- Share This Post
- submit
- 0
-
Sparkle (0)
by Lori Kate Smith, Partnership Marketing Manager at ARM, and Karen Bartleson, Sr. Director of Community Marketing at Synopsys
If you’ve ever attended a really good panel – or a really bad one – you might wonder what it takes to organize and moderate a successful panel. Here are some tips from technology marketers who have experienced what it takes.
Organizing
Panel proposers and panelists typically underestimate the pre-work it takes to choose the right format for the panel, select appropriate panelists and moderator, and develop an abstract with compelling content that includes a variety of panelists’ viewpoints addressing the key points outlined in the panel.
1. Decide what the type and goals of the panel will be.
Educational panels are effective for new trends in the industry where the key issues, methodologies and solutions are still being defined. These panels aim to educate the audience on the emerging problem that is to be solved, the developing solutions, and why they are or will solve the problem. Educational panels could be all vendor/academia/analyst panels where there are multiple methodologies to present. Actual customers are always an added plus in any panel, but in educational panels the methodologies that they are using could still be nascent and they may consider them to be to confidential.
Debate panels are the most common panel type. These panels juxtapose established solutions or methodologies. The topic is generally well known by the audience, and the audience is looking to hear the compelling reasons why one solution or methodology is superior to another. The panel makeup may be a combination of vendors, academics, analysts and customers, or if the topic is quite mature, then all customers. These panels tend to have the most controversies, and they often are the most entertaining due to the lively debate that can ensue. Audiences don’t mind a small amount of drama, but keep it to a minimum so the panel is viewed as professional.
Financial/ business panels are a third common panel type. These panels discuss the financial and business issues that confront the industry. Is the industry growing or shrinking; are there compelling new business models emerging; what are the best business, marketing, and sales strategies to pursue; what are the typical exit strategies; how do companies grow from an idea to a successful entity? The panel makeup often includes CEOs, financial analysts, and VCs.
2. Create a compelling abstract.
After deciding the type and goals of the panel, imagine your audience. What will excite them about the panel? What are the compelling, unanswered questions? What will they take away? Why would they spend their time attending the panel? The abstract should clearly define the range of possible questions and viewpoints from the panelists that will be answered.
3. Choose the moderator and panelists well.
Next to a compelling abstract, the next most important task is picking an appropriate moderator and panelists. People who are well-known or prestigious attract a bigger audience. Panelists should be clear, succinct speakers. No one enjoys a panel that is dominated by one or two individuals only. Having a variety of panelists from large and small businesses, academia, analysts, press, the same or different industries, a mix of regions, race, and gender add diversity to the panel. When choosing the mix of panelists, ensure that there is a diversity of opinion, business affiliations, and experience among the panelists. Ask your contacts if they’ve seen the person be a panelist or moderator previously.
All panelists should have similar stature, i.e., don’t mix CEOs with college kids. There should be no more than 5 panelists. 3-5 is good. The order in which the panelists will speak is important, too. The topic should flow from one to the next, but panelists shouldn’t say “I agree with the other panelists”. Yawn.
4. Decide if there will be audience Q&A.
Questions and answers from the audience can make for a lively panel discussion. It also encourages the audience to be engaged in the discussion. Additionally, audience participation helps steer the panel to the key issues about which the audience cares. However, it can also be disastrous if questions raise highly sensitive issues that can’t be addressed publicly. If there could be controversial questions asked, make sure that the panelists think through their responses ahead of time. Further, a vocal audience member can try to pitch his view, steer the panel down a path that is too controversial, and/or pigeon-hole the panel into an uninteresting discussion. Too risky? Don’t
