5 Ways to Stimulate Questions During Your Panel Discussions

Panels attract attention primarily because of their speaker lineup—the audience attends because they want to hear the individuals in question weigh in on a certain topic. So, it’s easy to forget the importance of the glue that holds it all together: the moderator.

Comic Con panel discussion

photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia

Moderator may be a more understated role than panelist, but it’s quite literally the make-or-break factor on whether a panel is successful in achieving its goals and engaging the audience.

When you’re moderating a panel, your biggest responsibility is to stimulate great questions—these are the gateways to insightful answers. Keeping things flowing with quality questions gets panelists engaged, which in turn gives audience members a reason to care and retain what they’re learning.…

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