1. Hit the ground running with an icebreaker poll
Not only does an icebreaker poll signal to your audience that the session will be interactive, it also gets everyone logged in, viewing your content, and comfortable using the event-tech. The more people using your tech, the better your event analytics will be.
We’d recommend keeping it light-hearted - after all, it’s an opportunity for the room to get to know one another (and the presenter).
Here’s an example icebreaker.
You could also gamify an icebreaker poll by turning it into a quiz. Once again, the more causal and fun for your participants, the better!
Here’s an example quiz.
You can display the quiz results via a leader board by simply pressing 6 on your keyboard. Glisser's leader board orders participants with the most correct answers at the top, followed by the fastest to answer the questions.
2. Stoke the fire with some seeded questions
Whether you want to ensure the session remains on a specific topic or you simply want to get the ball rolling, it’s worth considering seeding a couple of questions.Once an audience member sees the style or tone of a question already submitted, they will be far more inclined to ask one themselves.
With that in mind, we’ve created a handy cheat sheet to help you stoke the fire.
3. Impact Polls
A particularly neat way of engaging an audience is the use of impact polls.
When implementing an impact poll, you first poll the audience on a topic, provide them with some new information as a stimulus, and then proceed to poll them again. In this way, you can see the impact of the stimulus.
You’re able to then shape the following content to suit your audience, helping to keep the message relevant and thus your audience engaged.
Here is an example impact poll.
Ask your audience What is your company's greatest cyber security threat for 2019? via a live poll.
Once polled, you now provide some new information to your audience i.e. the democratisation of tech resulting in increased use of bots (whether for good or bad).
Then poll the audience again with the same question.
The second poll result demonstrates how much the new information impacted the audience.
4. Keep questions anonymous
Whilst it’s sometimes useful to attribute a question to an individual, there are also certain scenarios where keeping questions anonymous is extremely beneficial.
One of those scenarios could be for a session on a sensitive or polarising topic. Audience members are often apprehensive to ask the questions they really want to know the answer to when they worry about what others will think of them. With anonymous Q&A, delegates have the ability to speak their minds without fear of judgement by others leading to higher levels of participation.
Here is an example question wall.
“Glisser creates a safe space by giving people a platform to ask meaningful questions.”
- Kris C. - Communications Manager
5. Get visual with Videos
You’ve polled your audience, gamified your sessions, and provided the opportunity for real-time feedback. (You might feel as though your session is looking more like a gameshow than a presentation.) Fear not! By inserting a video slide, you'll provide your audience with a well-earned break. It’ll vary the flow whilst still retain the audiences’ attention.
To insert a video in Glisser, click add content, select "video slide," copy a link from a YouTube or Vimeo video, click save, and drag and drop the slide to wherever you want it in your presentation.
For the best audience experience, we’d recommend playing the video on the main screen and sharing the URL on the audience's devices rather than having everyone play it individually - 1000s of videos playing it at once can be a tad overwhelming.
6. Put the audience in the driving seat
A fantastic way to keep your presentation dynamic is to put your audience in the driving seat. To do this, you’d poll the audience about a topic. For example, you could ask about their opinion on a recent event or a trend within an industry. The next segment of your presentation would be dictated by the results of that poll.
Your audience will have a unique and exciting experience where they determine what they will hear. As with impact polls, it helps the presentation stay relevant and resonate with the audience.
7. Carrot & Stick
You’d be forgiven for thinking the end of your presentation means the end of audience engagement.
By placing feedback polls at the end of a presentation, an audience has to answer your survey before getting the option to download your slide deck. That should be music to the ears of event planners! Instead of sending out feedback forms days or weeks after an event - giving an audience time to forget the finer details - you have the opportunity to gather data right there and then. Not only does this provide you with a more accurate data set, but it’ll also take your feedback rates from the 30% mark to close to 90%.
And remember: feedback isn't just evidence of the success’ of an event, it's a valuable marketing tool!
Are you interested in creating exceptional feedback forms? Check out our 9 mistakes to avoid when crafting the best event feedback forms.
