How did you start your moderation journey?
My moderation journey actually began with a career change. You see, I had trained in fairly technical areas, firstly as a research biochemist and then in information technology. While I found that fulfilling for many years, eventually I realised that I wanted to explore more human-centred aspects, so I undertook a two-year graduate degree in Organisational Change.
That program involved many group process interactions, with me as subject or facilitator. I found that the skills of facilitating groups complemented my consulting work, and over the following years, I volunteered to run small groups and was eventually requested to chair conferences and roundtables. The skills of active listening and consulting are highly transferable and apply well to Ortus-style events.
What do you find most exciting about moderating?
I love learning something new, and I always find that I gain insights from every event. My key task is to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to contribute and that no one dominates to the point where others feel shut down or steamrolled, so to speak. I pay particular attention to people from diverse backgrounds who may not feel comfortable putting themselves into the conversation. If I have moderated well, everyone should feel like they were at a great dinner party, meeting new people and sharing ideas.
How do you typically prepare to moderate an Ortus event?
I like to understand what the key vendors want to achieve so that I can help provide the platform for them – after all, they are hosting the event. So I will typically pay attention to the backgrounds of the attendees and try to formulate the kinds of questions likely to be of interest to the participants, but also that will enable the hosts to be able to demonstrate or offer some of their expertise in the conversation.
What tips and tricks would you recommend for aspiring moderators?
Learn the art of active listening and practice it on every occasion, whether social or business. It will enrich your life, and you will genuinely be helping others. Overcome nerves, if you have them, through exposure. If you have facilitated events or roundtables well, it should not feel forced. I like to inject gentle humour into the mix because that usually works well; you do not want events to be too serious. People need to enjoy the experience.
In what ways has moderating contributed to your growth as a leader in your field?
Moderating has helped me chair “fireside chats” and events in real time. I like to use Slido for bigger events so that I can actively bring questions from the audience into the conversation. You can only do this well with some practice because it involves keeping track of a real-time conversation while also reading and threading in questions. So moderating has helped me with confidently chairing meetings and events, and vice versa, I would say.
How has moderating contributed to your personal and professional growth?
I enjoy moderating as it is genuinely a pleasure for me to engage with a group, and I feel it has been a very definite positive in my career path.
Learning about the challenges facing people entering the workforce from other industries or pathways: a lot of C-level execs in the digital space actually did not come from software backgrounds (which I did not either). So to me, it is always interesting to learn from those different career pathways what they bring to their jobs and what I can further amplify and build on for myself.
For example, the skills of resilience and risk management are widely applicable in the digital space, but many non-tech careers offer the ability to hone those skills, such as nursing management (experience in adaptability, managing emergencies, etc.).
Paying attention to time. The biggest asset of a moderator, in my opinion, is that sessions flow to time so that things are not abruptly cut off due to no more time. As a participant, that has happened to me as a delegate, and it’s unpleasant to have the moderator suddenly say, “Well, we don’t have time for questions.” I make it my job to ensure that there is time for interactive questions and answers. I have even brought sponsors back on target to time since, at the end of the day, the audience will appreciate the sponsored session even more if they feel people’s time was respected and everyone gets a fair go. So a skill I have certainly further developed since moderating is that of time management.
Balance: there must be fairness so that no single person dominates. Someone (I think maybe Bill Gates) coined the term “HIPPO” — it means the “Highest Paid Person’s Opinion” — and a bad session is where the HIPPO crushes all other opinions or discussions. A moderator must tactfully learn how to handle HIPPOs and develop techniques to ensure balance and open opportunity for all those present to have their voice.
