Picture this; you are planning a big event for all your colleagues. Everything is carefully planned and the event is days away – the space is booked, food is set to arrive at the correct time, you have all your speakers listed and ready to go and all your goals are set. So what can go wrong?
Interaction = engagement = the key to success
It is not unusual that the main focus during events is on the information that is given and that the speaker asks the classic “anyone who has …. raise your hand”.
Sure, any interaction is better than no interaction, but there are ways to make this interaction more valuable not only to you but to your audience as well.
If interaction is your main goal (as it should be) then it is important to create interaction as early as you can, even as early as during the planning stage of the conference. This is a great way to let your attendees be part of the set up of your event in an organic way – creating a dialogue instead of a monologue.
Advantages of real-time polling questions
By using real-time polling questions you as the event planner will get more use out of your event-app and have an easier time reaching the goals that you set for your conference or event.
By letting your attendees be part of the decision making process – from deciding what kind of program the conference will have to what kind of snacks will be served during breaks – gives you the ability to optimize the conference while it is happening and take your attendees wants and needs into consideration.
You will also be able to tell what kind of things is and is not working for your attendees, creating the best possible experience for your conference goers. (Note that this is extremely important information to learn from and use for upcoming events and conferences).
By using an event-app to ask real-time polling questions you are creating a fun, easy and comfortable way for your attendees to give you their feedback. You will get more open and honest feedback letting people give you their opinions from the comfort of their own phones than you would having your attendees raise their hand and say it in front of 500 people.
Examples of real-time polling questions
As we established: real-time polling questions are invaluable – so what kind of questions should you ask?
The first thing you need to think about while creating your real-time polling questions is: What is the goal of the event and what do you need from your attendees to reach it? You should always think about formulating questions in a way that brings you closer to your goal (ie. you ask your attendees what they thought was the most valuable topic of the day – instead of giving them the answer in the question).
Another thing to think about is that real-time polling questions can be used as more than just a tool to get feedback on your event. It is also a great tool to use when you want to break the ice in the beginning of events, or during workshops.
Still having a hard time knowing what to do? Let us help you!
We have put together some questions to help you get a feel of how real-time polling is meant to be used. We put them into 3 different categories; ice-breakers, discovery-based and thought-provoking – each category have their questions tailored to get specific results.
These questions are meant to be multiple-choice, where you easily can fill in the answers that best fit the theme and/or attendees.
Ice-breaker Questions
- Good morning, how are you feeling today? (some example answers: “inspired” “eager to learn” “ask me again after I’ve had my coffee”)
- If you could change identity with someone famous, who would it be?
- How did you like the coffee break?
- If you were to switch careers, what would your new job be?
- If our event had a mascot, what would the mascot be?
- What do you think about the conference so far?
- If you could only eat candy for the rest of your life, what kind of candy would you choose?
- If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be?
- If our company was an animal, what kind of animal would it be?
- If your boss were an animal, what kind of animal would he/she be?
- If you had one superpower, what would it be?
- If you could travel in time, would you go to the past or into the future?
- What vice could you never give up? (give examples of innocent vices, like coffee, eating sugar, snacking etc.)
- If our company had a famous person as a spokesperson, who should it be?
- Which one do you prefer: Mac or PC?
- What is the meaning of life? (family, your career, money etc.)
- What’s your dream vacation? (charter, city weekend, exploring, yoga retreat etc.)
- What makes you smile? (puppies, making others happy etc.)
- Do you see yourself as an extrovert or introvert person?
Discovery-based questions
- What kind of themes/trends/topics catches your attention?
- Which speaker did you enjoy the most?
- What part of the conference are you looking forward to the most?
- What part of the conference did you like the most?
- What is the main reason to why you are attending this event?
- How many of our exhibitors/sponsors/partners have you visited so far?
- Have you stopped by [sponsor/partner] yet? (great way to sponsor a question)
- Did you hear that [sponsored partner] is offering [offer] to everyone that is attending this event? (great way to sponsor a question)
- How should we prioritize the following topics? (use the ranking question feature, so attendees can drag and drop the alternatives in the order they prefer)
- During our last conference, we mentioned [problem x], how do you feel we solved that issue? (perfectly, well, ok, not so well, not at all, etc.)
- During our last conference we discussed [a topic/question/new product/change] what do you think we should prioritize to reach this goal? (drag and drop)
- Which topics should we talk about during our next event? (multiple choice or free text question)
- What do you think is the most important subject/topic/issue to mention at our next event? (multiple choice or free text question)
- Are you planning on attending [x]? (market an upcoming event)
- What are your hopes for this event?
- What is your current function within your organization? (i.e HR, marketing, sales etc.)
- What do you hope to take away from our conference today? (free text answer)
- How much do you feel that the information you have received today will affect you?
- What is the most valuable thing you have learned today? (free text answer)
- Thought-provoking questions
- Which trend/event do you believe will have the biggest impact on our industry this year?
- What do you believe will be the next big trend/shift in our industry in the future?
- What do you believe is the biggest challenge in our industry right now?
- Which one of our KPI’s do you think performed best last year?
- What do you believe we should focus on in order to reach our current budget goals?
- Going off of what [speaker] said, what do you believe is the most important part for future development within the company?
- Which of the following trends do you believe will have the biggest impact on our business this year? (ranking question)
- Did you know that [info about the sponsor/partner]? (sponsored question)
- Which one of the following [sponsored products] do you believe is the most interesting? (sponsored question)
- If you could change one thing about the way we work with [product/company/strategy] – what would it be and how could we make it better? (free text)Survey: quiz about the company’s history
- Survey: post-session quiz to see what the participants think/remember about what they just heard (this is great to help your attendees remember important takeaways from the event).