Let us get one thing clear. A Masterclass is not a lecture. It is a knowledge-sharing forum.
The style of delivery should be more about facilitation, with presented content broken down into small chunks for easy mental chewing by the attendees, allowing for summaries of key points, reflections, inputs and moderated debates, including among the audience.
Decide on points of pauses to allow for the inputs from the floor. Doing this deliberately ensures that you are taking the audience on a journey with you. This also gives you opportunity to catch a breath if you are running solo.
Always assume you are not the only expert in your chosen topic. This also goes for the panel. This way, you will be more open to treating your session as a 2-way learning opportunity. As you share knowledge of your own – or the panel as the case may be – do invite inputs from the audience.
Be engaged. Listen attentively to inputs and questions from the floor. When this happens, be still and face those that are contributing. There is a Sesotho phrase that, loosely translated, says the story is in the eyes of the teller. Play the inputs and questions back to assure your audience that you are listening, and you are on the same page with them.
Read your audience’s faces for non-verbal communication cues. If you spot the cues from any of them, invite the verbalisation of the underlying thoughts. Feel free to go like ‘your facial expression says you are thinking about this point, or you disagree with what I just said. Do you want to verbalize your thought for our benefit?’ I have done this countless times and have surprised those I spot the facial expressions of and got surprised myself at enriched discussions emanating from verbalisation of their thoughts.
Be welcoming of divergent views, and don’t be defensive. Take a minute to probe for reasons behind these. There is always a lot to learn from this line of thinking too.
How to deal with a tricky question from the floor? Invite the audience to answer it. At worse, this gives you a split second to think about your response.
You have audience members who are having side chats during your session? Invite them to share with all what they are talking about. This way, you turn an irritation into more positive participation. Also, there is a good chance that the side chats will stop.
At the end of the Masterclass, ensure you summarize the content and the key discussion points. Also ensure you have a group photo taken. This is a great way to extend the life of your session beyond the allocated slot.