If you’ve ever attended a panel discussion, you’ll know that they can bit hit and miss. Often you learn some very interesting things during the early stages of the discussion, but events can drag on, and leave you feeling that you’d quite like to jump on the panel yourself and have your say.

Which is why we decided to make The Sway a bit different.

The evening will kick off with three short, 10 minute presentations, and then we’ll move to a panel discussion. But it’ll be a panel discussion designed to prevent panellists from waffling on for too long. They’ll be given just 2 minutes to put forward a point, and then it’s open to the floor. Up to 3 people in the audience can add their opinion and bring their own experiences and expertise to the night. Again, to keep things short and useful, opinions can’t take up more than a minute each.

This means that all the talks and the panel discussion should be over in an hour. You’ll have had a good introduction to the people who have something useful to say, and then it’s time to make a beeline for the editors, writers and publishers you’ve been dying to meet.

And, if you’re really keen, you can sign up to speak at the next Sway event…