Conference Hosts, Chairs & Facilitators for Professional Events

Host, chair, moderator, facilitator. Four job titles that get used interchangeably in event briefs, and four different jobs. Booking the wrong one is one of the more expensive mistakes in event planning, because it usually only becomes obvious on the day, when a warm broadcaster is asked to chase a vague answer out of a panellist, or a subject expert is asked to lift the energy in a room after lunch.

This guide sets out what each role is actually for, and recommends six people who are strong at one of them. If you already know you want a host and want more names, our guide to how to choose an event host covers ten broadcasters and MCs in depth.

Which of the four roles do you actually need?

Start with what needs to happen in the room, then pick the person. The four roles overlap in skill and diverge in purpose.

• The conference host carries the whole day. They open it, introduce every session, cover the gaps when the schedule slips, and give an agenda of unconnected talks the feeling of one event. Energy and timing are the job.
• The conference chair holds the intellectual thread. They are usually a subject expert or a journalist who knows the field, and their value is in connecting what the third speaker said back to what the first one argued. A chair makes a conference add up to something.
• The panel moderator runs a single session. They control airtime so one panellist cannot take forty minutes, ask the follow-up question the audience is thinking, and stop a panel drifting into four consecutive monologues. Our guide to picking great panellists covers the other half of that equation.
• The workshop facilitator gets a room to produce something. They are measured on the output, not the atmosphere: decisions made, a plan agreed, a problem properly framed. This is the role least like the other three.

The most common mis-booking is hiring a host and expecting a chair. A skilled broadcaster will keep your day moving and sound authoritative doing it, and they still cannot interrogate a technical claim in a field they do not know. If the value of your conference is in the argument rather than the running order, brief for a chair.

Conference hosts

Book a host when the agenda is full, the audience is large, and the day needs one voice holding it together. Both of these come from stand-up, which is the best training there is for recovering a room. PepTalk's event hosts page has the wider list.

Andrew White

A stand-up, BBC comedy writer and corporate host who has run conferences and awards dinners for Utility Warehouse, RICS, Pacific Life Re and the British Army. His instinct for reading a room lets him steer formal proceedings and deliver crowd-work that never overshadows the event itself, which is the harder half of corporate hosting.

Learn more and book Andrew White →

Aurie Styla

A London stand-up, actor and BAFTA-winning writer who works across comedy clubs, arenas and screens. Aurie hosts and chairs discussions as well as performing, and years of hosting live club nights gave him an instinct for reading a crowd. A good pick where the day needs pace and the audience skews younger.

Learn more and book Aurie Styla →

Conference chairs and panel moderators

This is the role most often under-specified in a brief, and the one where experience shows fastest. A chair or moderator earns their fee in the follow-up question. Browse more event moderators if neither of these two fits your subject.

Kirsty Wark

Book Kirsty for

Chairing a conference where the arguments need holding to account.

Kirsty Wark spent three decades at the helm of BBC Newsnight, holding senior politicians and public figures to account with calm precision. A BAFTA winner and author, she brings authority, clarity and warmth as a host, chair and after-dinner speaker.

What she offers a conference is credibility on the platform and the interviewing skill to guide a complex conversation without steering it. She is the right booking when your audience includes people who will notice if a claim goes unchallenged, and when the day needs someone who can summarise three hours of argument in ninety seconds at the close.

Learn more and book Kirsty Wark →

Ros Atkins

Book Ros for

Moderating a panel on a subject the audience finds genuinely complicated.

Ros Atkins is the BBC's Analysis Editor and the creator of the "Ros Atkins On..." explainers, built on a distinctive method for breaking complicated stories into clear, accessible narratives. He is the author of The Art of Explanation.

He has moderated and hosted for the World Travel Forum Lucerne, the World Travel and Tourism Council and World Travel Market, so the conference format is familiar ground rather than a side project. Book him where the subject is technical, regulatory or contested, and the risk is that the panel talks past an audience that came to understand something.

Learn more and book Ros Atkins →

Workshop facilitators

Book a facilitator when the session has to produce something. The measure is what the room leaves with, so these are different people from the ones you put on a main stage. More options on PepTalk's workshop facilitators page.

Anne Ditmeyer

A designer and creative coach who has facilitated for Airbnb, Adobe, Moët Hennessy and IDEO, helping teams override conventional thinking through playful, strategic problem-solving. Her sessions focus on navigating uncertainty and team alignment, and she often works international rooms with a mix of cultures and first languages.

Learn more and book Anne Ditmeyer →

Hattie Willis

A professional skills trainer who has delivered leadership programmes and workshops for Ramboll, Lloyds Banking Group, Virgin Startups, Experian, DPD and Jaguar Land Rover, across people managers, graduate cohorts and senior leadership teams. Her research-backed sessions cover psychological safety, coaching practice and feedback.

Learn more and book Hattie Willis →

Briefing whoever runs your event

Send the run sheet early, and send the real one rather than the tidy version. Whoever is on stage needs to know where the schedule is likely to slip, which speaker always overruns, and who in the audience matters. Include pronunciation notes for names and organisations, and say plainly what is sensitive: a recent restructure, a regulatory issue, a competitor in the room.

For a chair or moderator, add the papers. Send the reports, the data and the positions your panellists have taken publicly, so they can prepare a real second question rather than a polite one. For a facilitator, agree the output before anything else. If you cannot describe what the room should have produced by the end of the session, the session is not ready to be booked.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can one person host and chair the same conference?

Yes, and it is often the better arrangement for a single-track day, provided the person has subject knowledge as well as stage craft. Journalists and specialist broadcasters tend to manage both. For a multi-track conference it is usually worth splitting the roles, with one host on the main stage and separate chairs in each track.

How many moderators does a multi-track conference need?

Plan for one per track running in parallel, since a moderator cannot be in two rooms at once. Many organisers use one booked professional on the main stage and internal people on smaller tracks, which works if those colleagues are briefed on timekeeping and given permission to interrupt.

What is the difference between a workshop facilitator and a trainer?

A trainer teaches content the room does not yet have. A facilitator draws out what the room already knows and turns it into a decision or a plan. Some practitioners do both in one session, so say which you want when you enquire, because the preparation and the room layout differ.

How far ahead should we book a conference chair?

Earlier than you would book a keynote speaker. A chair shapes the agenda rather than slotting into it, so involving them while the programme is still being built gets far more value from the booking. Three months ahead is comfortable, and September and January dates go quickly.

Book a host, chair or facilitator

💡 Tell us what your event needs to achieve and we'll shortlist the right PepTalk expert for the role. Email us at hello@getapeptalk.com or send us a message via the chat. You can also call us on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US). Remember, it's always a good time to get a PepTalk!