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Once upon a panel

Ever so often one gets to be on a panel or see a panel as part of a conference. Here are my tongue in cheek observations.

1. See the topic. Again. And again. Underline it.
2. Now, stick to it.  With Fevicol.
3. Do not go here and there like a jumpy cat. Stay on point. The topic.
4. If you have never seen, held or spoken into a mike in your life, please see one and then come on the panel. Don't behave as if its the first time someone gave you the mike and hold on it for dear life. It is not a straw though you are drowning.
5. If people don't listen to you anyhow, the place to try and validate it is not on a panel.
6. There are other people in a panel as well - if you had to be given a voice to speak by yourself, they would have invited for the damn keynote.
7. Moderator, your job is to moderate. And that includes stealing mikes, ensuring panelists don't share their life story or meaningless information or ramble along. Thou shall herd the cats into the fence known as the topic.
8. Panelist, when the moderator says, keep it short, keep it really short
9. Do not take yourself so seriously as a panelist. Likely you spoke the same thing in a previous conference and you will speak the same in the next one. Its alright. Nobody is taking you seriously anyway. Ever heard of a panel discussion that changed the world? No right? Exactly.
10. Let the audience feel, I want to hear him/hear say more and not, I wish he/she stops rambling
11. There is a time limit - for you and the whole panel. The idea is to make that time meaningful and not stop it like a summer in a desert craving for water.
12. When you say, I have a sentence to add. Add only a sentence. Not a word more. And a simple sentence at that, not a paragraph disguised as a sentence.
13. If you all agree, then we needed only one panel member. So, disagree. Debate. Shake it up. Or agree and make it better. Remember, yes, and.
14. Did you hear the audience applaud? Nod their head? No? They are probably asleep or bored. Or they just disappeared into their phones.
14a. Now just to hear them applaud, dont crack a joke, please. Especially if it is a whatsapp forward. We have all read and deleted it. Make a genuine humourous point, make them laugh at you - yes, please.
15. The panel is not your Oscar/Grammy moment. So, give your thank you speeches elsewhere.
16. This is not your appraisal either. So spare us the list of stuff you did in one year.
17. It is not your, "Tell me about yourself" moment in the interview either.

What I like to hear on a panel is authentic voices. Simple. Genuine voices. And if they want to talk to you after the panel, maybe, just maybe you touched a chord. Or if you get another invite. Else, you know...
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