Standing Out on a Panel: A Prepared You Is a Memorable Experience for Them

By Cyndi Maxey, CSP and Kevin E. O’Connor, CSP

When you want to influence where it counts, in the day-to-day lives experience of the audience, there may be no better way than the tried and true panel discussion. Beyond a formal presentation, even beyond a random question and answer session, the panel format brings the “real life” of experts on the panel to the “real life” of the audience. It is an opportunity for a special kind of presentation intimacy.

When you’re asked to participate, say, “Yes!” You will find your participation on a panel to be a terrific way to get very, very clear about what you believe, a highly effective way to see your ideas take root with an eager audience, and will even become a great networking and marketing opportunity for you and your fellow panelists. Panels also give you a chance to communicate your style and share your organization’s best efforts and actions around a theme. They allow for highly individualized styles, so don’t be afraid to be yourself and to be different from the other panelists. This often adds the spice and spark and life to a panel not available any other way.

Usually you are asked to present an overview along with the others. Sometimes, all you will get is seven minutes, as is the case of a client of ours who spoke to 2,000 conference attendees on a panel with five others who each had seven minutes. She did three things that worked for her and they will work for you also: engage, strategize, and focus.

Engage the audience:

1. In the beginning, don’t spend your valuable time thanking or referring to other panel members and what they said, i.e., “As you’ve heard from many of our panel…” is only redundant. Avoid “in” jokes or “good ole boy” stories or vacuous compliments. This audience wants “stuff” that works for them. Consider giving them your most vital message, the essence, the “best stuff” immediately. You’ll see them take notes just as fast—a very good sign.

2. When you begin your part, begin. Don’t thank the introducer or the event or the audience; just begin. Have a story or a strong piece of “meat” for the audience to chew on right away. Don’t talk about yourself; speak to the concern of those people looking at you. #1 and #2 look similar, don’t they? The reason is that introductory comments are the mortal sin of panelists. Almost everyone does it, the audience puts up with it, it wastes time, and it contributes nothing to the program. Be different—have something worthwhile to say and say it right away.

3. When you speak, look at the audience and watch for the head nods and signs of interest. Don’t be afraid to speak from your own expertise; this is why you are on the panel. You are seen as the expert. Speak like one. No false modesty. Avoid “I’m not sure why they picked me…” or “I must have been in the bathroom when they volunteered me to be on this panel….” Your authority is in the interpretive perception of the audience. If you knock yourself down, they’ll do it to you also, and the same with your message.

4. Avoid being too academic. Audiences at panels usually want practical ideas they can implement immediately. If you are too complex, you’ll be seen as irrelevant. Even though you might be seen as smart, you’ll be cast into the “I have no clue as to what she said…” category. Likewise, resist the temptation to say the oft quoted “We don’t have time to….” Given your seven minutes, say something that is worthwhile and useful. The audience sees the essential and the simple as wisdom.

Strategize your content and your timing:

5. Try to be the final speaker. This will give you a chance to hear the others and watch the audience. It will also allow you to be the one to “wrap up” and be remembered by the audience. You can do this by sitting farthest away from the moderator; they frequently begin at one end and go down the line. Or simply tell the moderator that you prefer to go last. Then listen to the others and listen especially to what they are not saying that needs to be said.

6. Be unique in some way. Don’t repeat the content of the other speakers. Use a slightly different vocabulary than the others. A colleague was presenting on an alcoholism panel and all the other speakers used words like “dysfunction, disease, and co-dependent.” This speaker thought this was sapping the energy out of the room. Instead she said families need a “sanctuary” with a “moat” so that they have a place of refuge and can then lower the “bridge over the moat” when they decide to “let someone in.” You can imagine who was remembered! Make up your own analogies, perhaps your own terms, and mostly resist being common. Common is forgotten. Different is remembered.

7. Affirm the other panelists for their specific contributions as you weave yours into their comments. If you disagree, simply say something like “I had a slightly different perspective than Dr. Goren,” and continue with your thoughts. Panels are the right place for respectful disagreements!

8. If you disagree, when it is over, be the first to smile, shake hands, and say something like “I thoroughly appreciated your comments!” Reach out to all panelists after with a handwritten thank you note (not an email) with a specific comment that affirms them. This begins the power of networking. How can they forget a panelist who specifically wrote to them? No one else will do it except you and that is where its power lies.

Be focused on the audience, especially the “real” audience:

9. The “real” audience is sometimes just one person—the person who invited you to be on the panel. They are sitting there hoping the panel and you will be good! There could also be a key decision-maker in the audience; know who he or she is and what his or her issues are. Be very careful not to drone on and on about you or your work, etc. Be focused on them. Mortal sin #2 (#1 was the vacuous “thank you”) is to talk about how great you are, the vast experiences you’ve had, and blah, blah, blah about you. Resist this. Focus instead on the idea, the strategy, and the trend. That is what makes for others seeing you as the expert you are. The more you talk about you, the more hot air fills the room. Rather, cool the room with good ideas based on your experience.

10. If there is a Q/A and for some reason no questions are asked of you, raise your hand to the moderator and comment! This is no time to be shy! You don’t want to dominate the microphone; you do want to be heard not because of you but because of the value of your contribution. Your main thought is how to help your ideas shine in your several minutes … which most often is not sharing ego, but sharing really expert ideas. You are the selected expert.

11. Be available, really available, for one-to-one audience interaction after the program. Whoever comes up to you after the program, give them your full and complete attention and either answer their question, listen to their concern, or paraphrase their criticism. Their interaction with you during this one-on-one time will be riveted in their minds for all time. You are the celebrity and how they perceive you are treating them will make or break their experience.

12. Follow up with yourself after the program. What did you do that you were pleased with? What would you do differently next time? How can you follow up with an article, an action step, even a book to write! If you recorded the panel discussion (a good idea by the way) then listen to it after a day or so without critical judgment other than to hear it in a new way. The pros do this consistently and that is why they are … pros!

Preparation is the key to a memorable panel contribution. When you do prepare, they can help the audience, they will help you, and they will advance the cause. And really, that is what an expert like you is for!