The Craft of Conferencing Newsletter
Issue No. 4. News, insights & ideas on public speaking and the business and craft of B2B conference production from journalist, podcaster, and B2B event producer Charles Laughlin. September 20, 2024.
We post a few times per week (newsletter and podcast) sharing news, insights, opinions, and best practices on The Craft of Conferencing.
Being good at conferencing is a game-changer for careers and brands. If you organize, speak, sell, or even if you just attend events regularly, this Substack is for you.
The beauty of conferencing is that every skill that falls under its umbrella can be cultivated. Organizing, curating, ideating, writing, speaking, networking, interviewing, selling. Anyone can learn to do any of these things. Yet few of us are great at any of these on day one.
You get out of conferencing what you put into it.
Please consider the content we share here as a key input in your conferencing journey.
The Craft of Conferencing
How to Prep a Conference Panel
You have agreed to moderate a panel discussion at an important conference in your industry in a few months. There are five participants on the panel, including yourself. Your task is to guide a 30-minute discussion among this group with no slides or prepared remarks.
You are excited. And terrified. How do you make sure this isn’t a train wreck?
First, there are worse things than train wrecks. At least everyone will watch a train wreck. What you really want to avoid doing is boring the audience.
If you can wrangle all of the participants, have a practice panel on Zoom, Google Meet, etc. about a week before the main event. Run through some questions and record the meeting.
Watch or listen to the recording after the meeting and make note of the following:
Who talked a lot? And who said very little? Chances are this pattern will repeat itself on stage if you let it. Make a note to design a few questions exclusively for the low talker. And have a strategy for preventing the dominant talker from taking over the panel. For example, don’t be afraid to interrupt the big talker and toss the ball to another panelist. It’s as easy as “That’s great Bob. Jane, what do you think?” If you don’t take control, Bob will.
What questions or topics generated the most engaging discussion? Keep those questions. Conversely, if a topic falls flat on the call, it will likely flop on stage too. Make the appropriate adjustments.
After the call, create a one-page prep memo to share with the panelists. This will summarize how the session will flow (timing, etc.) and offer a few likely discussion topics, ideally those that performed best on the practice call. I prefer topics over questions. This sets an expectation for an organic vs. scripted discussion. I'm not too fond of scripted panels.
If the call was great, the panel should be too. If the call was a struggle, the recording will allow you to deconstruct what went wrong and create a plan to fix it. For example, you might adjust the discussion topics if some fell flat. Or you could manage the panel more assertively if the panelists were reluctant to jump in.
If you do not have much experience in running panels, this technique will help you keep the train on its tracks.
Event Industry News
The Indian event tech startup Ticket9 has secured an investment (amount undisclosed) from actor Nayanthara and her director husband Vignesh Shivan. According to Crunchbase, Ticket9, founded in 2022 by Santhos Premraj and Yazhini Shanmugam, provides a SaaS platform for creating, managing, promoting, and monetizing events. In May 2023, Ticket9 raised a $1.2 million pre-seed round in May of last year.
ICYMI: The Craft of Conferencing Podcast
Episode 3 of The Craft of Conferencing Podcast features veteran CRO George Leith on how to use conferences for business development and sales. George shares his playbook for successfully using B2B events as a sales channel.
Episode 2 of The Craft of Conferencing Podcast features an interview with the man who wrote the book on crafting great events. Phil Mershon leads the annual Social Media Marketing World event and is the author of Unforgettable: The Art & Science of Creating Memorable Experiences. Phil shares his formula for great events.
In case you missed it, the inaugural episode of The Craft of Conferencing Podcast features an interview with event-tech founder Daphne Earp Hoppenot, who recently sold The Vendry to Groupize. The conversation covers the state of B2B events, The Vendry’s eventful ride from launch to exit, and much more.
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