3 Keys to a Good Conference Panel

29 January 2009 | Culture, Internet, Marketing, Personal, Public Speaking | Comments

[Cross posted with the iMedia Connection blog.]

I produce, attend, speak at and moderate panels at conferences many times each year, and while nothing is quite as bad as a horrible keynote address, time and again panel discussions prove the most challenging, bouncing-on-the-high-wire-without-a-net piece of each day.

Here are 3 things that make a successful panel:

1. Conflict. Just like you learned in high school drama class, all stories require conflict. This means different points of view, different objectives, and different ways of approaching them. And by  difference I mean actual opposition rather than gentle nuances of inflection. If you have presidents of different ad networks and a moderator onstage, there is NO conflict because while the networks may be competitors they all share a methodology and general business objective, and they’ll work together to have the rising tide lift all the surfboards. Put an ad network and a publisher who doesn’t sell inventory on networks head to head and then you might have something.

2. Fear. For trade conferences in particular you’re talking about trade, about money, and about somebody potentially losing business that they already have. We’re living in the middle of a global economic collapse with businesses closing and folks out of work. If your panel doesn’t embrace that and talk openly about it then it’s like like ignoring the booger peeking out of you dinner date’s nose… impossible to focus on anything else.

3. Greed. On the other hand, behind fear (see above) crouches opportunity. Shrewd companies will benefit from this climate, and on your panel either implicitly or explicitly talking about the money that might be left on the table will make the mental juices of panelists and audiences alike start to flow.

Myriad other tips and keys apply, and a good moderator can make even violent fits of consensus interesting by unearthing the hidden conflicts among panelists or between the panel and the audience, but if you start with these three keys you’re already ahead of the game.