigo)

Need more coaching on how to be a better panel moderator? Order the new ebook The Eloquent Woman's Guide to Moderating Panels. At just $3.99 and available in many formats, it's a great back-pocket coach to take on stage with you in your smartphone or tablet. Find more tips on public speaking on The Eloquent Woman blog.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

New moderation tool for speakers and panels from Google Docs

Google Docs has a new tool that will help moderators and speakers manage Q&A better. Called Slides Q&A, the tool allows you to share a link on your slide in the Google Slides app. Audience members can submit questions from phones, laptops, or tablets. They also can vote for questions that interest them, so if you get more questions than you can answer in real time, you can sort the most popular ones.

Your audience members get advantages, too, since the app lets them submit questions when they are ready, as well as anonymously, if they wish.

Speakers working with a moderator can let the moderator review the questions and select those to be answered. For a panel, you may wish to combine the presentations into one file in Slides, so the moderator can easily manage and capture the questions. Will you try this new tool when you moderate next? Check out the video below for more details.


(Creative Commons licensed photo by Benjamin Reay)

Need more coaching on how to be a better panel moderator? Order the new ebook The Eloquent Woman's Guide to Moderating Panels. At just $3.99 and available in many formats, it's a great back-pocket coach to take on stage with you in your smartphone or tablet. Find more tips on public speaking on The Eloquent Woman blog.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

If voters were moderators: 4 ways to know what your audience expects

Pew Research recently took a look at what voters want the moderators to spend time on in the presidential debates, and while debates are quite a different format from a normal conference panel, it's a great reminder to moderators: Do you know what your audience expects in terms of the time you spend on particular topics?

For most of us, the answer is probably "no." Panels get put on conference programs for all sorts of reasons, and sometimes the least of those is "audience interest." But as a moderator, you can do your part to make sure you have a better understanding of what your panel's audience expects. Here are a few ways to gather that data:

  1. Ask the organizers: Part of your discussion with the organizers about your moderation role--something for which I have an entire list of questions in my ebook--should include gleaning information they have about why the panel was organized and what they think their audience has already heard before, and is looking for now. You absolutely should share what you learn from this discussion with your panelists.
  2. Ask the panelists: Presuming the panel has some knowledge of this audience (and if not, why are they on the panel?), ask them for their ideas and what they've heard from audience members. If you're going to use social channels to find out more (see below), ask the panelists to join you in this information-gathering.
  3. Use Twitter or other social channels to talk to your audience in advance: There's really no better use of Twitter than to post questions in advance of the panel, eliciting audience members' thoughts on what they are hoping to hear--and that goes for your virtual audience, as well as the one that plans to be in the room on the day. If you are using one particular social channel to get feedback, use the other channels to direct your audience to the place where you are collecting input.
  4. Post your own poll and promote it: You can get even more thorough and use a free polling tool to create your own questions and elicit feedback. Don't forget to promote the poll using all your social channels.
There's just one catch to eliciting audience feedback in these ways, and this is why so many panels skip this step: If you're going to ask for feedback and questions in advance, your audience will have a reasonable expectation that at least some of them will be answered by the panel. Don't let them down!


(Creative Commons licensed photo by Kevin Lawver)

Need more coaching on how to be a better panel moderator? Order the new ebook The Eloquent Woman's Guide to Moderating Panels. At just $3.99 and available in many formats, it's a great back-pocket coach to take on stage with you in your smartphone or tablet. Find more tips on public speaking on The Eloquent Woman blog.

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

First-time panel moderators share experiences, tips


The slate of journalist-moderators for the U.S. presidential campaign debates has just been announced, and all of the moderators have one thing in common: This will be their first time moderating a debate.

Whether you're doing a high-profile presidential debate's moderation or a standard conference panel, if it's your first moderator gig, congratulations! I say that because you have less to unlearn than a seasoned panel moderator with bad habits.

The other big advantage many first-time moderators have lies in their willingness to research and then share their newfound knowledge with others. Here are four first-timer's insights on how to approach panel moderation:
  1. Cate Huston shared on this blog her approach to moderating a panel at Beyond the Code, including how she prepared, her guidance for panelists, and her thoughts on the three roles of a moderator. I'm honored that she also found good ideas in my ebook (link below) and shared it with all the panelists: "Recommending Denise’s book to all panelists was an act of genius. At the end when I thanked everyone one of them commented that because I’d encouraged them to read this book they all knew how hard I had worked!" she wrote.
  2. Inspired by Cate, Yash Prabhu decided to try her hand at moderating an Android Alliance panel for the first time. She also consulted my book, and shares how she developed themes, prepared the panelists, and handled Q&A, noting a result I think is a great success for any moderator, seasoned or novice: "The audience was very involved in the panel and asked some great questions. Many of them stuck around to ask questions after the panel."
  3. MJ Schindler's What I learned from moderating a panel for the first time at Digital Summit Atlanta includes useful copies of her advance emails to panelists, sharing the questions she envisioned, and more, so other first-time moderators have a concrete model to follow.
  4. Joyce Stack's How I prepared for moderating my first panel at the API Strategy and Practice Summit is actually what she was thinking as she was flying to the panel, so it's loaded with advice she had before the panel actually took place--perhaps a good way for you anticipate what prep looks and feels like. I liked this piece of advice: "Accept that you will not please everyone. It's hard at conferences right – you have the noobs and the experts and it’s really difficult to please everybody. Just accept it."
(Creative Commons licensed photo by Marc Delforge)

Need more coaching on how to be a better panel moderator? Order the new ebook The Eloquent Woman's Guide to Moderating Panels. At just $3.99 and available in many formats, it's a great back-pocket coach to take on stage with you in your smartphone or tablet. Find more tips on public speaking on The Eloquent Woman blog.