Typically, most presentations in conferences are in the form of PowerPoint decks. While this works very well, because it allows the speaker to provide a lot of information to the audience, this can also be very boring especially when the speaker has not taken the time and trouble to prepare a good deck.
There are also lots of good speakers who don’t need a deck when talking, but few people can pull this off, because they don’t have the confidence and skills to do this.
This is why panel discussions have become so popular because speakers don’t need to spend too much time preparing for them. Also, because there are many people speaking, the audience gets to hear multiple perspectives. The problem is that panellists don’t bother to prepare; one person may monopolize the conversation; and when there are too many people on the panel, no one gets enough time to express their views.
This is why fireside chats have become so popular, and they are great, provided the participants have prepared well for this. The secret is to respect your audience and to make sure you have a message which is worth communicating to them.
You then need to use the tools you have at your disposal to make sure this comes across crisply. I had the opportunity to do a fireside chat at the Sankalp Forum.
Since I’d never done one before, I’d like to share some tips which might help you if you are invited to do one too:
Prepare. Learn how to do a fireside chat, and lots of websites describe the process well.
Do your homework- both about the topic and the person you are interviewing. Please don’t try to wing it!
Try to speak informally to the interviewee before the chat, so that you can break the ice, warm him up, and make sure that you are on the same page Please don’t over prepare – this makes the conversation look stilted. Try to be flexible, so that the chat flows as a natural conversation.
Being curious help! It’s helpful to have a list of questions written out so that you can refer to these during the chat. You might want to share these in advance with the interviewee, so that he knows what to expect, and can prepare his answers a little more thoughtfully.
And if you invest enough time and energy in doing this well, your audience will enjoy the chat as much as you do !