Tips On Handling a Q&A Session

London, UK

A re-post from April 2008

Monday, April 07, 2008
Moderating a Panel Discussion

London, UK

Last week, I was invited to a football-related business ethics forum. About 100 people attended. On the panel were David Dein, the former Arsenal FC director and Nigel Layton, Managing Director of Quest. In the chair was Mihir Bose, Sports Editor of the BBC.

The meeting chairman or moderator has a number of areas to cover, these include:

Preparation (venue logistics, speakers requirements, rehearsing opening speech)

Coping with audience interruptions

Handling the Q&A session

Mihir Bose, as you would expect from an experienced sports reporter and presenter, was superb. He was very even-handed with the speakers, injected the right amount of humour and organised a very slick Q&A session.