Insider Tips: How to Organize Successful Q&A Sessions

This is a guest post from Martina Cicakova, Senior Content Creator at Slido.

“Any questions from the audience?” asks the moderator. And the room echoes with dreaded silence.

Without proper preparation, your Q&A session can fall flat and damage the attendee experience. But live Q&A tools can transform an ordinary session into the highlight of your event.

Avoid common mishaps during your Q&A sessions with the following best practices — which were gathered from over 120,000 events using Slido, a tool for live polling and crowdsourcing questions.

1. Pick the right sessions

Start with your agenda. Which sessions are ideal for incorporating audience questions? Pick those that naturally stimulate interaction with the audience, such as panel discussions or fireside chats.

Here are a few aspects to consider when preparing for a Q&A-centric session:

• You can either address the attendees’ questions as they come in throughout the whole session, or you can build in a separate slot for the Q&A.
• The optimal ratio of Q&A time to session length will depend on your event format, type of session, audience size and number of speakers. As a good rule of thumb, dedicate at least one-fourth of the slot to the Q&A.
• If your agenda is too tight, create a separate Q&A stage inspired by the organizers of StartUp Grind. There, the speakers addressed audience questions collected through Slido in dedicated 30-minute “Ask Me Anything” sessions.

2. Make it easy for your moderators

Your moderator plays a pivotal role in your Q&A sessions. So it’s important that they’re prepared to use the event tech tools you’ll use during the Q&A sessions in advance.

Here’s how to brief your moderator:

• Share the instructions a few days in advance to give the moderators a chance to get accustomed with the tool.
• Once onsite, give them a quick reminder to introduce the tool right before they step onstage.
• Make sure the moderator sees the incoming questions. Display them on the confidence monitors or equip him or her with a tablet where he or she can view the most upvoted questions.
• Consider using additional tools that will increase participation. For instance, the soft throwable microphone Catchbox makes speaking up less intimidating.

3. Make sure you have enough questions

You can help your moderator and nudge your audience to start sending in questions with these three tips:

• During the event, display instructions for submitting questions on the screens or include them in the delegate packs
• Instruct the moderator to remind people to submit their questions throughout the session
• To get the discussion going, send in a few pre-prepared questions through the live Q&A tool as the session gets underway

For example, the Festival of Marketing organizers submit two or three pre-prepared questions at the start of each of their 150 sessions. These questions prompt attendees to vote for the questions they like and submit their own.

4. Coordinate with speakers in advance

Syncing with your speakers in advance is just as important as briefing your moderators. Ensure they know the length of their slot and how you plan to run the Q&A session.

If the session has no moderator, brief your speakers on how the Q&A tool works in advance so they can manage it themselves during their sessions. You can dedicate a small paragraph in your instructions email, send them a video, or even get them on a webinar.

5. Give clear instructions to the AV team

For your AV team, live Q&A sessions are yet another element that they need to prepare for. Once everything is planned, review the agenda with your AV team and highlight the sessions with live Q&As. Give them clear instructions on when to display the questions on the screens. If you have multiple screens, decide which ones will show the audience questions: the main screen, side screens, confidence monitor, or a combination?

The ideal setup is to display questions on the stage monitors so the audience can follow the discussion easily. For the speakers and moderators, you can display the questions on the confidence monitor so they don’t need to turn their heads.

A successful Q&A session allows your attendees to become active participants in their own event experience. Use the best practices in this post at your next event.

Want more expert advice on using tech to engage attendees at your conference? Read Beyond the Features: Getting the Most ROI Out of Your Mobile Event App.