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Arisia: When the Panel Goes Rogue...
Jan. 13th, 2018 11:08 pmI'm not doing real notes on this at all, just a few quick comments and some useful tips I want to stash for later.
Description:
An off topic panelist. An audience member who seems to think they're on the panel. An ineffective moderator. How do you address these situations when they arise? What is the role of the moderator, other panelists, and the audience itself?
Jonathan Woodward (moderator), Heather Urbanski, Christopher K. Davis, Michael A. Burstein, Kate Nepveu
This was interesting because I didn't realize I was such an outlier in taking questions regularly throughout the panel, at topic changes! However Heather pointed out that expertise-focused panels, like science ones, often need different structures and much tighter control of the Q&A portions, which makes perfect sense--I basically never do those.
(I previously posted my philosophy on moderating.)
Things I wrote down because I want to use them myself:
A very quiet panelist, or one who professes a relative lack of knowledge (aka the dreaded "I have no idea why I'm on this panel"): "What question would you like to ask?"
Someone who really wants to talk about something else: "That would be a great panel next year, please suggest it."
If you've been asked to moderate on short notice and haven't been able to prep: ask the audience what they want to talk about, say you'll add those topics to your list.
Someone busts out a hateful or offensive term: "We don't use that term here."
And then I was done with brains, and now I am going to bed. Feel free to ask about your own moderation challenges!
Description:
An off topic panelist. An audience member who seems to think they're on the panel. An ineffective moderator. How do you address these situations when they arise? What is the role of the moderator, other panelists, and the audience itself?
Jonathan Woodward (moderator), Heather Urbanski, Christopher K. Davis, Michael A. Burstein, Kate Nepveu
This was interesting because I didn't realize I was such an outlier in taking questions regularly throughout the panel, at topic changes! However Heather pointed out that expertise-focused panels, like science ones, often need different structures and much tighter control of the Q&A portions, which makes perfect sense--I basically never do those.
(I previously posted my philosophy on moderating.)
Things I wrote down because I want to use them myself:
A very quiet panelist, or one who professes a relative lack of knowledge (aka the dreaded "I have no idea why I'm on this panel"): "What question would you like to ask?"
Someone who really wants to talk about something else: "That would be a great panel next year, please suggest it."
If you've been asked to moderate on short notice and haven't been able to prep: ask the audience what they want to talk about, say you'll add those topics to your list.
Someone busts out a hateful or offensive term: "We don't use that term here."
And then I was done with brains, and now I am going to bed. Feel free to ask about your own moderation challenges!
