How to Moderate a Panel Discussion with Crowdcast

Five Lessons from the Virtual SciPy 2020 Maintainers Track

Samuel Brice

Published in

Nerd For Tech

11 min readMar 25, 2021

Lessons Learned

Although I had hosted conference sessions and panels before, SciPy 2020 was my first experience hosting a virtual conference event. Below, I’ll share some of my lessons learned from hosting at the conference and why they were important, hoping that they will be helpful to you.

My lessons learned can be summarized as:

Build Rapport With Your Co-Chair
Have Backup Speakers
Learn How to Moderate a Panel with Crowdcast
Keep a Timer
Have Fun!

We are very much in a different phase of the pandemic. Yet, virtual conferences are still as prevalent as ever, and it remains a challenge to create an online experience as engaging and organic as the in-person experience. If you’d like to skip the commercials feel free to jump to the section “Learn How to Moderate a Panel with Crowdcast.”

The Backstory

SciPy (pronounced “Sigh Pie”) refers to both the free and open-source Python library used for scientific computing as well as the broader ecosystem of core Python-based open-source packages such as NumPy, Matplotlib, IPython, SymPy, and pandas (to name a few). The user base for those aforementioned mentioned packages alone ranges in the millions.

Founded in 2002, the SciPy Conference is a highly anticipated annual event for the scientific and analytic computing community, bringing together hundreds of attendees representing academia, government, and various industries. In 2020 I was invited by the organizing committee to co-chair the inaugural Maintainers Track along with Gaël Varoquax.

Machine Learning ‎ ‎‎⠀—‎‎‎⠀ ‎‎‎ High-Performance Python

The conference themes for 2020 were Machine Learning and High-Performance Python. The Maintainers Track was a new addition to promote discussion and sharing among open-source software maintainers and core developers.

twitter.com/SciPyConf/status/1262795197110538243

When first announced in early January of 2020, the 19th annual installment of the SciPy conference was to be held in Austin, Texas. Later that same month, for the sixth-time since being founded in 1948, the World Health Organization (WHO) Declared the Coronavirus a Global Health Emergency. Things quickly escalated with the US Declaring COVID-19, a National Health Emergency on March 13th, eventually enacting an air travel ban on a wide range of countries.

The pandemic put the entire conference in doubt. Many of the conference’s 900+ expected attendees, including my Track co-chair, were effectively barred from entering the US. Although states had not yet enacted severe travel restrictions domestically, hosting the conference in-person was too risky.

With the health and safety of the SciPy community as the top priority, the conference organizing committee decided to pivot to a virtual conference.

My first lesson from this virtual conference experience…

Build Rapport With Your Co-Chair

This is normally a given. However, when the pandemic became official in early 2020, communication became tense, priorities shifted, and some commitments became unworkable. Having a co-chair to lean on was especially helpful because we also had to do extra work interfacing with the participants pre-conference.

Paradoxically Gaël was much more involved in the setup-work in recruiting presenters and participants for the Track. Mainly because I was too busy trying to figure out where to buy toilet paper and also trying to figure out why I was buying toilet paper, in that order. We had many great candidates for the Track, and it was a bit hard to pick only a few. Ultimately we settled on an array of projects and speakers that we hoped would bring a diverse set of experiences to the community.

Our Maintainer Track panel consisted of Matthew Rocklin (Dask), Kyle Niemeyer (JOSS), Hannah Aizenman (matplotlib), Melissa Mendonça (NumPy), Ilhan Polat (SciPy), and Carlos Córdoba (Spyper). We were fortunate to have such an all-star panel under these circumstances, and the event certainly wouldn’t have been the same without them.

Earlier I said “paradoxically” — well, the situation was soon inverted as Gaël ended up not being able to get as involved with the planning and hosting phase of the event. Given that he lives in France and I live in the US, the below chart is a handwavy explanation of why things worked out for us as co-chairs the way they did.

Gaël likes to say he wasn’t a co-chair because he wasn’t able to plan and host day-of, but I told him that’s too bad, and I’m writing him in as a co-chair regardless.

Despite being spread out geographically and across different time zones, we had been setting up Zoom chat sessions and collaborating over Google Docs long before the pandemic went from panic to complete lockdown. Having an early rapport made it easier to communicate later on as the situation changed locally and stretched our time and energy in different ways.

PS: I’m probably stretching the use and definition of “paradoxically,” but it contributes to my unique word count.

Have Backup Speakers

We assume it’s easier to attend a virtual conference given the lack of travel constraints, but it turns out it doesn’t matter. Not being a seasoned conference planner, I didn’t realize that pandemic or no pandemic, life happens, and people can’t make it. Of course, a global pandemic should have made me acutely more aware of the possibility that one of the speakers would have a last-minute emergency. But, hey.

Having a backup speaker was more a stroke of luck than of genius. Having a backup speaker wasn’t part of the plan, but Carlos Córdoba from the Spyder project contacted us the week of the conference. He had been trying to get involved, and throughout the confusion of early 2020, we just dropped the ball on him.

twitter.com/ccordoba12/status/1262910107790295040

Spyder is a fantastic project, a scientific development environment designed by and for scientists, engineers, and data analysts. The range of features, functionalities, and plugins it provides makes for an incredibly productive and rich development experience.

Out of respect for our attendant’s time, we couldn’t just stretch out the session, and it wouldn’t have been fair to cut into other presenter’s time allocations. So we added Carlos to a waitlist, and lo-and-behold it was Carlos and Spyder who saved the day when one of our presenters couldn’t make it at the last minute.

Moderating a Panel Discussion with Crowdcast

The good folks at csv,conf,v5 have written an excellent guide about their successful experience pivoting to a virtual conference during the pandemic. Theirs was the motivation for writing this post.

For SciPy 2020, we ended up going with Crowdcast as our video platform. I mention the csv,conf,v5 guide because they do a great job breaking down the benefits and challenges of Crowdcast. Also, they are cool people, and I like shamelessly promoting them!

There are several benefits to using Crowdcast, such as an intuitive user interface from both the speaker and viewer’s perspective. A virtual speaker “green room” for checking audio, video, etc., before going on stage. And the ability for viewers coming in late to seamlessly catch-up or replay an event with full chat history.

Crowdcast also has some limitations that make it less than ideal for a panel discussion. And by less than ideal, I mean terrible. In Crowdcast, you are limited to four simultaneous screens — with the host included; this means you’re limited to three simultaneous panelists.

With a panel of six speakers, that means actively managing the stage to keep all the panelists engaged. While at the same time working the chat stream to keep the audience engaged.

The plan was to simply round-robin the speakers to balance screen time and also have the audience specify when a question is directed to any specific panelist.

In terms of practical tips for running a panel discussion with Crowdcast, I will highlight a few key points:

Set Expectation with Your Audience
Use Themes to Structure the Conversation
Consider Resetting the Room
Know Your Panelists
Know Your Audience
Bug Your Panelists
Be Flexible

Set Expectations with Your Audience

This virtual panel thing was as new to us organizers as it was for much of the audience. We gave the audience a quick intro as to how the program would be conducted from the outset.

Since the Maintainers Track is generally about maintaining open source software and given the presentations that each panelist had just completed, we gave the audience 2 minutes to collect their thoughts and post questions into the Crowdcast “Ask a Question” box.

Use Themes to Structure the Conversation

Themes (or topics) are the nuts and bolts of running a panel discussion. There are many great sources on this component, and I won’t be redundant by diving into it here.

Consider Resetting the Room

One thing I’ll add regarding the use of themes and topics is something I realized only later while reflecting on how the panel went.

Generally, when switching topics in real-life, the process is pretty fluid; you may subtly use a transition phrase such as “…now, pivoting to…”. This transition method works the same on a virtual panel; however, part of me now believe I should have been a bit more explicit with the transition.

If you’ve ever used the app Clubhouse, there’s something called “Resetting the Room.” Effectively it entails assuming that half of those in the room just joined in the last few seconds and have no idea what is going on. The process boils down to quickly explaining what you’re all talking about and how the new folks can get involved in the conversation.

If done correctly, this would also be a great way to give your audience 20–30 seconds to collect their thoughts and submit questions regarding the upcoming topic or something they recently heard.

Know Your Panelists

Different panelists tend to be passionate or thoroughly experienced with different things. Depending on the audience’s questions or the current theme, keep in mind that you may have to bring-up a panelist not already on stage. There isn’t (or wasn’t) an explicit “hand-raising” feature for panelists, so it’s essential to be a bit more conscious of that limiting aspect.

In a more subtle sense, keeping a close eye on your panelist’s body language and facial expressions can let you know when a panelist wants to add something to the conversation but maybe doubtful.

Spontaneous participation is not usually an issue in-real-life because the flow and energy of things tend to make people speak up. The extra step of unmuting may be a more significant barrier to spontaneity than one would expect.

Know Your Audience[s]

As the host, you are responsible to your panelist and your audience. While everyone (hopefully yourself included) is primarily interested in hearing what the panelists have to say, your audience accounts for a considerably larger segment of your population.

There are a few interesting challenges within this dynamic, especially given the virtual format. It’s not as easy for anyone to ask what they may feel is a “so-called-stupid” or “supposedly-controversial” question. Nonetheless, having missed out on such a unique opportunity to engage an expert will leave your audience not only chagrined but regretful. A virtual platform such as Crowdcast isn’t as “anonymous” of a platform the same way a real-life conference would be. If you’re not seeing certain challenging questions coming from the audience, it will be your job to ask those questions. The trick is doing it the right way.

Considering the audience’s size, you can imagine the diversity of interests and unasked questions will be pretty extensive. Therefore, it’s crucial to be well versed in the topic at both a high and low-level such as to ask the proper opening and (most importantly) follow-up questions.

Bug Your Panelists

I mean this both in terms of asking interesting questions (as detailed above) and because there’s a non-zero probability that a panelist may end up multi-tasking. Carlos put us all to shame with his ability to type and (somehow) effectively answer questions simultaneously.

Because of the limit on simultaneous screens with Crowdcast, it’s not unlikely that a panelist will be off-screen for as much as 3–4 minutes. There’s probably research out there about attention spans being less than that. While the idea of round-robin is excellent in theory, it doesn’t quite work out that way for reasons already mentioned above.

If someone has been off-screen for too long, bring him or her up to see if they’re still there. Ask if there’s anything they’d like to add from their own personal experience. It’s a great way to keep everyone engaged.

Be Flexible

Topics and themes are intended as a backup, not as a straightjacket. If the audience or panelists seem particularly interesting in a topic, not in your plan, there may be a different topic that shouldn’t be on your plan.

The above all proves fairly easy to do once you get the hang of it, but it requires some intense focus. This leads us to the next major lesson…

Keep Track of Time

I’m sure in time, there will be research showing how the pandemic warped people’s perception of time, but it’s accepted as true that time flies when you’re having fun. Time also flies at Mach speed when you’re not paying attention to it.

Since this was an audience-driven event, it’s hard to say anyone is captive per se as they could silently leave at any point. Folks stick around as long as they find the discussion interesting and valuable to them. Also, it’s a pandemic, and no one is going anywhere anyway.

Keeping track of time is about being respectful and considerate to your panelists. They are on-the-spot and have to be considerably more engaged than everyone else involved. Be mindful that they likely have other important commitments.

In real life, there are often cues, such as someone saying lunch will be ready in 15-minutes or the smell of lunch, but you’ll have to do with a watch. Also, another great reason to have a co-host!

Finally…