This Best Practices for Moderators guide serves as a tip sheet for people who are going to facilitate a panel discussion. Panel discussions can present an array of challenges for moderators. Panelists may have very different viewpoints, presentation styles, or preparation levels. Their presentations may run over time or be marred by technical difficulties. Audience members may be slow coming up with things to ask during the question-and-answer period, or they may want to express their own views instead of asking questions. This guide provides advice for addressing these issues. We are also providing this guide as a Word document so you can remove the list items you don’t need or add items relevant to your event. This guide is a “living document” that will be edited and updated with comments and suggestions.

A Guide for Moderating Panel Discussions