Why most "fireside" chats suck.
And what you can do about it as an interviewer, interviewee, or event organizer.
At every conference, you’ll inevitably run into this format: two chairs, two mics, and the illusion of intimacy: the fireside chat.
Done well, it’s a humanizing window into someone’s worldview. Done poorly, it’s a sleepwalk through truisms, hand-waving, and the worst of LinkedIn thought-leader slop disguised as a conversation. And let’s be honest, has there ever actually been a fire?
I wrote this post because I really hate bad fireside chats. I want them to stop being so terrible. I’ve spent much of my adult life organizing events of every kind. When this specific format goes wrong, it’s incredibly wasteful of everyone’s time and makes those on stage look incompetent.
Why should you listen to me? I’ve been producing events for 20 years, from corporate conferences and award shows to tech events and music industry meet-ups (including Canada’s largest electronic music conference for 5 years). I’ve been both a producer, an interviewer, and an interviewee and worked with some of the best speakers in Canada from a variety of industries. I’m currently working on the Toronto Product Conference, so check that out if you’re in Toronto.
Why Event Organizers Love Them
Event organizers love fireside chats because they’re simple. They look relaxed on a schedule. They’re logistically easy to set up. They’re perceived as low effort for the interviewee, which can be important when booking big guests. It’s easier to get people to agree to speak if all they have to do is show up. They seem “intimate” and can be a nice way of breaking up the flow of the event.
They’re also a convenient disguise. A fireside chat can make a sponsored speaking slot look like a genuine conversation (this is rarely disclosed). Instead of a literal product pitch, you get an implied product pitch. That’s when the format really collapses. The interviewer becomes a marketing puppet, and the audience tunes out from the start.
The Trap
Here’s my hot take: a fireside chat is not a low-effort format.
It demands as much preparation as a keynote, but in a different direction and in different ways for the interviewer and interviewee. The best ones look effortless precisely because they aren’t.
The biggest mistake people make is assuming the conversation itself is the content. It isn’t. The ideas are. Without a clear sense of what the audience should walk away thinking, the talk meanders. You end up with a biography recitation, not a unique perspective.
The Interviewer’s Job
A good interviewer carries the intellectual load of placing the conversation in context and helping the interviewee build momentum.
When I’m playing the interviewer, I see my role as a character in a Socratic dialogue. My job is to provide the perfect setups for the interviewee to make their points and to push deeper on ideas that are resonating. I keep the momentum going by either locking in on a topic because I sense there is insight to be mined, or transitioning topics to keep energy up and the conversation flowing. My goal is for the interview to be as entertaining as possible to the audience and to for everyone to walk away happy.
A good interviewer has done their research. They’re excited by the topic. They listen intently, and they’re brave enough to push when the person’s answer is vague or safe. You need to be the advocate for the person in the audience. You’re the one with the microphone; you better be mining some gold out of the speaker.
I like the questions that David Zhou asks his guests in advance:
What would make this the most memorable interview you’ve ever done?
What are you tired of being asked?
What question do you wish someone would finally ask you?
Good interviewers also understand pacing. They manage time, sense rhythm, and know when to land an idea or move on. The biggest pacing mistake I see is when interviewers start slow with a soft question like “tell me a bit about your background” or similar. What a waste of energy and momentum. Now you’ve set up the interviewee to waste five minutes reviewing their LinkedIn while everyone tunes out.
Instead, you need to set them up to contribute value immediately. Compare “tell me a bit about your background” with something like “You were sent away to boarding school at a young age. Tell me about how that time in your life influences your perspective on education today.” In this hypothetical, you’re providing a really strong jumping-off point for both the audience and the interviewee. This first question should always be rehearsed to make sure it’s a banger.
Good interviewers know when to shut up and when to steer. If your interviewee is giving you gold, shut the hell up and throw out whatever plan you had initially. Never get in the way of a person sharing something valuable because it doesn’t match your planned questions. Pre-written questions should only ever be a guide, not a commandment.
Sometimes the opposite is true. Sometimes interviewees are nervous or they stumble a bit. It’s your job to save them and make them look incredible. That can be done through giving them some softball questions, bringing up stories you know they know how to tell, summarizing points in ways that translate to a wider audience, or even just cracking a joke to relieve the tension. It’s very hard for people to freak out on stage if they’re laughing along with the host.
The Interviewee’s Job
A great guest comes with something to say. They need an axe to grind, an opinion to share, a heresy to defend. They don’t just want to tell stories; they want to prove a point.
If you’re being interviewed, come with 3–5 polished anecdotes that you want to get across, and work with the interviewer to come up with questions that give you a reason to tell those stories. Ideally, the stories should have a beginning, middle, and end, plus a moment of tension, a challenge, and a resolution.
The pioneers of this format come from late-night TV. Think Letterman, Conan O’Brien, or Johnny Carson (for you old people). Every “off-the-cuff” story you’ve heard on TV has been pre-rehearsed and discussed beforehand to maximize the entertainment. Don’t leave anything to chance.
The best guests leave the audience thinking, reacting, laughing, and even disagreeing. They aren’t only there to be liked; they’re there to be understood.
Get your teachable moments lined up well in advance, and make sure you let the interviewer know well in advance what you want the conversation to build up to. It’s really great to have 2-3 big “moments” in mind going into an interview.
What Organizers Should Do
If you’re programming a fireside chat, you need to set expectations with the interviewer and interviewee early.
Make it clear that the audience should walk away with real insight or perspective, not a highlight reel of past accomplishments. A takeaway doesn’t have to be “do this, do that.” It can be a story, a shift in perspective, or an idea that will cause the audience to perceive the world in a different light. But there has to be a few big things that
I like to timebox the discussion and incorporate audience Q&A if possible. Audience questions are often where the most authentic answers emerge. If there is a Q&A, for goodness sake give the audience very clear instructions on what a good question is. Misha Glouberman of Toronto Event Generator / Trampoline Hall fame has a great bit he does at his events where he VERY clearly outlines what is a good and bad question. Remember, there is no such thing as a 2-part question, that’s just two questions.
Lastly, I like to give the chat a premise or a theme. Make the conversation about how someone solved a real problem. Tease the audience with what they’re going to learn. Sometimes the speaker’s name is big enough to not need that, but more often then not, it can help boost interest.
Closing Thought
Really, all this advice boils down to one thing: don’t waste people’s time.
Every question and every answer has to carry value. Every member of the audience has a distraction machine in their pocket, and if your fireside chat isn’t providing value, they will start opening phones and you’ve lost them forever.