How to Successfully Moderate a Conference Session

Attention all CRLC speakers and session organizers!

Have you ever sat through a presentation that just felt a little…flat? Or have you been part of a session that flew by because it was so interesting and engaging? The difference often comes down to one thing: the moderator.

A great moderator does more than just introduce people, they set the tone, keep the conversation on track, balance speaker contributions, and manage audience engagement with ease.

Whether you’re organizing a session, leading a panel, presenting solo, or stepping into a session without a designated moderator, these skills are essential for creating a professional, polished, engaging experience.

This webinar is for those organizing or participating in a conference session to learn practical techniques for moderating with confidence—so you can keep sessions focused, engaging, and impactful.

What You Will Learn

• • How to prepare for the session ahead of time
  • How to successfully facilitate the session on the day of the conference
  • How to balance audience interactions and presenter remarks

Speakers

Rebecca Smolar is the Director of Education at NACA. She is responsible for partnering with NACA members to develop and strengthen NACA’s education and training offerings and to ensure that members are kept abreast of trends in the field. She also collaborates with the National Consumer Law Center to improve the quality of joint NCLC-NACA education programs.  Before joining NACA, she created continuing education programs for high school teachers and college professors through the State University of New York and Washington-DC area think tanks. She started her career as an Officer of Public Affairs at the Embassy of Israel where she gave hundreds of speeches about Israel and U.S.-Israel relations. Ms. Smolar received a M.A. in International Communications from American University and her B.S. in Psychobiology from SUNY Binghamton.

Andrea Bopp Stark is a senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center Boston office focusing on writing and teaching about fair debt collection practices and mortgage servicing issues. Andrea is also involved in advocating for foreclosure prevention and fair debt collection policies on the state and federal level. Andrea is a contributing author to NCLC’s Fair Debt Collection, Home Foreclosures, and Mortgage Servicing and Loan Modifications legal manuals. Previously, Andrea was a partner at Molleur Law Office in Biddeford, ME, and worked as an attorney for Northeast Legal Aid in Lawrence, Massachusetts where she was one of NCLC’s first recipients of the John G. Brooks fellowship. Andrea holds a B.A. from the University of Vermont and obtained her JD and Masters of Social Work from Boston College. She is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts & Maine.

Please note that this event is open to the whole community, non-members will need to be verified before they will be able to register for the webinar. Email [email protected] to verify your account. This event will be recorded and available at no charge to all webinar registrants.