In my past life as a journalist, I must have sat through hundreds of panel events, conferences, and presentations.

(Cruel and unusual punishment, I know!) I also participated in and even organised more public debates and discussions than I care to remember.

Today, as a communications advisor with PRSS WRKS, I’m often asked to help develop speaking events—whether it’s with the Malta Business Network, PEVCA Malta, or other corporate clients interested in engaging in public fora or hosting their own.

If you’re an in-house PR or Comms pro, or you’ve been invited onto a panel, here’s a couple of things I wish someone had told me back when I had first started out.

First off, audience engagement is EVERYTHING.The point of your event is to inform, educate, and—yes—entertain your audience. You want people listening to you, not scrolling through emails (i.e. Instagram).

How do you do this? Let’s take moderating panels. This can seem scary. A whole room looking just at you? Yikes! Someone once taught me that as a moderator you should think of yourself as the audience’s representative up there on stage.

Your job is to keep the audience engaged by making it easy and fun for them to follow.

If someone on the panel says something interesting but not 100% clear, jump in with something like, “Hang on, did you just say…?” The audience might not have caught it‎

Same goes for things like acronyms and stats – contextualise these for your audience.

Your role is also to keep the conversation dynamic and the room engaged. If you notice someone in the audience who might resonate with—or even challenge—a panelist’s argument, call them out. That will keep the rest of the audience on their toes.

A panel discussion is NOT a series of mini-speeches—it’s a conversation. Your job is to keep the chat flowing, interesting, and fun. You want interplay between panelists not a stream of 5-minute interventions.

Its not about running down the clock.

Next: Questions.

The temptation as an inexperienced moderator is to take an iPad up with you on stage and read from a script. I’ve done this myself (see damning photo evidence)

Sure, it’s good to have all your questions and thoughts written out in front of you, but here’s a trade secret: Don’t.

Instead, jot down a keyword or two rather than paragraph-long questions. Then put the question to the panel in the same way you would if you were discussing this same issue with colleagues or even with friends over a beer.

I realised this when I was interviewing Finance Minister Clyde Caruana back in 2023. Half way through the event, I put the iPad down and decided to just have a conversation with him – the result was one of my best on-stage discussions ever.

Don’t be afraid to be human.

There’s an art to keeping a discussion engaging—it’s not always easy, but it’s worth it.

If you’re hosting a panel or have been invited onto one soon, remember to have fun with it.