A Personal Blog
How to Be a Panelist
This article, by Guy Kawasaki, is rather timely, since I’ll be on a panel in just 6 weeks.
His key tips are bang on:
1. Control your introduction.
2. Entertain, don’t just inform.
3. Tell the truth—especially when the truth is obvious.
4. Err on the side of being plain and simple.
5. Never look bored.
6. Don’t look at the moderator.
7. Make casual conversation. You’re on stage, but act like you’re not.
8. Answer the question posed, but never limit yourself to the question posed.
9. Never say, “I agree with what the other panelists have said.”
10. Provide a way to get in touch with you.
Personally, I’ll need to work on 2, 4, 5, 6 (since I know the moderator well) and 7. I guess this isn’t bad for my first panel. But, then, I haven’t done a panel so I might actually have to work on all 10…
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| Print article | This entry was posted by Jeremy Wright on December 30, 2004 at 9:36 am, and is filed under Business. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |
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about 7 years ago
#1 is critically important. I make part of my living on “the pro speaking circuit” ( http://todmaffin.com/speaking ) and there’s nothing that can handicap the first five minutes of your presentation (the most important minutes) by a terrible introduction.
You need to “prove” your credibility to the audience. Their time is valuable. Why are YOU in front of them? What special skills do YOU have that you can teach them? The worst introductions I’ve had were basically “And now, here’s Tod.”
On the other hand, I was once on a speaking tour with a prominent Canadian scientist some years ago, and her introduction ran on FOREVER — it listed every bloody honourary degree, fellowship, award, peer-reviewed article, etc that she ever received. And worse, she insisted it must be read in full without edits. It took nearly five minutes. (And her presentation wasn’t that good either.)
I always travel with a printed introduction (in large print) and hand it to my introducer, but say something like “I’m not tied to it; feel free to edit or cut it as you please.” Usually, they’ll read it as printed.
about 7 years ago
be confident and walk the stage with pride.
about 7 years ago
view the audience.
speak the naked truth even if being rude
no partiality
not getting bogged down by others