Being An Event Host – Tip No. 60 – Never Do This

When it comes to the Q&A session after a speech or when facilitating a panel discussion, there’s one bad trait that inexperienced MC ‘s and presenters often do.

They ask a bland question to the audience. It normally goes something like “does anybody have a question they’d like to ask…..?”  Sometimes this is met with a total and embarrassing silence. The unskilled MC or presenter then panics and often comes out with “someone must have a question, surely” – this patronising and arrogant stance will further distance members of the audience and could anger panel members or a speaker. So I’d thoroughly recommend you never ask a closed question.

An experienced facilitator or MC will pose a question based on an topic which was aired by a speaker or panelist. This takes concentration and a thorough understanding of the issues. For example, a facilitator at a tech conference could ask (once the format of the Q&A has been outlined) “Ladies & Gentlemen, you’ve had a chance to digest what’s been said about crowd-funding, so how will this type of capital raising affect tech start-up’s over the next year?” 

That type of question could provoke a few hands being raised resulting in a further debate.

Tags: events

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