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Three speakers on the Jordan Create stage inside the gold frame, seen over the audience

How to moderate a panel people remember

Most panels are three monologues and a clock. The ones guests talk about afterwards are run like conversations, and that is a craft.

Jordan CreatePublished 2 min read

Key takeaways

4 things to know before you read.

  1. 01A panel has one question, not five. Write it on the first slide and come back to it every time the room drifts.
  2. 02Do not introduce the speakers for five minutes. One line each, then the first real question inside ninety seconds.
  3. 03Disagreement is the content. Pair speakers who see the same thing differently and ask the second one to respond to the first.
  4. 04End early on purpose. The Q&A is where the audience becomes part of the room.

Volume 3 has ten panels. The difference between the ones people remember and the ones they scroll through on their phones is almost entirely the moderator. This is the checklist our moderators work from.

One question

'Human vs AI: who makes better content?' is a panel. 'Trends in content' is a schedule slot. Every good panel can be summarised as a single question the speakers disagree about, and the moderator's job is to keep the room on it.

The first ninety seconds

  • Introduce each speaker in one sentence. The bios are in the app; nobody came to hear them read.
  • Ask the first question to the speaker most likely to say something surprising.
  • Never ask 'tell us about yourself'. Ask 'what did you get wrong last year?'

Make them talk to each other

The moment a panel comes alive is when a speaker responds to another speaker rather than to the moderator. Engineer it: 'Nasser, Leila just said relatability beats production. You produce everything. Is she wrong?' Then stop talking.

Time

A twenty-five minute panel is fifteen minutes of conversation and ten of questions from the room. Moderators who run over steal the Q&A, and the Q&A is the part guests remember, because it is the part they were in.

The best moderator I ever worked with asked six questions in half an hour. The worst asked twenty.

A Volume 2 speaker
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Questions people ask

How long should a conference panel be?
Twenty-five to forty minutes works best: enough for a real exchange between three speakers and ten minutes of questions from the audience. Panels over an hour lose the room.
How many speakers should a panel have?
Three, plus a moderator. Two can feel like an interview; more than four and each speaker gets too little time to say anything specific.
Can I speak at Jordan Create?
Volume 3's lineup is set, but the team takes speaker suggestions for future editions through the contact page and the Jordan Create Instagram.

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