Official Transitioner

Anyone who has been around me much in person during the last weeks has heard my rants about why Panels are abysmal abysmal things.  Having been to at least one conference every week since January, I’ve seen many keynotes, discussions, open conversations, panels, and workshops.

Imagine my pleasure to see that one of my favorite bloggers, Scott Berkun, wrote up a commentary on Why Panels Suck (and how to make them better).  This also prompted me to take some time to write up a brief description of my thoughts on the subject.  I’ll get around to turning this into an essay eventually, but for now I wanted to get some more thoughts on the subject out.

I’m going to address a few concerns that Scott didn’t address in his posting.

1. Panels are often the main attraction. I’ve been to too many conferences that decided “oh, so we’ll have a keynote, and then we’ll fill the rest of the day with panels.”  I think they do this in order to get the most big names to an event to present, but it makes for a very bland day. It leaves little time for interaction between actual conference participants, and the attitude is everyone should be compelled by these people.  It tends to make people fall asleep.
2. Too specific. Especially in engineering and the sciences people get too wrapped up in what they’ve already done.  They don’t use their background to provide insight to the audience- instead they just summarize their life work.  This could be fine in a very specific conference, but in an overview dealing with a larger breadth- all of engineering/science, engineering/science problems, or anything outside of “New Innovations in X Field” you tend to lose most of the audience.
3. They don’t already know each other. When you get a panel full of people who don’t already know each other they tend to be overly polite, but also not know much about what the other people do. This makes it hard to ask each other targeted questions or poke holes in arguments.
4. More Introverted Panelists are Drowned Out. I’ve been to many a conference where one person on the panel had a VERY strong opinion and it was hard for anyone else to get a word in edgewise.
5. Panels become a series of Powerpoints (okay, fine, a series of “slide decks”). Panelists shy away from discussion, and instead just present what would be the beginning of a key note.
6. Panelists don’t take questions well. This is probably more of a moderator problem. However, frequently, if an audience member asks a question, a panelist will hijack the question and answer something completely unrelated. Also, people tend to come and ask questions about a panelists specific work, making the question boring for most people in the audience, and even for the other panel members.

How to fix this?

1. Don’t have panels. As a frequent conference goer, this would be my number one request. There are some scenarios in which they are the best answer- but shy away from them! Get more creative with what you want to do.
2. Make sure your topic aligns well to a panel. Some topics just aren’t great for a panel- it’s too hard to get into detail. I.e. “Alternate Energy” results in everyone standing up and saying we should develop forms of alternate energy.  They usually agree that we should have a mix of different forms. Pick something it’s possible to disagree on.  Pick something interesting to hear about. Pick something with sufficient detail that panelists will have a hard time tangenting into something overly specific.
3. Have a moderator who knows how to interrupt- and isn’t afraid to do it. Don’t let panelists get long winded. Consider a 60 second time limit for any answer.
4. Engage the audience early. Chances are you want a brief intro and some material, and then start getting to questions! It’s really fun to hear about where other audience members are from, why they are at the panel, and what they want to know. I always get more out of hearing what questions people are asking and then the responses than I do from a summary.
5. Ban Powerpoint. It’s a fabulous presentation tool, but it doesn’t belong in panels, unless it’s a series of things the moderator has decided to use. It’s a panel, not a presentation.

So, to all the conference organizers out there: please think twice before deciding on panels!

Shameless plug: I’m working on setting up a Tech conference in Metro Detroit for next fall. We will absolutely not have panels.