- Define your goals.
- What do you want your participants to take away from the roundtable discussion?
- Do your research.
- Arrange roundtables of 10-12 participants.
- Review your attendee list; personalize the experience for guests.
- Keep discussion on track and have in mind ways to move the discussion along if it stagnates.
- Monitor time.
- Create a time line of the roundtable discussion.
- Very important to keep the roundtable discussion within the time limit set by event moderator (Professor Higgs-Coulthard!).
- Be clear about what points you want the roundtable to discuss.
- Set lead-in questions to frame the topic.
- You are there to facilitate conversation, not lead it. The moderator's opinion is the least important.
- Refrain from answering your own questions.
- Set an agenda to keep participants focused and informed.
- Topic: Define the topic of the roundtable discussion.
- Purpose: Establish the purpose of the conversation to help attendees work toward a common goal.
- For controversial topics, especially, establish a code of conduct to limit undesirable behavior such as a single person dominating the conversation.
Source: How to Run a Successful Roundtable Discussion, eventbrite Blog, Feb. 12, 2019.
