At the Global Education Network, we pride ourselves on supporting events and conferences where students can participate and learn important skills such as public speaking. In fact, we are in the process of organizing an academic conference where we want to invite our female students to see some amazing female public speakers present at our event. Here is where you will be able to learn first hand how these great orators command a stage.
That being said, if you want to get started in public speaking, sometimes it’s good to be part of a panel discussion. These are useful forums for people to gain large amounts of information on a topic by experts, scholars or leaders in a given field all at the same time. Panel discussions are often held by businesses, professional and academic organizations, and fan conventions. Each of these panel discussions need someone to lead them. This is the moderator of the discussion. Moderating a panel effectively requires knowledge, preparation and the ability to organize time effectively and so that they can decide and recognize when it’s time to cut someone off.
If you want to be a good moderator, here are a few things that will help you:
- Research each of the presenters and learn about what the audience expects to get out of the discussion before the day of the panel discussion. For example, if you are working with certain college guest speakers, it’s important you understand what they specialize in. After you research each of the prospective panelists, make sure you don’t pair people together if they have a history of negativity between them. That can cause problems. It would also help to speak to the panelists in advance. If you talk to them before the discussion, it can help you better guide the conversation and cover all appropriate points.
- Make sure you talk to each of the panelists and explain how the contest will go. Make sure they know that each of them know they must make a brief comment, and then the rest of the discussion time will be spent in a question and answer time. Then, it is your job to keep an eye on the clock. If a panelists starts giving an answer that is a little too long, look for an appropriate time that you can cut them off without being rude.
- Make sure you have a good plan for the question and answer session. It will be important for the audience to have good interactions with your panelists, but you have to stay in control. You have the responsibility to call upon the appropriate panel members to address specific topics or questions. Make sure the panelists know that they should only answer questions in their subject area. They shouldn’t answer those they’re not knowledgeable about.
- You need to keep the conversation flowing between the speakers and the audience. Pay close attention and pick out the right points to make remarks that will lead to transitions. Don’t let one panelist dominate. Make sure you rotate between panelists to allow each person to have a chance comment. Choose the panelist that has the most expertise you’re your panel to answer the questions asked.
Make sure you keep firm control over the proceedings. It’s your job to make sure the panelists and the audience gets the most out of the discussion as possible. If you follow these guidelines, it will help you reach that goal.
Speaking In Public
After you have moderated a few panels, then you should consider speaking in front of a group of people. We know this can be challenging for some students, especially those who get nervous. Being confident and learning how to push through adversity is going to be very important. This is why we Here are some tips that will help you prepare:
- Practice Your Speech
The first thing you need to do is practice your speech. According to Motivation Ping, you should practice your speech so much that you are saying it in your sleep. However, don’t memorize it and think you are Mr Bigshot, because the moment you get on that stage, you are going to forget something. Be confident in yourself while you are practicing your speech, but don’t be cocky!
- Make Yourself Notes
Another thing you should do is make yourself some notes to take with you to the speech. That way if your mind does go blank at some point, you will have your notes right there to keep you on track. When you prepare your notes, it is best to use index cards, that way you can easily go to the next one when you are done with the one before and you won’t lose track. If you have to write your notes on a notebook, then separate your points with a few line spaces. You can also use a few different color highlighters and highlight the paragraphs or notes. This will also help you stay on track and not lose your place. Once you have covered one section of notes, use your ink pen to put an “X” through it so you will know that you have already touched on that note.
- Get Yourself Nice and Relaxed
Next, make sure you are nice and relaxed before you public speaking event. This can be done by taking deep breaths, having a massage before the event, taking a Yoga class before the event, or any other technique you can use to calm yourself down and relax yourself.
- Make Eye Contact with Different Ones
People have always said, if you are nervous about getting in front of a lot of people, picture them naked. Hey, if that works for you, knock yourself out. For me, I could never make that happen. So, eye contact was much better for me. Most of the ones that I spoke in front of wanted to hear me and were interested in what I had to say. Therefore, looking in their eyes and seeing how interested they were helped me a lot while I was speaking. So, you should try this as well.