Last week I had the pleasure of moderating the hybrid conference 'Digitalising public services: Challenges, risks and opportunities for citizens, businesses and workers' for the European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions CESI. The two-day event took place in the beautiful city of Konstanz in Germany. On my way home I let three intense days sink in and realised how much more complex the role of moderator has become since my first event moderation some 15 years ago. And how much more moderation has become teamwork, dependent on many people and technologies. As illustrated by the above picture of DG Roberto Viola from the European Commission joining the event online on October 21st 2022. I also realised how blessed I was working with such a great team.
event Moderation: a complex job
When all goes well you won't notice this complexity as a participant and the biggest compliment you can get is "well that wasn't too difficult for you!" I thought it would be nice to give an impression of what 'making it look easy'-moderation involves on the spot, leaving the months of preparation aside. First some background facts on the congress:
70+ live participants
with many more online participants joining from throughout the EU
live interpretation into 5 languages via Zoom
direct interaction with all participants via the Slido app
15 speakers in situ
4 speakers joining online
2 speakers with a prerecorded video
streaming to YouTube
Seven pictures to give you a behind-the-scenes impression
1. Checking out the location the day before with Klaus Heeger, the Secretary-General of CESI. A good moment to again go over the original intention for the event. What should it bring the participants, what call to action should be evident afterwards, what follow-up will be provided. If you look closely you can make out the two cameras hanging from the ceiling for online streaming. Only when you see the actual location for yourself, the program really starts to come alive. You make decisions regarding the lay-out of the room and set-up of the stage. A healthy tension and focus arises and that's exactly what you need to make an event a success.
2. Back at the hotel going over last-minute changes to the program and a myriad of details with project officer Marcella Migliori and communications officer Tilemachos Dafnis from CESI. Such as a speaker that couldn't make it because of a strike and another that got cold feet just 2 hours before the start of the event and wanted to pull out. After providing some clarification and reassurance, all was well again and the speaker was great! Working with people with an eye for detail and interpersonal sensitivities as these two have, is key when organising an event.
3. Making sure the participants are welcomed and receive their badges & congress information. The participants often arrive after a long journey so have to be able to settle down before the event starts. As always this is taken care of by radiant event manager Inge Pauwels from CESI. Kindly photo bombed here by speaker and VP of the CESI Europe Academy Dietmar Knecht.
4. Double and triple checking all technology (including the feeds to and from the interpreters) by programme manager Tomasz Koguc from CESI. Working here in close conjunction with a local and very professional AV team from Konstanz. Always great to have such an enthusiastic tech savvy member on your team. All tables in front of the participants carried a paper with a QR code that linked to all project information, the WiFi code and the event hashtag for social media and the slido app.
5. Checking the Slido app for questions and reactions from the public and fit them in Q&A sessions and panel discussions. All this while listening to the speakers and the discussion, so as to be able to recap the most important points for the audience and keep the program in a natural flow. One of the main tasks of the moderator is to create a listening arc for the program. A logical journey you take the participants on to the envisioned destination. You lay it this out on the start and explain with each program part how it fits in.
6. Dealing with a surprise during a panel discussion. Hickups nearly always occur and then the challenge is to minimize the disturbance for speakers and participants. During the coffee break the connections with the online speakers worked fine but just some 15 minutes later we lost sound from one of them. So we had to shuffle the speaking order while trying to fix the issue. The resilient Maximilian Strotmann from the European Commission ended up using his phone which luckily worked fine.
7. When it's time for the concluding remarks, here by the president of the CESI Europe Academy Marcello Pacifico, you can ease up. But not before making sure everyone is thanked properly. Although I was the guy on stage, the one people look at and listen to, it should be clear by now that moderating a hybrid event such as this is first and foremost teamwork. Also it is a release of energy that has been building up over many months of preparation and should be focused in the right direction. Every beginning should have an ending. Which in turn creates a new beginning.
Bonus picture ;-)
Klaus Heeger and yours truly thoroughly enjoying ourselves in the wonderful city of Konstanz.
So that was easy! ;-) In truth, concentrating for three days, dealing with the intensity & complexity of it all and making sure that everyone is at ease, requires a lot of energy. But is has been very rewarding. I had a blast with the team, speakers and participants. Moderating events such as this, really are the cherry on my pretty diverse working cake. The excellent weather and beautiful scenery in Konstanz added to the mix.
A big thank you to all involved. You were great!
