Panel events and podcasts are powerful platforms for raising your profile as a thought leader to a broader network, expanding your brand reach beyond your own social media connections and email list.
These powerful formats help your audience connect with you or your team’s expertise on a more personal, human level. It can help build connections and brand trust, and open doors to other opportunities and conversations.
Panel events and podcasts foster brand storytelling in a way that builds trust and familiarity, especially compared to more polished written communications.
But you and your business want to come across well and get the most out of the experience or event. Here are just a few tips to get you started.
Invited guest: Delivering your message effectively
Tip 1: Align your messaging with the theme and audience
Do some preparation ahead of your panel or podcast appearance. The audience has turned up or downloaded the episode to hear a conversation on a specific topic, so make sure your messaging aligns with the overarching theme.
If you go off topic or fall into a marketing pitch, you risk damaging audience engagement or, on a podcast, being edited out.
Equally, to engage the audience, make sure you are speaking their language. What is their level of technical knowledge? Use plain English with a clear point of view, as it will always land better than jargon.
Tip 2: Give the right answer
Listen carefully to the question you are asked and answer that. There is a danger of being overprepared and answering a question you anticipate rather than the one being asked, or giving too much away too soon.
Repeat back the question to make sure you’ve understood, or use fillers like ‘that’s a good question’ to create thinking time.
Tip 3: Combating nerves
It can be nerve-wracking to speak in front of an audience or be recorded for a podcast. Nerves are natural. It shows that you care.
Take some deep breaths. In through the nose and out from the mouth can be particularly effective.
Then slow down your talking speed a little. It will give you time to think about what you want to say and can help you feel calmer and in control.
Your event/podcast: Maximising the impact and value
Tip 4: Strategic guest/panellist selection
You want your audience to have a good experience and talk positively about your event or podcast. Think about the type of conversation you want to create and develop a strategy.
Choose guests or panellists who bring genuine value to the discussion and from whom the audience can learn.
Think about how you can represent different perspectives or voices that the audience might not typically hear from. It will help give people a good reason to attend.
Simply recreating an echo chamber of ideas or a well-trodden debate has limited impact.
Tip 5: Have a good moderator
A good moderator or panel chair will steer the conversation in the right direction for the audience and speakers.
They’ll get the best out of panellists, making sure speaking opportunities are balanced. They’ll create a flowing discussion which stays on topic, keeping to time and moving things along when needed.
A good moderator will smoothly manage the panel audience’s questions and other curveballs.
Tip 6: Reach a bigger audience
You can increase the marketing value of your carefully organised panel discussion, keep the conversation going and reach people who weren’t there with a post-event content strategy.
Record, record, record. Video is the ultimate because it can be repurposed into visual, audio and written content. Think about short social video sound bites, themed clips, podcast episodes and audio clips. The downside is the budget required to get a professional video recording.
The low-cost option is to making an audio recording of the discussion on your phone or tablet and then get a transcript using one of the many AI transcription tools.
You should do this even if you video the session because it will give you thousands of words to repurpose into high-quality written content you can use across different channels.
Think about owned media such as a white paper or report, blogs/web articles, newsletter content, LinkedIn and social posts.
A good panel discussion content strategy can feed your content channels for weeks, keep the conversation going, create positive brand association and help to promote the next event you do.
MODERATOR MASTERCLASS
Learn to moderate or chair a panel like a pro so you can leave a lasting impression on the audience and boost positive brand association.
My next Moderator Masterclass is on 12 September 2025. Find more details and sign up for this online workshop.
Related reading
Mistakes I’ve made moderating panels
Podcasts and panel events: Mistakes to avoid and planning for success
