Audience Q&A
Live Q&A lets your audience submit questions from their phones and vote on each other's, so the questions most people want answered rise to the top.
It changes who gets heard. In a room, the question that gets asked is the one from whoever is quickest or most senior. With voting, it is the one most people were also wondering about.
Q&A is switched on for the whole presentation. Participants can ask at any time, whichever slide is showing, and you bring the questions up on screen when you are ready for them.
How live Q&A works
01
Switch Q&A on for the presentation
The Q&A button is then always there on participants' phones, regardless of which slide you are showing.
02
The audience asks and votes
Questions can be up to 300 characters, with a name or anonymously. Anyone can vote for the questions they also want answered, and take a vote back.
03
You decide what reaches the screen
Sort by popular or most recent, pin a question, mark it answered, hide or delete it. Move to the Q&A slide and the list comes up on the big screen.
The limits that apply
- Questions up to 300 characters; a name up to 60 characters, or anonymous.
- Each participant can submit up to five questions a minute and cast up to sixty votes a minute.
- The host decides whether anonymous questions are allowed.
- Reviewing questions before they appear requires Plus.
- Inviting up to 20 moderators requires Plus.
- Q&A questions are not part of the CSV results download.
When live Q&A earns its place
Q&A is most useful where the gap is widest between what people want to ask and what actually gets asked.
All-hands and town halls
Voting shows leadership what the organisation is actually asking, rather than what the three people willing to speak up asked. Anonymity makes the difficult question askable at all.
Conference panels
Two hundred people cannot queue at a microphone. A voted list means the panel answers what the room came for, in the time available.
Training and lectures
Questions accumulate while you teach instead of interrupting. You take them in a block, and the votes tell you which confusion was shared.
Long workshops
A running list catches the question that would otherwise be forgotten by the time you reach the discussion.
Sensitive subjects
With review switched on, a moderator approves questions before the room sees them - useful when the topic is a reorganisation or a bad quarter.
Q&A, or open text?
Choose Q&A when you want the audience to set the agenda and decide among themselves what matters - the voting is the whole point. Choose open text when you are asking one specific question and want to pick which answers go on screen yourself. Q&A runs throughout the session; an open text slide is one question at one moment.
Common questions about live Q&A
Can people ask questions anonymously?
Yes, if you allow it. The host decides per presentation whether anonymous questions are permitted. A participant who gives a name types it themselves - nothing is taken from an account, because participants do not have one.
Can I approve questions before the room sees them?
With Plus, yes. Without review every question is published immediately. With it, a question is only visible to others once you or a moderator has approved it.
Can someone else moderate while I present?
With Plus you can invite up to 20 moderators. They work through a personal link, need no account of their own, and the link can be revoked at any time. Only you change slides, and only you can delete a question.
Does the audience see all the questions?
Yes. Participants have their own question list on their phone, reachable at any time and sorted by popular or most recent. That is what makes the voting meaningful.
Are Q&A questions included in the results download?
No. The CSV contains the answers to your slides. Questions from Q&A are not part of it.
Let the audience set the agenda
Q&A with voting and anonymous questions is included in Free, for any number of participants.