Photo By: UNIDO, on Flickr
Should You Have a Panel or a Single Speaker?
By: Dan D.
When planning an upcoming talk or workshop, some concerns need addressing such as; is there enough seating, do we have the correct audio/visual setup, or if a projector is required. Another crucial question that must have an answer is, whether you should have a panel or a single speaker presentation. The solution depends on some factors including time constraints, and the overall atmosphere you want to project to the audience. Keep these thoughts in mind when deciding for the next event.
A single speaker will, of course, be one presenter for the entire allotted time for the talk or workshop. Which could then be followed up by a short Q&A session. In this situation keeping the audiences attention and engagement can be challenging, especially if the presenter is going to be longer than 30 minutes. However, at the same time, the speaker would have more time to discuss their views on a subject and have control over the pacing of the presentation.
A panel presentation has its set of advantages and challenges. A panel usually consists of three or four presenters each speaking for 15 to 20 minutes discussing an issue. Then it could be followed up by a 15 minute Q&A session. Keeping the total time for a full presentation around 1 hour. A moderator plays a significant role in panel talks. The moderator manages the time, pacing and flow of the discussion. Encouraging the panelists to discuss their different perspectives, and also engage the audience by taking questions, are another set of duties the moderator must execute competently. Without a skillful moderator, the panel discussion can become disorganized and hectic. Panel presentations are more interactive as there is more chance for audience participation. The audience members can get additional benefits from witnessing how the discussion of different viewpoints unfold before them.
In summary, a single speaker has a generous amount of time to discuss a topic, but keeping the audience engaged may be more difficult. While, panel presentations can be lively and interactive, but need an effective moderator. The moderator is the time keeper and master of transitioning throughout the presentation. Whereas a single presenter needs to manage the pacing and time of a presentation for it to be engaging. As you can see, there are advantages and disadvantages of either having a single speaker of a panel; now that you are armed with information about the benefits of both types of presentations, you can make an informed choice about the format of your upcoming talk or workshop.