To start off, stay tuned for an upcoming episode of the podcast, because both Matt & myself have been talking extensively about your question and brought it into the show and share our experiences on how we felt about it. As a teaser I will share my two cents of some of the stuff I mentioned …

I think Jessica’s approach towards hosting that panel session like she did was *fantastic!* Unique on its own! And, like you said, the best option to engage the audience right away! Just fascinating, as one of the folks from the audience who wasn’t expecting such an intro of the panel. Immediate consequence, we were all there! Engaging in the conversations and waiting for an opportunity to participate! Just brilliant!

I must say though, not sure how other audiences would have reacted. Most bloggers are pretty open and extrovert types, so I can imagine they would be jumping in without a single issue. However, other folks may not have been that open, specially in front of total strangers. In a way, we were also strangers and everything, but I noticed how a bunch of people from the audience, and the panelists, were already “connected” to some of the bloggers, so that helps. I wonder what the scenario would have been like in a room with strangers and asking them chime in and speak up. Perhaps for the next one.

Also, another thing I really enjoyed was the fact it was a relatively small group, so you had a chance to get to meet those folks and find out more from them. I am not so sure the format would have worked out with a larger audience, more than anything, because of lack of time. I bet that if this approach would have been taking place with larger audiences it would have had a completely different take.

But again, for a smaller group, like the one we had, or even smaller, it is a brilliant approach towards conducting a superb panel session and I would certainly be looking forward to more of those in their due time… Perhaps even one with you doing the show!

Again, stay tuned for that upcoming episode, because you will find it, I am sure, rather entertaining…

Q – Do you blog?
A – Hmmm…. I podcast… That’s not a blog… I guess that doesn’t count. (and so I didn’t raise my hand)
A – Well… kinda… I want to blog more… I’ve tried various ways of blogging… I keep reinventing my blog… I’m struggling with my online identity (should I talk about my personal life or my professional life… should I include my political or religious views?… I really don’t want to limit my marketability in the future with employers or with future clients or customers…)

Personally, I have a difficult time with speaking panels. I think they are really designed and facilitated, for the most part, for scenarios where the conference committee wants to simulate a discussion, but only trusts a few people to actually engage in it.

I think I remember seeing Jessica also do her open question bit at the beginning of the E 2.0 Town Hall Wrap Up 2007 (recorded video.) It was nice to see her drag the camera focus away from the podium and out onto the floor and engage get the audience engaged in a discussion. I did see that also with the What Blogging Brings to Business panel. Yet I think that the conversation could be made much more open. The challenge is being polite enough to all the panelists to allow them enough air time. If you follow the 50:50 Rule, and there are 5 speakers, and the session is an hour, this means that each panelist would get 6 minutes. That’s hardly enough to justify them being a speaker in the first place. Why not, instead, have 5 people ready to engage and facilitate the discussion, and NOT require of them a schpeel? The alternative is to have 5 people ready to ask provocative questions and to offer challenging opinions.

Why? Parents of gifted children engage in metacognitive behavioral interactions with their children. Instead of giving answers and providing solutions, they ask the child questions that lead them to answer their own questions. They ask questions that invite the child to think about they way they solve problems. To encourage metacognition, the facilitator becomes a source of questions. They ask the question, and then get out of the way.

Inexperienced group therapists make a common mistake. The lead the group discussion as a series of 1:1 interactions, keeping themselves in the hub and everyone else taking a turn. That’s fine when there is an agenda and work to be done and someone needs to set the cadence and move the group through the agenda. However, except for a few facts and challenging points, the subject matter of most lectures is already known by the audience members. If they are invited to make those points in the room instead of the speaker (and not like being quizzed) and allowed to interact with other people in the room, then there is a much better opportunity to learn.

I picked up a great presentation technique from Jessica Lipnack at the Enterprise 2.0 conference. She was the moderator of the panel on What Blogging Brings to Business. Jessica starts her presentations by asking the audience to introduce themselves. Immediately, you have engaged the audience.

I have being using this for my presentations and love doing it. I ask the audience to say their name, their company and why they are here. (being there for the doughnuts or lunch is an acceptable answer.)

Luis – you were in the audience for Blogging panel at E 2.0. How did you, as audience member, like that audience introduction technique?

@Andy, hummm, we experienced a couple of hiccupes with the iTunes feed, but we thought we got them sorted out and it looks like yours magically disappeared, Go figure! Either way, glad it is working fine now and *thanks much!* for all the kind support on the podcast, including the “elsua” elements! We hope it is going on the right direction…

erm…. actually… it gets better when iTunes doesn’t have a problem to begin with. I wonder what could have caused that. I hope it’s not a more general problem that other people will have. I’m using Podcaster in Wordpress… and it’s not as if there’s a logical set of instructions. Here’s hoping I didn’t mess anything up.

Also, check out the new logo. It’s got that Elsua component, just like you recommended.

Wow, they were mocking her? I’d never heard or read about that one. Got a reference? Sounds fascinating. Yeah, that’s always a winner. Call your audience names… throw rotten vegetables at them…

I like the idea of a story… But I think that the best stories come from turn-taking, where, in the middle of dialog, the story emerges and becomes part of the dialog. If that doesn’t happen, then most people are stuck in their chair wishing they could engage the speaker in a more meaningful way. Even when we say Bill Cosby live in Boston… (and he’s one of the most captivating and entertaining story tellers on the planet), people in the audience were wanting to talk to him.

People are going to be wrong from the beginning if they think they know everything. As you properly talked about, the presenter should learn from his/her audience as well, that’s the corner stone of knowledge: feedback (communication is a better word).

To present anything, you have to have a story to tell. Yes, even in the IT industry you have to “shape” whatever your topic is into a story. By doing so, you’re going to engage your audience and in most of the cases you won’t be boring people and be “booed” at the end.

I’m guessing the presenter you were talking about was the one that made an interview to the “inventor” (CEO?) of Facebook, in an auditorium full of people. She alienated the audience and at the end, the people even started mocking herself, what a nightmare!

Great episode Matt & Luis!