As a long time reader of The Eloquent Woman blog, of course I bought Denise’s book, The Eloquent Woman’s Guide to Moderating Panels (Amazon) almost as soon as it came out, and only waited a couple of weeks to read it!
I’m not a fan of panels because so often they are bad, so it’s great to have a resource on how to do them better.
The parts I found most useful were:
- The step by step guide to preparing as a moderator – I read it contemplating my first moderator gig and having no idea what to do! (It fell through, so now I’ll have to look for another opportunity to use what I learned.)
- The set of exercises and questions to make the panel less generic.
- Ways to interrupt! Which let’s be honest is useful for women in meetings, too.
The book is targeted at the moderator, but could also be useful for being a good panelist because it’s packed full of tips. I highly recommend reading it if you are involved in any kind of panel.