A Guide to Being a Great Panelist
By Kelly Byrnes for Harvard Business Review
Being a panelist offers advantages that extend beyond the appreciative applause of the audience. It’s a chance to showcase your expertise, network with your professional community, contribute to industry dialogue, and build your reputation as a thought leader. If you perform well, your colleagues may begin to see you as a go-to resource on the topic of discussion. The positive exposure can help you attract potential teammates, and depending on your field, clients or partners.
So, how can you make the most of this special opportunity? The strategies outlined below can help you prepare and perform to the best of your abilities.
In Advance
When you’re invited to join a panel, the first thing you should do is make sure it aligns with your goals. Ask yourself: Am I passionate about the topic of discussion? Will the opportunity allow me to make valuable connections? Will serving on this panel increase my visibility at work? Will it fulfill another one of my professional aspirations — like becoming a thought leader or building a strong personal brand?
Should you decide to move forward, next consider whether you can really commit — not just to the event itself but to preparing beforehand. If you have the capacity to set aside time for prep, use these strategies to get yourself ready for the event.
1. Understand out who will be in the room.
Get to know the host and their goals. Many panels ask a small group of people with varying expertise on a particular topic to publicly discuss their opinions on or give advice on that topic. It could be as broad as mental health awareness and as granular as sustainability practices at a handful of tech companies. Given the many directions a discussion might go — especially on a more general topic — it’s not uncommon for event organizers to provide panelists with guidance on which areas they hope focus on. For instance, I once hosted a panel about the impact of AI on the patient experience in the healthcare industry. Prior to the event, panelists were asked to focus their answers on patients and resist going into operations or financials.
It’s in your benefit to gain this kind of insight well before the day of your event. When you understand the purpose of the panel, the area of discussion the organizers would like to focus on, and how the market is currently thinking about the topic, you can prepare thoughtful and impactful answers — as opposed to speaking generically. In addition, understanding the context in which your panel is being held, including who is hosting it and what they hope to achieve, will help you make sure your contributions are relevant. In some cases, you may even discover that your own goals or values are misaligned with the host’s, in which case you may want to reconsider attending.
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