Questions to Ask Guest Speaker
Written for whoever has to run the session. These are the chair's questions: the opener that gets hands in the air, the follow-ups that turn a smooth answer into a specific one, the move that hands the floor back to the room, and a closer that ends things on time. If you are in the audience rather than at the front, the sets on Questions to Ask a Guest Speaker and Good Questions to Ask Guest Speakers are aimed at you.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What part of this talk do people usually push back on?
Why ask it
A good first question because it is easy to answer and it hands the speaker the most interesting part of their own material. It also saves you from asking the objection everyone else is about to ask.
What did you cut from this talk for time that you wish you could have kept?
Why ask it
Every speaker has a favorite section that does not fit in the slot. Asking for it gets material no other audience heard, and speakers are visibly pleased to be asked.
What has changed in your thinking since you started giving this talk?
Why ask it
Distinguishes a live argument from a set piece. If nothing has changed in three years of speaking, the talk is a performance rather than a report from ongoing work.
Is there a claim in the talk you would like the room to push back on?
Why ask it
A chair's way of inviting disagreement without staging a fight. It tells the audience which objections are welcome and usually produces the first raised hand of the evening.
That is a strong claim. Can you put a number or an example on it?
Why ask it
The single most useful follow-up a chair has. It is polite, it is obvious, and it converts a sentence the room half believed into something they can repeat accurately.
What should we know about your work that the introduction did not cover?
Why ask it
Introductions are written from a biography and usually miss the current project. Asking early lets the speaker set the terms and gives late arrivals something to hold on to.
What surprised you most while you were working on this?
Why ask it
Surprise means a prior belief was overturned, so the answer is always specific and usually a story. Reliably better than asking what they learned.
Which of your examples do people ask about most, and why that one?
Why ask it
Tells you which part of the talk actually lands with audiences, and the why is often about a misunderstanding they have to keep correcting.
What would you like this room to be arguing about after you leave?
Why ask it
Turns the session outward instead of keeping the speaker on the spot. Good answers seed the conversation at the reception, which is where most of the value of an event actually sits.
What do people in your field argue about that outsiders never hear?
Why ask it
Public talks smooth over internal disputes about method and measurement. Asking for the argument gets you the state of the field rather than its press release.
What is the first thing someone in this room could do with what you have said?
Why ask it
Forces the talk down to one action, which is what most of the audience actually wanted. If the only answer is to care more, the talk had no practical content.
What is the boring part of your work that makes the interesting part possible?
Why ask it
Gets the unglamorous machinery: permissions, cleaning data, waiting, fundraising. Anyone considering the same work needs this more than the highlights.
How do you decide what to work on next?
Why ask it
You learn whether the agenda is set by curiosity, by funding, or by whoever asked last. Useful and rarely asked, since audiences assume the work chose itself.
Is there a point from earlier that you would like to come back to?
Why ask it
Speakers frequently rush a section to stay on time and think about it for the rest of the evening. A chair who offers the second pass gets the clearest few minutes of the night.
What is a claim in your field that everyone repeats and nobody has checked?
Why ask it
A pointed question that experts often enjoy answering, because most fields have one. Be prepared for the answer to be something you believed on the way in.
If someone here wanted to work on this, what should they learn first?
Why ask it
Concrete and useful to the students in the room, and it produces a shorter list than a general career question would. Ask for one thing, not a curriculum.
What would you need, in money, access or time, to do the version of this work you actually want?
Why ask it
Reveals the constraint the talk was designed around, which is often the most honest thing said all evening. Funders and deans in the audience occasionally act on it.
What question do you wish audiences asked you?
Why ask it
A polite way to hand the floor back near the end of a session, and the answer often reframes the whole talk. Only worth asking once, so do not use it as your opener.
Is there anyone here you would like to hear from before we finish?
Why ask it
A chair's tool for the moment when the same three people have taken every question. It redirects attention without anyone being told they have talked too much.
If we forget everything else from tonight, what should we remember?
Why ask it
A clean closing question that gives the host an ending and the speaker the last word. Ask it only when time is nearly up, since it signals the session is over.
Getting something out of a Q and A
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
If you are in the audience
- Ask one question in one sentence. The most common failure in any Q and A is a two-minute preamble followed by no question at all.
- Do not stack three questions together. The speaker will answer the easiest one and the other two are wasted.
- Take the question from something they actually said, and quote it briefly so the room can follow.
- Skip anything already covered in the talk. If you missed it, ask a neighbor afterwards rather than spending the room's time.
- Resist the urge to demonstrate expertise. A short question makes you look better than a long comment does.
- If the answer dodges, one polite follow-up is fair: ask for a specific example. A second follow-up turns it into a duel and the room will side with the speaker.
If you are hosting
Have your first question ready
Silence at the start of a Q and A is contagious. Open with something easy for the speaker, such as what people usually push back on, and hands will go up during the answer.
Announce the rules once
One question each, no speeches, and say how long the session runs. Doing it at the start is friendly; doing it after someone has monologued is awkward.
Interrupt kindly and early
If a questioner is drifting, step in with a summary: so your question is whether the effect holds outside the sample. It rescues both the questioner and the room.
Spread the microphone
Alternate sides of the room and take at least one question from someone who has not spoken. Regulars will otherwise take the whole session.
End on time and on purpose
Close with the remember-this question, thank the speaker, and say where the conversation continues. A Q and A that peters out makes the whole talk feel smaller.
Questions that waste the session
- Anything answerable from their published work. It reads as not having done the reading.
- Requests for a prediction with a date attached. You will get a hedge, and a hedge teaches nobody anything.
- Broad requests for career advice in a room of two hundred people. Ask them afterwards, in one specific sentence.
- Private matters, family included, however friendly the talk has been.
- Setting up a fight to be seen doing it. It fails in front of an audience that came to hear the speaker, not you.