Building Confident Event Chairs and Facilitators

To create better conversations and add more value to your event.

Chairs and Facilitators are not the stars of your event. But they are vital to its success. They are there to make your Speakers and Panellists look good, enhance what they deliver and connect them to the audience in a way that adds value and raises the reputation of your event.

If your Chairs and Facilitators could be delivering more for your events, the AAE’s In-House Chair and Facilitator Training is here to help.

Delivered by John Scarrott, an experienced trainer and ICF Coach and designed for Associations, the training will equip your contributors with the knowledge and skills to excel. Their improved performance will enhance the delegate experience and increase the value and reputation of your event.

PLUS when potential Chairs and Facilitators realise that you are prepared to invest in them, it increases the likelihood they will step forward, expanding the scale and diversity of your pool of contributors. 

This training will support them to deliver their best performance.


Who should attend
  • Inexperienced chairs who wish to chair with confidence and effectively
  • Experienced chairs who want to raise their professionalism in chairing

Sample Agenda Outline
  • The goal: what makes an effective event Chair or Facilitator.
  • Reaching the goal: the 4Ps approach to Chairing and Facilitating.
  • Preparation: what and how to prepare.
  • Practise: how to rehearse to make your preparation stick.
  • Performance: putting it into action when Chairing.
  • Common challenges: the bumps in the road and how to handle them.
  • Key Facilitating skills: what they are and how to use them.
  • Facilitating process: managing the beginning, the middle and the end.
  • Personal Confidence: building it before, during and after the event.
  • Action Plan: what will you do with what you’ve learned.

Learning outcomes
  • A framework that can be applied to become a confident chair and facilitator
  • Skills required to chair and facilitate a conference, and how to apply them

High value for in-house training
  • Relevant and specific to associations: with the trainers' deep knowledge of associations and experience in training association executives
  • Flexible: delivered onsite or remotely via video platform, timed and tailored to fit your schedule
  • Tailored content: the tutor will shape the session to your requirements
  • Practical and interactive: with practical and actionable advice, space for sharing, discussion and questions, plus time to create an action plan to make the most of the takeaways
  • Supported: all participants receive a welcome pack with the agenda, a biography of the trainer and suggested preparation and post-training reading and resources

About the Trainer

John Scarrott, a former membership director, and an ICF Credentialed Coach, combines his knowledge of associations, speaking and chairing experience and 10 years training and coaching.

John Scarrott is an AAE training and coaching partner. He has been working with AAE members since 2014. Prior to focusing on training and coaching John spent seven years as a Membership Director. He has spoken in the UK, Europe, Australia and India.

John has trained Speakers, Facilitators and Chairs for associations including, among others, the AAE, World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition, the Association of the European Self-Care Industry, British Veterinary Nursing Association, Institute of Physicsand the British Parking Association.

John Scarrott

Testimonials

Following your training session on conference speaking and chairing, our Forum went very well. We noticed that all the speakers, many of whom were first timers, and moderators have done truly well and with increased confidence this time around.

Alex Filicevas, Executive Director, World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition 

As well as others:

Very engaging, I like how John practiced his techniques and provided examples.

Shifted my thinking about the role of a Chair

Very useful tips and well-structured in terms of Chairing and Facilitation