At the last minute, I got asked to lead a few extra panels at BlogWorld this week.  As a  result,  I needed to structure, chat with and open up a bunch of panels really quickly. I’ve always structured panels I moderate in a similar way, but decided that codifying it for my panelists would both save me time and give them some advanced notice (since some only got this 2 days before the conference!).

Personally, I prefer to lead discussions vs canned presentations. I also prefer to ask the audience where they are at on a subject (show of hands) so we can tailor the discussion to their needs.

With that in mind, here are my rules for panelists (my rules for moderators are simple: provide value to the audience, make  the panelists look smart, be entertaining, keep the discussion on track):

1 HOUR PANEL

  • 000-005 – welcome & introductions (30 seconds each) & audience polling
  • 005-015 – Biggest Mistake & Most Important Win
  • 015-025 – Discussion
  • 025-035 – Awkward Questions From Jeremy AKA Continuing Discussion
  • 035-050 – Audience Q&A
  • 050-100 – Wrapup Statements & Thank You

JEREMY’s RULES FOR PANELISTS

  1. Have fun
  2. Don’t agree on everything
  3. This is a DISCUSSION, don’t be too polite
  4. This is a COMMUNITY, don’t be rude
  5. Engage the audience, they’re not just relatively pretty faces
  6. We’re guests, the audience is the star
  7. Everyone has an opinion. Bring an example or twelve too.
  8. Be funny.
    a. Don’t mock midgets (lessons learned the hard way…)
  9. Ask each other questions, and ask the audience questions.
  10. DO NOT CONFERENCE SPAM

QUESTIONS FOR PANELISTS

  1. Are you okay with your short bio (provided earlier)
  2. Official title, Twitter ID, website
  3. Is there anything specific you’d like to cover
  4. Is there anything specific you DON’T want to cover/to avoid
  5. Is there a rumour about another panelist I should know about?

THOUGHTS?

I’d love your feedback on this, especially as I’m leading a bunch of discussions with this structure!

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