Q&A stands for Questions and Answers. Q&A sessions are great for picking up your participants and integrating them into your event. Although head-on presentations also have their charm, what could be better than asking the speaker one’s personal questions? After all, each of us has our topics and priorities.

In general, Q&A sessions are highly recommended and have a number of benefits for you as an event organizer. Unfortunately, there are a few stumbling blocks to consider in the implementation. But do not worry. After reading this article you will be optimally prepared and nothing will stand in the way of a successful Q&A session.

What Is a Q&A Session and How Does It Work?

During a Q&A session, your participants can ask individual questions to the speaker, moderator or you.  This is often done immediately after a presentation or during a panel discussion. Depending on the format, the questions are answered directly by the addressed person or a moderator opens the questions in a debate.

Q&As are not a recent invention but instead, have always been part of the solid repertoire of any good conference. However, the development of event technology has given this idea a whole new momentum. It has never been so easy for organizers to gather questions from the audience anonymously and quickly.

In the past, participants first had to catch the speaker’s eye and when they were subsequently selected, they had to yell their question through the room. Firstly, the selection process alone consumes valuable time, and secondly, few people dare to expose themselves in this way. Many are afraid of embarrassing themselves. With the introduction of microphones, no one had to scream anymore but still, the fear of embarrassment was there. Besides, the selection process was even longer since the microphone must first be brought to the person asking the question.

With the use of event apps, these issues are now history. With LineUpr you can create a Q&A survey in a few seconds and unlock it for your participants. They can then anonymously and with a few clicks ask their questions through the app directly to the speakers. You can publish these questions live (via a beamer or screens) or you can give your moderator access to the questions and the moderator can put up them on behalf of the participants.

With LineUpr, participants can enter their questions quickly and anonymously. You, the organizer, can publish the questions live or select them directly. Participants are no longer afraid of asking a stupid question or embarrassing themselves. You do not have to pick anyone or send your staff running through the hall. Also, questions can be collected in parallel, allowing your speakers to choose from a large pool.

Why You Should Definitely Use Q&A Sessions

There is hardly an easier way to integrate your participants into the event programme than with Q&A sessions. At the same time, it also saves you a lot of work and time in event planning.

Firstly, your participants can ask their individual questions. We all have a very subjective view of the world, so we are also interested in different aspects. As an organizer, you can rack your brains for weeks wondering which questions your attendees will want to have answered or you can just let them ask questions themselves.

Secondly, you do not have to think up questions on your own. As already mentioned, the participants do this for you. Sure, you should always have a few general questions in the back of your mind but you’re saving yourself a lot of work and time.

Thirdly, your speakers are challenged. If you think up the questions yourself, then in 99% of the cases you will be asking the standard questions your speakers have heard a hundred times. The answers are routine and you will not learn anything exciting. If the participants ask their own questions, then in 90% of the cases there will also be classic questions but only from the crowd will there be some interesting questions. The speakers are required to answer these questions and they have to answer spontaneously. Here, real gold nuggets often come to light for all participants.

Risks and Disadvantages of Q&A Sessions

Unfortunately, there are some stumbling blocks which you should keep in mind when it comes to Q&A sessions.

Your participants don’t ask any questions. An absolute catastrophe. You prepared everything so well and the speaker is ready for questions but your audience remains silent. This can quickly become embarrassing for the speaker or for you. In this case, you should have a few questions in the back of your mind to avoid a bumpy start. You often only need one point for the discussion to start. If the speaker starts, the questions usually come by themselves.

If you decide to use LineUpr for the Q&A session, then this problem should only occur in the first few seconds. Since the participants can submit their questions anonymously and very easily, even very shy people dare to join in. This problem is much more common in the classic approach with the microphone and standing up in front of everyone else situation.

Another risk is an inappropriate question. Since your participants decide for themselves which questions they ask then there can, of course, be unpleasant questions. What is rude in this example depends heavily on the speaker. As an organizer, you have two options in this case. If you decide to present the questions live, then you should first make it clear to your participants which types of questions are allowed or which topics may be taboo (in this case, you should be aware that this may also lead to the problem that such questions are then asked). Or you decide against the live version and your moderator chooses the questions. But again, you should explain to the participants in advance which questions are allowed and which are not. In this way, you can avoid having disappointed participants.

8 Tips for Successful Q&A Sessions

Lastly, we have summarized our top 10 tips so that everything goes according to plan during your Q&A sessions

Before the event:

1. Prepare your moderator or speaker

Your moderator or speaker should know precisely how the Q&A session runs so that nothing goes wrong on stage. So explain the exact process to them and show them how the participants can enter their questions and how the questions ultimately end up on the stage. If a little more time is available, then the process should definitely be rehearsed.

2. Connect your moderators with the speakers

If you are working with a moderator and a speaker, it is necessary that both have a short talk beforehand so that they can get a feeling for each other. On the stage, both should ultimately work as one unit. Again, you could do a small rehearsal where your moderator asks one or two questions to the speaker.

3. Prepare a few questions yourself

Sometimes starting a Q&A session can be a bit bumpy. In this case, you should prepare some warmup questions. The speakers can start relaxed and at the same time, you give your participants a starting point for further questions.

4. Clear time concept

You should allow enough time for the questions and answers. Such a session is actually really useful for only about 10 minutes. Your participants ultimately want to ask all of their questions.

5. Clear instructions for the event’s technic

The technical department should be well informed about the ways in which the participants can ask their questions and how they should be published afterward. During the session, the technician and presenter have no opportunity to communicate with each other. Therefore everything should be agreed on before.

During the event:

6. Let your participants know

At the beginning of the session, your moderator should explain to the participants exactly how to enter the questions via LineUpr. If there are also guidelines for the type of questions, then this is the right time to call them again. Afterward, the moderator should start with one or two warmup questions so that the participants have enough time to enter their questions.

7. Answer the questions

The moderator should always make sure that the speakers answer the questions of the audience and do not stray or ignore it.

8. Pay attention to the time

In addition, the moderator is also responsible for keeping track of time. The speakers should answer the questions as short as possible and as detailed as necessary. Ultimately, you want to answer as many questions as possible.

Bonus: If there are still open questions at the end of the session they could be answered afterward backstage and made available to the participants either as an audio track or a video.

Damit bei deinen Q&A-Sessions auch wirklich alles nach Plan läuft, haben wir zum Abschluss unsere 10 Top-Tipps zusammengefasst.

What You Should Have Learned

Q&A sessions are a great idea to integrate more participants into your event. The implementation is playfully easy and creates a change to the classic questions and discussion formats for both sides. We find it to be an enrichment for every kind of event.

“QA” Icon created by Sergey Novosyolov, RU from “the Noun Project“.

The post How to Successfully Use Q&A Sessions for Your Event – 8 Tips from LineUpr first appeared on LineUpr Blog.

In this article, we’ll show you 12 interactive icebreakers that you can use to optimize networking and interaction on your events. We have already clarified in Part 1 what an icebreaker is and how to define suitable targets for the purpose.

The second part deals today with the deliberate use of interactive tools such as event apps, throw-microphones, and paper.

Interactive Voting with the Audience

This is where your event app comes into play. The moderator asks one or more questions to the audience. These can be general questions about the event, the participants or the theme of the event. Afterward, the participants have 1-2 minutes to answer these questions. The results are then presented live.

This exercise has two advantages. First, it always triggers a small wow effect on the audience when they see the results of a survey live, and secondly, as an organizer, you can quickly gain an overview of the opinion or knowledge of your participants.

Structured Questions to the Speakers

Of course, it goes in the other direction. Instead of the moderator/speaker asking questions to the audience, the audience can also ask questions to the people on stage. There are, in principle, multiple variations.

If you want to have structure, have your participants form small groups, and each of these groups can then ask a question. However, you can also allow all participants to individually and simultaneously ask questions through the app. As an organizer, you are also faced with the question of whether you want to show the participants’ suggestions live or curate them beforehand. Especially in corporate events, there is often the reasonable fear that some participants enter nonsensical suggestions. For this reason, many of our customers use the moderation function and select the questions in advance.

With this game, you give your participants the opportunity to ask their individual questions. They automatically feel better understood and integrated into your event. Besides, not only the very self-confident persons who have already asked their questions loudly can voice their concerns, but also the more quiet ones.

The Question Ball

A game that is more suitable for smaller groups. You need a big and light ball for this, for example, a beach ball. You design the ball around with various questions. Your participants now stand in a circle and throw this ball to each other. If a person catches the ball, then they must answer the question that is closest to their right index finger. The credits for this idea go to Jonny Heather von Artifax.

Depending on what you want to achieve with this game, you should also select the questions. If you are primarily interested in getting to know the participants, you should ask personal questions such as “Where are you from?” “What is your favorite sport?” or “Which book did you last read?”. You can also focus on the event and pick the appropriate questions. At the same time, you can also gain a better impression of your participants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q-QbVh1riI

X Facts in a Hat

This game is strongly reminiscent of the game two truths and a lie. In the beginning, the participants gather in smaller groups of up to 5-10 people. Each participant writes one of his strengths on a small piece of paper and then throws it into a container. After shaking, each participant now takes a piece of paper out of the container, reads out the strength aloud, and gives an example of why he/she has this strength.

This game is straightforward and automatically creates a positive feeling among your participants. Also, one learns something directly from the other participants and can refer to it during the discussions in the break. Networking becomes even easier.

Table Games and Quizzes

Especially at many smaller events participants are often placed at several tables. As an organizer, of course, you want the table neighbors to get into conversation quickly and that no awkward silence is created. You can accelerate this process by placing small games on the tables. We all know this from the sandbox. When playing together, getting to know each other is much more comfortable.

You can also make a contest where the different tables compete against each other, for example, a little quiz duel. In both cases, the table neighbors will quickly get into a conversation.

Throw-Microphones – Questions to the Speakers

Of course, instead of using an app, you can also use another medium to collect visitor queries. Throw-microphones have become very popular in recent years. These microphones are usually integrated in a cube or ball of foam. As a result, you can throw them over several meters, without dangers for the participants. In addition, there is also a small playful effect and a lot of excitement from the game. The most famous provider is undoubtedly Catchbox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apjN3xThfY8

Card Deck as Matchmaker

Matchmaking is currently one of the most exciting topics at business events. If the networking is lame, then simply link two people together by hand. That’s the point of matchmaking. This automatically resolves the difficult part of initiating contact. There are now many apps and software solutions which deal with it, but there is also a simple analog version: A deck of cards!

When registering on-site, all participants must draw a card from a standard deck of cards. People with cards of the same color, number/image or category must now find each other and talk to each other. This idea from EventManagerBlog is super easy to implement.

Depending on how big your discussion group should be, you can choose the card deck and the selection criterion.

The Toilet Paper Challenge

If you want participants to share personal information with each other, this is a simple and quick game to play. In the beginning, groups of up to 10 people are formed. Then toilet paper rolls are passed around and each participant is allowed to take as many sheets as he wishes. Afterward, every person in the group has to list just as many personal facts about himself as toilet paper sheets that he has.

Since it is not yet known what will happen afterward when choosing the number of sheets, there is always a positive tension to be felt. When the explanation is given there is always a loud reaction. So it stays in the memories of the participants.

Individual Name Tags

As already described several times, the main problem with networking is the fear of the initial contact. Most participants do not know what to ask here. You can make it easier for your participants to start this first conversation when you prepare conversation tags, such as individual name tags. Here you could publish three facts about each participant. Or the participants have to answer three questions at the registration and the answers will be published on the business card. No matter how you offer a perfect reason to address the person.

Human Bingo

A bit more elaborate, but still very funny. You’ll need to create several different bingo cards with character traits or information about people in advance, for example: Comes from Berlin, is under 25, plays football… Each participant will receive such a bingo card and must find the appropriate persons with the appropriate criteria among the other participants. So if he talks to someone who plays football, then he can check this box. The participant, who is the first to fill a row, shouts BINGO!

This is an enjoyable game and your participants can get to know each other in a fun way. Thanks to the idea of competition, there will also be a lot of movement.

Fairy Tale Introductions

What is it like to be presented as a fairy-tale hero? This experience can be made possible with this game for your participants. Again, small groups of up to 10 people are formed. Each participant may now introduce his left and right neighbors in about 30 seconds. The unique thing is that, except for the name, all statements must be made up. The participants should also use flowery words. There are no limits to their creativity.

This ice-breaker was taken from David Becker von ZKIPSTER.  It is guaranteed to lead to a lot of laughter and creative suggestions. This connects the participants with each other.

Paper Fight

If you want to increase the activity of your participants with your game rather than the networking, then the paper ball fight is perfect. Each participant receives a piece of paper and should write down a wish, a goal, a question, etc. Subsequently, the sheet is formed into a ball and thrown on the stage at the moderator’s signal.

How this can be done can be seen in this video by Eric de Groot at 3:00 mins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=_kI-V4FCdx4

Of course, instead of paper balls, this can also be done with paper planes. Optionally, participants can then pick up the paper objects and read aloud. That depends on the size of the event.

Anyway, that will stay in their minds and increase the energy level.

What You Should Have Learned

Today we presented 12 interactive ideas with the help of event apps, throw-microphones, and paper to increase networking among your participants. This reduces their fear of contact and allows for optimal networking at your event.

“Network” Icon created by Chameleon Design from “the Noun Project“.

The post 12 Interactive Icebreakers for Your Corporate Events first appeared on LineUpr Blog.