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Panel discussions at conferences are the worst.
Conference panels almost always feature a few muckety mucks blah blah blahing on a stage. The moderator will spend about a third of the time introducing everyone. Like Google does not exist in our pockets. The rest of the time will be spent with panelists working hard to be as inoffensively agreeable with each other as possible. The session will close with a couple of minutes of useless Q&A.
Conference panels proliferate because they are easy to do. The invited panelists can avoid the hard work of preparing a talk. They must only bring themselves and their infinite wisdom. It is much easier to get a provost, president, or chief-something-or-other to agree to a panel than a talk. Show up, and you are on stage.
In the rare cases where panels are any good, one of two things will happen. Either the moderator will be great, or someone on the panel will dramatically exceed expectations.
A great moderator is someone on a mission. They are less worried about the comfort of the panelists, and more committed to paying back the audiences precious attention with something resembling a useful experience. They will ask crisp questions. They will cut panelists off when they drone on. They will synthesize, summarize, and argue. They will bring the audience into the discussion.
Great moderators are rare. It takes an enormous amount of energy to run a strong panel discussion. Plus, the incentives are all wrong. At academic conferences, moderators are not professional communicators. They are other academics. They are likely to be colleagues with the people on the panel. This is not a recipe for asking hard questions.
The other option is for the panel members themselves to transcend the genre.
This also rarely happens. But sometimes it does. I witnessed a great panelist at a recent conference.
That panelist is going to hate this post. (Journalists never want to be the story). But tough. The panelist was our very own Scott Jaschik, co-founder and editor of IHE.
If I were going to list the rules of a great panelist, as modeled by Scott, I’d include:
1. Express a strong point of view.
2. Debate the other panelists.
3. Tell concise but colorful stories.
4. Share data to back up assertions.
5. Give away swag.
Scott has that rare gift of arguing with a smile. He was critical but upbeat. Pessimistic, but hopeful. He debated the other panelists but did so generously and warmly.
Outstanding panelists seem to take their arguments seriously, themselves less so. They are willing to poke fun at both themselves and whatever they are critiquing.
It helps if a panelist is fully immersed in whatever they are talking about, and can instantly pull up (funny) stories and some data-rich trends.
Of course, using Scott Jaschik as a model for a conference panelist is unfair. After all, he is a journalist - not an academic. He is paid to tell stories. After a career spent thinking and writing about higher ed, he is well prepared to inform, challenge, and entertain on a panel.
Plus, Scott has done about a million panels.
Still - we can learn from the Scott Jaschik’s of the world.
For this conference, he had done his homework. He had gone and read deeply into the subject of the convening. He had lined up the stories he was going to tell, and the data he was going to share, well before the panel began.
Panelists should come to the stage with a goal. Like giving a talk, participating in a panel is a form of persuasion. Each panelist should be clear about her or his goals. What do they want the audience to know and believe by the time the panel ends?
A good panelist will also have researched the other panel participants. They should be ready to direct critical questions to those in which they are sharing the stage.
Scott’s final pro panel move - giving away IHE swag - is not something that most academics can replicate. IHE has fridge poetry magnets that are universally loved. But maybe we could give away cheap university branded pens?
Have you experienced any great panels or panelists?
Do you think that the conference panel can be redeemed?
