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6 ways to reimagine a conference panel session
A few weeks ago I spoke at a conference on how emerging tech — especially AI — will impact live events. The format was a panel, but me and the other panelists decided to flip it.
Several people said they really enjoyed the session, so I thought I’d share how it came together. Here are 6 things we did:
📓 1. Craft a narrative: Even a 40 min panel can benefit from narrative structure. And we added one to ours. But narrative isn’t story. Stories have closure; narrative is open-ended. And narrative also includes an invitation to participate — listeners can play a role in what the outcome is going to be.
👒 2. Different Hats: The three of us each played a role: one already using emerging tech in their work; one more cautious; the other an outside practitioner. We didn’t stay rigidly in character throughout, but wearing the hats helped the audience get a sense for for real-world scenarios.
👩🏽💻 3. Show, don’t Tell: To frame the ideas, we had a real live use case to share. And to make it feel more possible and accessible, we also included the story behind its creation.
⚙️ 4. Tools: People LOVE resources, tools, frameworks — stuff they can actually use. We shared a bunch of tools they could try — and even better, we showed vs. told.
