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As we dive face-first into convention season, a humble suggestion to my fellow panel moderators: skip live audience Q&A at the mike. Pass around index cards and pencils at the start, collect em midway, pull out 5 good ones. Read them to the panelists, give the asker a door prize.
Get a volunteer to take dictation for anybody with writing/fine motor issues. You'll get better questions from a more diverse set of folks, save the more seasoned audience members and your panelists a ton of cringing through rambling non-questions.
If an audience member has truly waited their whole life to say "I love your work" to a panelist, great news, you're going to tell them everybody's table numbers and signing times at the very end.
(BONUS: if you get a low yield or a pile of dud questions, you can keep up the energy by posing a followup question to one of the good audience questions without stonewalling folks at the mike. You can also throw in a ringer for a quieter panelist or an under-discussed topic.)
(This advice is geared at smaller, creator-focused panels, but...if you've got a LARGE room or a panel of really high profile guests or performers...consider a version of this approach. "Can you say hi to my friend? *holds up phone*" and "are you single??" are just as bad.)
