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ADVICE
FOR PANEL MODERATORS
By Nina Mehta, former SAJA Board member and frequent moderator
http://www.saja.org/ninamehta.html
E-mail: ninamehta@aol.com
(The
following was written by Nina Mehta for the SAJA Convention, but
the tips have universal wisdom)
NEW
YORK, JUNE 2002: Here
are some general tips for moderators. Be sure to arrive
early for your session to check out the room. If you can,
pick a place in advance near your room that you can meet
with your speakers (to huddle and handle last-minute concerns).
BIOS:
Get a resume or bio from the panelists so you can introduce them
properly--that is, not mentioning only their current job but what
they did
before. Chances are their resume will also give you more nuanced
info
about their background that might be useful in how you organize
the panel
you're running and some of the questions you ask the panelists.
INTRODUCTIONS:
Introduce the speakers all at once in the beginning, rather
than waiting until it's each person's time to talk before introducing
him or her.
Start
out by talking for a minute or two about what the panel will address.
This can be done before the introductions, or after. Commence
by telling
people the name of the panel and introducing yourself. Then a
few sentences about the panel and the intros for the panelists.
This ought to be written down--at least in note form--in case
you get forgetful or nervous (because of the crowds!) at the
last minute.
Figure
out in advance what issues you want the panel to address.
There should be at least three or four distinct issues, so
that you don't wind up spending the bulk of the time investigating
one subject or angle.
QUESTIONS:
Come up with 10-15 questions for the panelists, organized
broadly by issue or subject. Having a few questions for each issue
will
let you shift the focus somewhat or direct the conversation towards
certain areas if the conversation doesn't head there automatically.
Also,
if none of the panelists brings up some point that's interesting,
you can
then ask them about it directly, assuming you've thought of it
beforehand.
It's better to have too many questions than too few.
Start
out the panel with a question that will force people to think.
Don't
ask the panelists how they got their current job (unless it's
a job
hunting panel) or some other broad question.
I
would suggest not asking questions to the panel at large each
time. It
might be worthwhile to hear everyone's opinion to a couple questions,
so you
can see how each person responds and hear about their different
experiences,
but the format could get dull if you keep moving from left to
right across
the panel for each new question. Another problem with this format
is that the
first person to answer the question may talk the most each time.
Think
of questions that can be answered by only a subset of the panelists
(even just by one or two people). There's no reason not to bring
up topics
that everyone can't answer, if the topics are interesting and
relevant to the
subject at hand. These focused questions can also get people who've
been
quiet on the panel talking some more. In addition, if you're clear
about
where you want the panel to go, addressing particular questions
to particular
panelists will enable the conversation to head in that direction
more readily.
Ask
the same question to two or three people who you think are
likely to have
different views about some issue. Think of questions that will
bring out
different opinions. You don't want people simply agreeing with
the person who
spoke before and then adding a flicker of nuance.
Be
sure to balance out the time each person gets to speak and that
the
every speaker feels that they have had a fair share of the overall
time.
PREPPING
THE SPEAKERS: A week or a few days before the panel, write to
the
panelists and give them a rundown of the issues the panel will
address.
Ask them if they have strong feelings about a particular topic
or if
there's a question they're desperate to answer. The panelists'
feedback at
this point can be very worthwhile in tailoring your questions.
Also, send
them a link to the SAJA Convention page. Make sure they know who
else is
on the panel with them.
Talk
to a couple SAJA Board members or a couple friends in the business
about the panel in advance. They might come up with questions
or
perspectives you haven't considered.
Leave
15 minutes at the end of the Convention session for Q&As from
the
audience. Tell panelists that they too can ask a question of others
on the
panel.
Send
an e-mail to the panelists after the Convention and thank them
for
being on the panel.
Good
luck!
- Nina
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