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Daily Archives: September 26, 2016

This Is the Content a Panel Moderator Needs

This Is the Content a Panel Moderator Needs

Microphone and CurtainThere are debates in the air – can you feel it? Talk about slings and arrows…

All this talk about who’s moderating the presidential debates got me thinking about panel moderators.

I often moderate panels. Here’s the content I must have at my disposal when I do:

  1. Names, titles, and bios of each panelist. If someone has a tricky name to pronounce, I have the phonetic spelling of that name as well, just to make sure I don’t botch it.
  2. Short introduction. It never hurts to have your introductory remarks printed off and handy, plus the name/s of the event sponsors if applicable.
  3. List of questions I’ll be posing. And then some. It’s standard to share the questions ahead of time with your panelists so everyone’s prepared. Always have extra questions handy as well. Sometimes you go through the prepared questions quickly and find yourself at a loss for words. Avoid this! Draft a lot of extra questions.
  4. Copies of relevant articles if available. Often, the topic we’re covering is timely and/or controversial, and other journalists or experts have weighed in. I like to print copies of such content and have them with me. I highlight key passages on them so I can reference them quickly.
  5. Attendee list. If you’re lucky, you’ll have received a list of audience members. When I get such a list, I print it and have it in front of me. Rule #1 of public speaking: know thy audience.

Having this information handy will ease your job as moderator and enhance your professionalism.

(c) 2016 Margie Dana


 

Print, the Tie that Binds

Print, the Tie that Binds

Processed with Snapseed.One of the nicest things about being me is getting to meet incredible people.

Like Greg Mroczek, a savvy and super-smart book manufacturing expert who works in publishing at Hahhhvaaaad.

We go way back. About 13 years ago I started a print buyers group in Boston and ran dinner meetings throughout the year. Greg started attending those dinners from the beginning, and he came to the annual conferences I produced, too. We’ve kept in touch ever since. Now and then he weighs in on one of my blog posts, and he tends to email me when he comes across some cool print- or publishing-related article. I consider him a leading resource in book manufacturing. He’s absolutely the real deal and, like so many of us, a fool for print.

Over burgers and fries recently (let me be clear: the fries were his), we talked about printing people we knew back in the ‘80s. There were a lot of them, many quite colorful characters, and we swapped too many stories to share here. The 90 minutes flew by.

Greg scolded me for being such a Kindle fan (he works on physical books only) and we discussed our love-hate relationship with digital newspapers. He got the last word in when he stated unequivocally that ebooks are declining in popularity and sales, so long live real books. I certainly have no problem with that, but I do love my Kindle.

Greg Mroczek, the real deal.

Greg Mroczek, the real deal.

It would be great to see Greg more often, not only because he’s smart and funny and tells great stories, but also because – maybe primarily because – we share this thing about print.

If you’ve read my stuff for a while, you know what I’m talking about. Being with kindred spirits who “get” print and who know what it’s like working with (and in Greg’s case, once upon a time, for) printers is a real gas.

The reason we met was because he wanted to give me a broadsheet from the NYT that came out in August. It’s an excerpt from a long piece of fiction by Colson Whitehead called The Underground Railroad that was available only in print.

Even this ebook fan had to admit: it’s a lasting thing of beauty.

(c)2016 Margie Dana