Friday, April 1, 2011

Ground Rules for the Discussion Period After Public Talks

We all been there. You know ... some public talk where there are great speakers and everyone is pumped for a lively discussion. And then it's wrecked by people that don't have much of a clue how to interact in that kind of situation.

So after long experience running public events, I thought I should draw up a few ground rules to read to the audience at a panel I organized yesterday evening. And even though I didn't read more then first phrase of most of the points, my message did seem to register with folks.

One of the attendees asked me to forward her the rules; so I thought I'd just post them here for public use. Add and subtract stuff to fit your own needs. Hope they come in useful.

Ground Rules for the Discussion Period After Public Talks

1) Be respectful of other people - while debate is encouraged, ad hominem attacks are not.

2) Avoid making stump speeches rather than asking questions of the panel. If you have some especially brilliant ideas, let's talk afterwards and maybe we'll do a panel featuring you in the near future.

3) Listen to what other people are saying - if someone asks the question you were going to ask, be aware of that and let someone else take your turn.

4) Do not ask two or three (or 12) part questions. And if one of our speakers asks you to respond to their answer, keep it to one response and don't start a lengthy back-and-forth.

5) And finally, let's try to keep some gender balance. I don't want to see a bunch of guys rush to speak first and suck up all the air in the room.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Matthew Andrews said...

I am most often annoyed at public forums by audience participants who 1) ramble until they are cut off, 2) talk about themselves, 3) address completely separate topics without any attempt at connecting them to the forum, 4) all of the above.

Of course ad hominem attacks should not be tolerated and the moderator should try to ensure some gender balance (and all other demographic types for that matter).

Rules 2 and 4 above seem more suited for large forums with high-profile speakers. At smaller events, or when the topic rather than the speakers is what is drawing people out, I think audience participation can be extremely positive beyond simply prompting the invited speakers to say more.

April 5, 2011 at 1:08 AM  

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