Speaker 1: So, this week at our PET session here in Chicago, I moderated a panel discussion on PET product trends and we got some great feedback, which I'm always happy to hear. And among that feedback, one person noted that they loved the flow of the conversation and how it progressed throughout the panel discussion. And that is something that is a really, really big thing that I try to achieve. And there's really no secret to making that happen other than putting in a ton of prep work and picking the right combination of panelists. So I wanted to talk a little bit about it today because as brands or retailers, you may be in a situation where you putting together a panel discussion for something or an industry round table, which is basically like a panel discussion with more people and no audience. And these kind of recommendations will work in either situation. So the first key thing is to pick the right combination of panelists or round table participants, depending on which you're doing. And you know, it's a matter of picking a panel that's reflective of the industry. So in our case, for this one, our audience is food, drug, and mass retail, as well as PET specialty stores. So what I did is my panelists consisted of one market research firm that covered the PET industry, but also a value retailer, a drug chain, a traditional grocer, and a distributor who distributed to thousands of independent PET specialty stores. So this way, we covered all the bases. It was pretty representative of the PET industry that we cover. So once the audience is selected, at the same time, you put together a list of talking points. Now this is just a draft list expected to evolve as you progress towards the panel discussion. So once you have those talking points and the panelists set, what you do is you do prep calls with each of the panelists. Now I do these calls, they're about 30 minutes to an hour, just my preference. I love setting, building in time to wander and go off on tangents because when I do that, that's when I end up finding out really unusual or unique tidbits that I could always throw into the discussion. So we'll walk our way through the discussion points, me and each of the panelists. So in this case, it was four calls. So each of the retailers and the distributor, I spent an hour on the phone with going over these topics. But then also, there's a little discovery involved because they may suggest some topics as well that might be good to throw in the mix. So and like I said, you kind of wander, you want to find out some interesting stories that they can talk about. Then as you're assembling the questions for the panel discussion or the roundtable, if you're doing one, you want to keep in mind how you want that conversation to flow because you don't want to just throw questions out there and have each person answer it, then you throw the next question. You want that back and forth. You want a rapport going on with your panelists, and especially if you're moderating a roundtable, you want that rapport to happen almost in a natural manner. And this sounds kind of counterintuitive, but the more you prep up front, the more natural the live conversation is. So that's why you dig in, and then once you look at your notes from each of the panelists on each topic, you find out, you know, who am I going to talk to first? Who would be the next best person to talk to? You want it to flow. So for example, when we talked about pet CBD products, we had three of the panelists were involved in CBD, but at different points. One just got the okay to do it, but they're probably six months to a year off of actually selling them. Another one just launched last week, and then a third one was doing it for a year and a half. So I started off with the panelists that just got the okay because they're in a situation now where everything is new, they're just exploring. So I had him talk about the challenges and what he was looking to accomplish. Then I segued over to the panelists who just launched so that he could talk about his experience. And then I wrapped up with the panelists who has been doing it for a while, who could address some of those challenges that the first two were talking about being new to the CBD industry. So it's almost, you know, I like trying to get a back and forth among the panel discussion rather than just throw out a question and answer, you know? And then I try to throw in a lot of different follow-up questions. That's another thing is, you know, you want, if you're not good or not used to throwing in follow-up questions, have a list of possible follow-up questions depending on what the different answers are. Because that's what makes the conversation dynamic. And when you're doing a roundtable, you really want that conversation to be dynamic. In fact, what you want to do is, in a roundtable, you want to be the catalyst to start the conversation and then let it take a life of its own. You want them to go back and forth. So on a panel discussion, it's great to have them go back and forth as well and then, you know, try and get the audience involved too, especially during the Q&A at the end. So again, it all comes down to picking the right panelists, then choosing some topics, but then prepping with each of the panelists on those topics and let that kind of determine what the ultimate flow of the conversation is going to be. So as always, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Let me know what your experience is with panel discussions or industry roundtables. And, you know, always want to hear from you. Leave your comments down below.