Companies that have seen a revenue increase of more than 30% over the past few years are also now increasing their investments in event activities.  

Roundtable events have deep roots, dating back to 1155 A.D. when King Arthur introduced the concept with his Knights of the Round Table. Today, these gatherings have evolved into powerful platforms where B2B professionals solve industry challenges, exchange insights and knowledge, and build meaningful networks.  

Unlike standard meetings, impactful roundtable events require strategic planning, discussion points and skilled moderation.  

When they’re done right, roundtable events help position your brand as a thought leader, open doors to strategic opportunities and accelerate deals by connecting you with high-intent stakeholders in a focused setting.  

In this blog post, we’ll explore what roundtables are and provide a step-by-step guide to organising one that meets and even exceeds expectations.  

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What are Roundtable Events?

Roundtable events bring people together in a collaborative setting where everyone can contribute equally to the discussion.  

These events have moderators that guide the discussion and ensure that everyone’s point of view is heard. They also enable participants to delve into specific topics in depth and foster open dialogue among professionals.  

The Purpose of Roundtable Events  

The primary purpose of roundtable events is to facilitate in-depth discussions and explore a specific topic. A roundtable aims to address issues while maintaining an equal footing for all participants. While the group shares a common theme, individual goals may vary from gaining insights to building strategic relationships.  

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Who Attends Roundtable Events?  

Roundtable events bring together a carefully selected group of participants, usually senior professionals with an interest in the topic at hand. Depending on the purpose and format, attendees may include industry experts, policy makers, or other high-value stakeholders.  

In B2B settings, companies often use roundtables to engage their key accounts and strategic prospects. These are typically C-level decision makers, or heads of departments.

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Roundtable Events vs Panel Discussions  

People often confuse roundtables and panel discussions, but there are substantial differences between them.  

Here’s how they differentiate:

Structure: Panel discussions feature experts sharing their views with an audience, followed by a Q&A session. Roundtable events keep discussions flowing between participants throughout the whole event.  

Participant roles: Panel discussions separate speakers from the audience; roundtables remove those barriers and let everyone contribute.  

Format: Panel discussions feature industry leaders who share prepared insights. Roundtables often begin with brief presentations before everyone joins the discussion.  

Size: Panels cater to a larger audience. Roundtable events work best with small groups, typically around 10-12 participants.

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Roundtable Events vs Seminars  

Roundtables and seminars serve different purposes and run differently.

Here's how:

Communication Style: Seminars stick to traditional presentations where one person speaks to a whole audience. Roundtables focus the discussion between everyone.  

Participation Level: Seminar audiences listen and ask questions at set times. Roundtables require everyone's involvement throughout.  

Duration: Seminar duration can run anywhere from one hour to a full day, depending on the topic, while roundtable discussions typically last 30-60+ minutes.

Setting: In a seminar, the seats are all arranged towards the presenter, while roundtable events feature circular seating to ensure everyone feels equal and facilitate face-to-face discussions.  

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Benefits of Roundtable Events  

We broke down what roundtable events are, who attends them, their purposes and differences from other live events; now, we will share the benefits of hosting roundtable events below.  

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Builds Brand Reputation

By attending and hosting roundtable discussions, you position your organisation and yourself as a thought leader in the industry. These events showcase your expertise and commitment to industry advancements, increasing your credibility among potential collaborators and peers.  

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Builds Deep Connections  

Roundtables provide intentional, value-driven conversations that delve deeper than surface-level networking. This builds stronger professional bonds, genuine connections, and lasting relationships.  

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Accelerate Deals & Drive Growth  

This format provides natural ways to uncover shared challenges and aligned goals, as well as identify new partnerships or client opportunities. Roundtable events help move conversions down the pipeline and accelerate deal cycles by bringing the right people into a focused, high trust setting.  

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Expands your Perspective  

When you bring together professionals with diverse backgrounds and perspectives, you start to challenge assumptions, gain fresh insights, and rethink outdated strategies. Roundtable events are fertile ground for new ideas, helping you stay adaptive and ahead.

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Insight-Driven Decisions  

Roundtable discussions often uncover trends, data points and real-world experiences that aren’t in any reports. You gain valuable insights into what's happening in the market by hearing it straight from the source. These insights can feed into your campaign strategies or product innovations.

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Improve Problem-Solving  

Roundtable events are shortcuts to more innovative solutions when you need to move faster on a complex challenge. This format is built for breakthrough moments.  

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What Makes Roundtable Events Unique?

Roundtable events stand out as a format for depth, interaction, and strategic alignment. Here’s why they’re unique and why 80% of B2B event marketers say they create more purposeful experiences with their events.  

High Engagement Through Face-to-Face Interaction  

Roundtables usually hold participants’ focus longer than passive presentations. The physical presence of peers in the room encourages active participation, as well as body language cues and spontaneous idea sharing.

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Selective Attendance Drives Strategic Relevance  

Roundtable events are designed to include 10-12 high-intent participants who share similar seniority, challenges or goals. This exclusivity ensures every conversation is purposeful, aligned, and commercially relevant. According to Event Marketer, 80% of businesses said that in-person events are a critical part of their organisation’s success.  

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First-Hand Access to Market Sentiment  

Roundtable discussions offer raw, unfiltered insights that digital channels often dilute. Participants are more likely to share honest perspectives on buyer behaviours, market shifts, and pain points, enabling hosts and attendees to gain valuable competitive intelligence in real time.  

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A High-Impact Channel for ABM & Thought Leadership  

For B2B brands running account-based strategies, roundtable events provide strong engagement opportunities. They enable you to position your company as a facilitator of strategic dialogue while giving prospects a voice and a seat at the table.  

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Roundtable events are increasingly popular for a reason. In the B2B sector, where building relationships is essential, these types of events are one of the best ways to create value and build connections. Our clients are receiving great feedback from these events, and we are repeatedly told that roundtables help accelerate deals. In the digital noise, your message can easily get lost, and with more and more people craving human connection, I strongly believe these events will become even more popular. - Egle Kulbokaite, Senior Marketing Executive

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Step-by-Step Guide on Planning Roundtable Events  

A successful roundtable event requires careful planning and thoughtful decision-making. You will need to make several key choices that will shape the whole experience. Let’s take a closer look at the key elements necessary for a roundtable event to succeed.  

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Define your Event Goals  

Your roundtable event needs a clear objective from the start. Ask yourself what you want to achieve. Are you solving a specific industry problem, generating leads, or building intellectual influence?  

These goals help you measure success and make constructive decisions later. Without clear objectives, you might end up with participants who don’t add value to the event.  

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Choose Relevant & Timely Topics  

The topic you choose will be what attracts attendees the most. Pick subjects that create interest in your target sector, pain points and challenges people struggle with and want to discuss. Your chosen topic should match your business goals without being overly sales focused.  

Tip: Poll your audience beforehand to und which topic will appeal the most to them.

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Select the Right Format  

You have three main types of virtual discussions to pick from:  

In-person: Perfect for when your audience is (mostly) local, face-to-face networking matters, and you have enough resources for safety planning.  

Virtual: Great for global audiences, tight travel budgets and when you need to record sessions to use them later.  

Hybrid: Offers benefits of both in-person and live events. However, it requires more planning, technology, and budget to reach both audience types effectively.  

About 78% of B2B businesses have said that in-person events are their organisation’s most impactful marketing channel.  

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Choose a Premium, Thoughtful Location

For in-person roundtables, location matters more than you think; you’re creating an experience.  The setting should reflect your brand’s positioning and encourage a relaxed, yet focused discussion.  

B2B companies often opt for:  

• High-end instagrammable restaurants and hotels.  

• Executive lounges or members-only club.

• Curated venues with a quiet and premium ambience.  

A great location builds instant credibility, makes guests feel valued and sets the tone for meaningful enagement.  

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Curate a Valuable Guest List

A roundtable discussion’s value comes from its participants’ diversity and expertise. B2B companies usually host roundtable events to position their brand as a thought leader and accelerate deals creating value. That means your guest list should include C-level executives, senior decision makers, or influencers from key accounts.  

When your selection is intentional, the impact of these dicussions will be stronger and bring positive business outcomes.  

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Create a Flexible but Focused Agenda  

A great agenda should strike a balance between structure and flexibility. A good roundtable agenda has an introduction that sets the tone, presents interesting facts to initiate discussions, lists topics with allocated time frames, allows for Q&A, and concludes with a clear conclusion. You can run sessions anywhere from 30 minutes to 60 minutes or more, based on the complexity of the topic and the number of participants.  

Spontaneous discussions add value, but a structured agenda helps cover key points and ensures that you're respecting everyone's time.  

Your agenda should feel natural and help conversations flow in a way that keeps your participants engaged and focused on the original objective.  

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Running the Event: Moderation & Engagement  

Roundtable events thrive on skilled moderation and active participation.  

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how to successfully plan, run and maximise the impact of your roundtable.  

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Role of the Moderator

Successful roundtable events require a skilled moderator to guide and engage audiences effectively.  

Their primary responsibilities include:  

• Explaining discussion procedures.  

• Keeping conversations focused.  

• Selecting audience questions.  

• Managing time.  

• Creating a comfortable environment.  

Your moderator should have deep knowledge of the topic and command respect in your field. Experienced moderators strike a balance between being present and being restrained. They guide the discussions with purpose, ask thoughtful questions and create a space for others to speak.  

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Encourage Equal Participation  

Make a tally next to each participant’s name as they speak to identify those who haven’t contributed. Direct questions to quieter attendees based on these observations.  

However, outspoken participants may require gentle redirection to maintain a balanced dialogue. Moderators can tactfully step in with prompts such as “That’s a valuable perspective; let's hear what others think" to invite wider input. In some cases, formats utilise token systems that allocate equal "speaking units" to each participant, allowing for transparent tracking of participation.  

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Managing Time & Transitions Smoothly  

Time management helps cover agenda items without rushing, though it can be challenging. Moderators should redirect off-topic conversations gently, for example: “In the interests of time, let’s move to this related question.”  

Effective moderators use bridging questions to connect ideas and maintain the flow of discussion. It’s also important to reserve the final 2-3 minutes to summarise key takeaways. This way, you can reinforce the value of the insights shared during the session as a conclusion.  

Post-Event Strategy: What to do After the Roundtable  

The conclusion of your roundtable event opens a new opportunity to create lasting value. Good post-event follow-ups turn a single event into an ongoing resource that benefits everyone.  

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Send a summary & key takeaways  

Personalised emails sent within 48 hours increase engagement by 50%.Since live roundtables are rarely recorded, a clear recap becomes a valuable resource. If your event followed the Chatham House Rule, keep comments anonymous while highlighting themes, insights, and key points discussed.  

Tip: Assign a dedicated note-taker during the session to capture high-quality insights without relying on memory.

You can also create two different summaries to maximise results:  

• A detailed summary for attendees only.  

• A broader insights report for sharing with your wider network.  

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Collect Participant Feedback

Send a short feedback survey within 24 hours or hand out a printed version as attendees exit.  

Best practices:

• Keep it under 10 questions.  

• Include a mix of multiple-choice and open-ended prompts.  

• Ask about content relevance, facilitation, and future topic suggestions.  

• Follow up personally with participants who offer constructive feedback; it shows that you value their voice.  

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Build Relationships & Find Ways to Work Together  

Roundtable connections can grow into professional relationships. Here are some ways to build these connections:  

• Schedule a 1:1 follow-up meeting with key participants.  

• Explore collaboration opportunities based on shared interests.  

• Send personalised thank you messages to each attendee.  

• Request testimonials or quotes (with permission) for future event promotion.  

These simple, high-touch gestures build trust and often lead to partnerships, pipeline conversions, and content collaborations.  

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Repurpose Content Thoughtfully

You can create valuable content by:  

• Using anonymised takeaways in blog posts or newsletters.  

• Turn the themes into future event topics or whitepapers.  

• Share curated insights on LinkedIn to spark wider dialogue.  

When it’s done right, one roundtable event can boost weeks or even months of brand visibility and engagement.  

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Conclusion  

Roundtable events offer long-term value by building brand authority, sparking new innovative ideas, generating high-quality leads, and building meaningful business relationships.  

With the right structure, skilled moderators and strong post-event follow-ups, a single roundtable event can have a lasting impact.  

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How MyOutreach Helps You Host Strategic Roundtable Events  

At MyOutreach, we create high-impact roundtable events that connect brands with C-level decision-makers.  

Our roundtables are designed to foster meaningful discussions, cultivate lasting business relationships, and drive measurable results. We select the right participants, manage end-to-end logistics, deliver post-event reporting, and handle every other detail so you can stay focused on making connections.  

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FAQs  

Q1. What is the main difference between a panel discussion and a roundtable event?

A roundtable event encourages equal participation from all attendees, encouraging open dialogue, while panel discussions typically feature experts presenting to an audience with limited interaction.  

Q2. How long should a roundtable event last?

Roundtable events usually last between 30 minutes and 60 minutes, and they may extend longer depending on the complexity of the topic and the overall event format.  

Q3. How many participants would be ideal for a roundtable event?

Roundtable events typically feature 10-12 participants, including the moderator. This smaller size allows for deeper discussions and more meaningful exchanges.  

Q4. What are the key benefits of hosting a roundtable event?

Hosting a roundtable event can encourage open dialogue, build brand authority, and generate high-quality leads.  

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