Panel Perfection: Best practices for preparing and presenting on panels

More and more, business and scientific conferences are opting for panel presentations over formal, individual talks. These panels often consist of a moderator with two to five panelists discussing a particular topic or issue. Panels allow many speakers to get involved simultaneously, leading to a more conversational, engaging experience. While panels are often more interesting for the audience, participating in one can be challenging.

In the Essentials of Strategic Communication MBA course at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, we strive to help our students become more confident and compelling panelists and moderators. In what follows, we provide specific guidance from our teaching and coaching experiences to help you hone your panelist presenting skills.

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PREPARATION

The best panel presentations are Customized, Concrete, and Connected. By actively preparing and designing your presentations with these ideas in mind, you can increase the likelihood of success.

Customize Your Content to the Needs of Your Audience

Audiences want answers. They crave content that taps into what they care about, that answers questions they have, and that provides specific insights and tools. However, presenters often prepare what they want to say without first considering what their audience is most interested to hear. 

Before any panel presentation, assess your audience and consider:

• What compels or drives this group?
• What do they care about most?
• What biases or preconceived notions might they have?
• What insights or tools would they most like to be provided?

If you can’t confidently answer these questions, ask the moderator or panel hosts, or pull aside an audience member and ask the source. With this information, you can tailor your content for maximum impact.

Make Your Information Concrete

Steve Jobs was once asked to share his best advice for success. Rather than repeat some vague and abstract cliché, Jobs told a story about being 12 years old, calling Bill Hewlett (whose number he found in the phone book), and asking if he could borrow some spare parts to build a frequency counter. Young Steve received the parts and a summer job at Hewlett-Packard. Jobs then offered his advice: Ask for help when you need it because you never know what the impact might be. 

This anecdote made Jobs’ point “stickier,” more memorable. Audiences are much more likely to recall and act on advice when they have an image, a narrative, in their minds. So, as you prepare for your next panel, take Jobs’ lead and brainstorm ways to make your points “stickier.” Try listing your key insights and best practices. Then, for each item, write down a concrete story or example you could share to support it, making it more concrete and memorable. 

Connect Your Content to Your Audience

Often, on a panel, you’re tasked with explaining complex concepts. The best panel presenters are adept at simplifying their content—making it more relatable and connected to the audience’s knowledge—while not “dumbing it down.” 

One of the best ways to accomplish this is through analogies. Analogies connect your content directly to the audience’s knowledge and experiences, making a potentially complex topic easier to comprehend. For example, Ed Hallowell, a leading psychiatrist, compares ADHD to having “a Ferrari for a brain with a bicycle for brakes.” This short but vivid comparison helps create greater clarity through an image most anyone can conjure.

PARTICIPATION

Two major pitfalls of panel presenting are poorly managed contributions and insular conversations. Some panelist contributions are too lengthy or require a tremendous amount of cognitive effort for the audience to understand. Similarly, when panelists focus too much on each other, the audience becomes bored and disengaged. 

These problematic panel behaviors exclude the audience and reduce this communication mode’s conversational, compelling nature. To combat these common challenges, we offer: Structuring, Linking, and Connecting.

Structure Your Contribution

When your turn to speak comes, structure your contribution clearly and concisely. While many different structures exist, our favorite for panels is the What? > So what? > Now what? structure. Here’s how it works:

• What? Lead with your point and supporting example(s).
• So what? Explain why your point is important.
• Now what? End with the implications, ramifications, or applications of what you said.

Link Your Comments to Earlier Conversation

Since your audience does not have the luxury of preparation and prior conversations with other panelists, it is your responsibility to help them link and connect the panel’s content. Two crucial facilitation techniques can help you here: paraphrasing and bridging.

Paraphrasing repeats previous information differently (e.g., “What I heard you say is…”) or highlights a key concept before you speak (e.g., “Engagement is challenging….”). Paraphrasing reminds your audience what was just said—helping them stay focused, increasing their information retention, and demonstrating your engaged participation. Unlike paraphrasing, bridging often links higher-order ideas and themes. The most effective bridging calls out a specific connection between previously spoken ideas and lays the path for your contribution. 

Invite Your Audience into the Conversation

A good panel engages the audience and invites collaboration. It is far too easy for panelists to focus on each other and their moderators, relegating the audience to mere spectators. However, audience engagement fosters positive affect, retention of information, and better recall. Invite your audience to get involved through both verbal and nonverbal means.

Two important verbal tools are inclusive language and polling. Inclusive language shows the audience that you represent them and their interests and concerns. Phrases such as: “Like many in the audience, I…” can pull them in. You can also ask the audience to respond to a quick polling question. When you pose the question, be sure to (1) Demonstrate how you want them to respond (e.g., raise your hand as you ask the question) and (2) Briefly comment on their response.

Nonverbally, you can use your body positioning and eye contact to show your audience you’re including them. Look out into the room occasionally and cheat your body posture so you open a bit to the audience. This positioning signals that you are aware of and interested in them.

While this is a lot to remember, keep in mind that panel presentations are exciting opportunities for engagement and knowledge exchange. By following these best practices, you can maximize the value for you and your audience, ensuring a memorable and impactful event.