Powerful Panel Discussion Tip #57 with Brianwalter - Should we call it something other than a panel?

Brian, would it help to generate audience interest if we called the event something other than a panel? You don’t have to call it a panel. It is a panel—I guess I’m more in truth in advertising and likely to call it a panel because I wouldn’t want people to perceive a bait and switch. Oh, there is going to be…It’s a panel! Okay, okay, let’s see how it goes. Now again, it depends. The question is when is a group of people on stage not a panel? Okay, you reframe it as a talk show. A talk show is a more conversational, usually fluffier version of a panel. So this is where—to go to your point you know—what if you don’t call it a panel? I think you can go with it if it’s not a panel, You have to make it not panel-ish. If there are 5 people sitting in chairs or benches in a row facing the audience, it’s a panel. No matter what you call it, it’s a panel. They’ll perceive it as a panel. It is a panel. On the other hand, if there’s a set, and there are comfy chairs at angles to each other, it could be a talk show. And talk shows are basically a panel, but you have to make it feel more like a talk show—fluffier questions before they get edgy, the moderator is a little more dashing so it can be a talk show. You can also call it an interview. It’s like okay, so we’re going to do a—you know—a trio; we’re going to do an interview quartet, interviewing four people, kind of sounds like a panel. But again, by calling it an interview, it’s going to be much more back and forth and the moderator, the facilitator interjecting more of him or herself. That’s what makes it more of an interview vs. a panel. A panel, the facilitator isn’t really injecting as much of their personality into it, whereas with an interview or a talk show they are.