I wasn¹t at the noir panel on Saturday morning, as I was
moderating the panel on thrillers and heroes next door. I was
disappointed about missing this topic.
I thought about replying to Brian¹s post, resisted, but now I
do think I¹ll chime in.
I think it¹s very important to consider the fact that I was
on the opposing panel, and I was sick all weekend and not
around much, and I STILL heard about the noir panel and the
Ken Bruen comments. Whatever the intention of the moderator
this is a note to all who may be on a panel some day to
consider your words carefully. I don¹t know what the hell it
is with people seeming to find it trendy to take Bruen shots
lately, but I find it tasteless. He¹s one of the most
generous people in this business, simply a wonderful person.
It¹s probably a damn good thing I wasn¹t in the room.
Since I did moderate a panel at LCC I¹m going to speak out of
both sides of my mouth just a bit. In the guidelines
moderators were sent, we were told we could participate in
the discussions. It was therefore up to each moderator to
decide how they wanted to handle that... But there is a
moderators manifesto on Barry Eisler¹s website. I wish all
moderators would read it and apply it.
I am personally in agreement with Donna. I think moderators
should make timely comments and their main job is to keep the
discussion flowing. I did not do a lengthy introduction of
myself - ³my name is Sandra Ruttan and I will be moderating
this panel on...²
It is here that I will jump up and BEG all conference
organizers to see to it that every panelist has a microphone.
Such a small thing, but I really wanted the panel to be
interactive discussion, and when there are two microphones
and five people, it¹s very hard to reach across someone and
yank the microphone out of someone¹s hand. ARGH! However, I
had a fantastic group of people who shared my thinking, and
we managed to make it work. Panelists responded to each
other. They raised questions too. Audience interaction was
great, and we ran out of time for all of the questions. The
greatest compliment to me is that I could have keeled over
and died (a distinct possibility) and that panel still would
have been great.
My main goal was to make the panelists look good. I did not
ask questions and go down the list for all four to answer it
every time. I did have tailored questions that related to the
experience of each panelist. When they¹re insightful and
funny and expand on the topic at hand, people enjoy it. We
received a lot of compliments, but the best was the woman in
the audience who said she had been hesitant to come, because
of our topic, but was impressed by how we¹d expanded on the
topic and she felt like she¹d learned something.
Of course, anyone who was there (which would be nobody on
this list, I suppose) knows I learned a little something
myself about American history...
Sandra
On 2/7/07 10:52 AM, "Donna" <
donna.moore@virgin.net> wrote:
>
> I also felt the same. I presume it was meant to be a
joke, but it didn't
> come across that way, and I felt it was insulting to
Ken - who not only
> happens to be a wonderful writer who deserves all
the accoldes he gets
> and more, but who is also a charming, funny, and
generous man who is a
> good friend. I'm sure he would not have been upset
if he were there, but
> I was upset on his behalf. If it WAS a joke, then it
wasn't a very funny
> one.
>
>> > Brian said:
>
>> > Unfortunately, that is not the role of the
moderator, at least not as
>> > I understand it. In fact, he's supposed to
be there to keep that sort
>> > of thing from getting out of
hand.
>
> The panels which work best are those where the
moderator can fade into
> the background and have the focus be on the
panelists. It's nice at
> conventions if everyone who is a moderator also gets
a chance to
> actually be on a panel. That's when they should talk
about themselves. I
> love a good moderator who can bring out all the
panelists, who has read
> some of the work of each of them, can make the
questions relevant and
> give those panelists a chance to shine.
>
> Donna
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