How technology's expanding the panel moderator's job

One of the biggest trends in panel moderation has been creeping up on us all. It started with conference calls and videoconferencing. Now it includes live-streaming, webcasts, Twitter audiences for live speakers, and more. As soon as technology started to separate speakers and audiences physically, the role of the moderator has been on the rise. And if you're among the speakers who think they can dial in your moderation role, those days are long gone.

That's because with distance comes difficulty. Moderators may be needed to ensure that remote audience members get a chance to air their questions, whether they're on Twitter or the other end of conference call. You may need to host one location in a multi-location live-stream, or a conference that's mixing two locations and live-streaming, as we did at TEDMED in 2014. What's a moderator to do? Here are my tips:

1. Be sure you know the basics: If you never properly learned how to moderate a panel and have been winging it all this time, take a break to come up to speed on what you don't know. Learning the basics is critical before you add the tech challenges.
2. Ask for or create a tech rehearsal: Whether it's a regular conference call or a big live-streamed panel, get some time with whatever technology you'll be using. Ask the technicians about common mistakes or issues--you can learn a lot from the pros.
3. Consider a moderation team: If you're moderating a live panel and taking questions from both a live audience and the audience on Twitter or another social site, consider deputizing another moderator to focus on the social channels. Work out a signal between you--it could be as easy as having her face you in the front row and put her hand up--for those moments when she wants to share a question from the web.
4. For live-stream and videoconferencing, consider the video: If your image is being broadcast or recorded, check out my advice for speakers in the same situation in the post Ask not what your TED video can do for you. Ask what you can do for your TED video. You need to think about the setting, your gestures, visibility, and more.

(Creative Commons licensed photo by Fortune Live Media)

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.

Moderators: End when you said you were going to end the panel

"Well, I'm the last speaker, so it doesn't matter if I go overtime," one speaker said to me at a conference I was chairing.

While it's nice to think that letting a session run late is helpful--either to audience members who have more questions or to the speakers who didn't talk too long--in fact, you're creating more problems for the audience and the organizer when you as the moderator fail to end on time. Do you really want to let your over-long speaker put you in the position of standing between the audience and its lunch, its drinks hour, or its next piece of business? After all, your job is to keep things running on time.

It's normal to get pushback from speakers who want to challenge limits, and for the record, I'd done all the things I recommend in The Eloquent Woman's Guide to Moderating Panels in the advance work with this speaker. Yet here he was, announcing his intent to ignore all the instructions. If you're in this situation, stand your ground, moderators. Framing your statements in terms of yourself, with "I" statements, lets you set the standard without sounding accusatory. Just because the speakers didn't do their job doesn't mean you shouldn't do yours.

That also holds true even if you've tried all the stay-on-time tactics, but are about to go overtime. At the end of the day and at the end of the panel, someone has to call "time," and that's you, moderators.

When that speaker challenged me with a veiled threat of going past the end of the conference day, I was ready with my reply: "Even if the organizer had rented the space beyond 5pm--which he did not--you're asking me to let a meeting I'm chairing run overtime. I run on-time meetings, and I'm not going to let you mar my reputation," I said.

I still needed to pull out some tricks from my bag with this speaker, but he knew my intentions clearly. His reaction was to take all the time allotted for both his talk and for Q&A, so when he finished--with a minute to spare--I said, "I wish we could continue, but we are at the end of our session. Join me in thanking our speakers." Then I led the applause.

I also set the stage for an on-time day in this session by announcing early in the day my intention to keep sessions on time. Don't forget that the audience is your best friend when it comes to staying on time, so find ways to include them in your time-keeping, from announcing the limits to enforcing them. You'll find more ways to keep speakers on time in the book!

(Creative Commons licensed photo by Andy Ihnatko)

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.

Panel moderators share their secret weapon with panel speakers

I'm hearing from more and more readers that The Eloquent Woman's Guide to Moderating Panels works not just for moderators, but for panel speakers as well.

Sometimes, moderators use the book to expand their understanding of what it means to be a good panelist. Amrita Mazumdar writes:

I read this book before moderating my first panel and learned so much about how to prepare well for many kinds of eventualities, how to handle classical panel conundrums, and how to make the panel-viewing experience more enjoyable. I also learned quite a bit about how to be a good panel member from this book.

She recommends it "even if you aren't moderating a panel, and even if you aren't a woman (or eloquent!)."

Some moderators share the book with their panelist so everyone will approach the panel in the same way--and understand what the moderator is doing. In Moderating my first panel, Cate Huston writes:

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!

Sharing the ebook with all your panelists is a smart way to spark discussion in advance of the panel, and to set expectations. You might just be helping train a future moderator, too.

(Creative Commons licensed photo by tylerhoff)

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.

Keeping panels on time: Have a 3-speaker limit

Want a panel that allows plenty of time for each speaker to get her points across? Want panels that allow time for audience questions? Want a panel that ends when the schedule says it will? There's an easy solution: Limit panels to no more than three speakers, plus one moderator.

The proliferation of speakers-per-panel is one of the starkest sign of how out of control panel discussions are today. Organizers think the panel must represent the universe, include all their friends, or represent other politics. And typically, this fault is a fault of the organizer: What speaker wants to be part of a panel of 8 speakers, each with precisely 2.5 minutes to shed light on the topic? I can say that because I was invited to just such a panel, and I turned it down.

For the moderator, too many speakers is even more challenging: Introductions take more time, Q&A will be tougher to manage, and the likelihood is high that none of the speakers and few audience members will be happy afterward, no matter what you do. You can expect time limits will be ignored, particularly as speakers try to pile on to a previous comment.  That's why too many panelists is my number one reason to say "no" to a panel invitation, whether you're the moderator or the speaker.

Panels of three speakers strike the right balance between varied viewpoints and enough time for speaker and audience to consider what's being said. A three-speaker limit means you don't have to choose between ending on time, and enough time for the discussion. More than three speakers means the moderator has a job that gets tougher every time someone is added.

(Creative Commons licensed photo by U.S. Department of Education)

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.