When to use a Q&A session?
Q&A session type is suitable for speaker or panel discussion sessions where the intention is to crowdsource and answer questions. If there is no Q&A for this speaker or panel discussion session, add a Regular session type instead.
Adding a Q&A is similar to adding other session types. In this article, we will guide you through the individual fields and options when adding a Q&A session type.
Session details
Name
This is the name of the session that will host the Q&A.
Required, cannot be blank. Name of session should have a length of 3 to 100 characters.
Description
If you have a session description, this is where you will put it. It will appear in the Agenda on the Audience Web App as well as within the session's About this session section. When the Agenda first loads, only the first two lines of the description will be visible on the Agenda. The full description is only revealed when the session container is tapped upon.
Optional, can be blank. You are limited to 500 characters of text. Line breaks are retained. Basic text formatting is supported through Markdown (see Markdown support).
Location
If you have different locations for each session, you may put the location of the session here, e.g. Ballroom A, Level 2. This will be visible on the Agenda in the Audience Web App. If all your sessions reside in the same venue, it is not necessary to provide the location here - consider putting it in the description of your event details instead.
Optional, can be blank. You are limited to 50 characters of text.
Time
Choose your session start and end date/time according to your event agenda. The start and end dates are constrained by your Pigeonhole Duration.
Important
Once a session starts, you cannot change the session start time or remove the session.
Suggestions on setting the start and end date/time
| Scenario | Setup Recommendation |
| Speaker presentation, followed by Q&A Allow attendees to send questions any time during the presentation. Questions can be addressed after the presentation. |
Set the start and end time according to the Speaker session timing in your event agenda. |
| Panel discussion Allow attendees to send questions any time during the discussion. Questions can be integrated into the discussion, led by the Moderator. |
Set the start and end time according to the Panel discussion timing in your event agenda. |
| Crowdsource questions before actual session Collect questions and identify popular questions, ahead of time, whether a few days before or hours before the actual session, and address them only at the event. |
Set the start time to when you want to allow incoming questions. Set the end time to when the session is due to end at the event. |
If there are changes to the session start or end timings, you can edit the session to update the timings. Alternatively, on your Agenda page, the session dropdown menu provides several quick functions (dependent on the session state) to change the start/end timings. As usual, changes to timings are applied immediately across all interfaces including the Audience Web App.
See: What happens when an interactive session ends?
Moderators and Speakers
See Adding speakers page for more information.
To add speakers or moderators to this Regular session, click on either Add Moderator or Add Speaker. A small dialog will appear to allow you to select any available Speakers. You can also add new Speakers here, but you will not be able to upload profile pictures here - you need to go to the Speakers page to do that.
Roles (moderator/speaker) indicated here are distinct to this session. That means, the same speaker can have a different role in another session.
As you populate the speakers and moderators involved in each session, we automatically compile a list of sessions that each speaker is involved in and display them alongside the speaker's profile page.
Tags
By defining a few keywords or topics, each as an individual tag, attendees can associate them with the questions they submit. Moderators using the Moderator Panel, or organisers with the Admin Panel, can then filter their displays to show questions with certain tags. This is useful in situations where a Q&A session is covering a range of topics, and the intention is to cover questions by topics or tags.
To add a tag, type the text in the field, then enter a comma. You will be able to continue adding more tags. Do note that each question can only be associated with a maximum of two tags.
Optional. You are limited to 12 characters of text for each tag.
Options
| Option | Explanation |
| Comments | Allow attendees to leave comments on questions. Comments can be filtered. Comments do not appear on the Projector Panel by default unless you intentionally bring it up on the Projector Panel by clicking on the question. See comments in Q&A and Poll sessions. |
| Anonymous responses | Allows questions, votes and comments (if enabled) to be submitted anonymously. When disabled, attendees need to create a profile before they can vote, post questions, or comments (if enabled). Regardless of this option, all content within this Q&A session is still viewable. If anonymity is enabled, attendees can still create profiles but it is optional. If the attendee has created a profile and anonymity is allowed, they will have an option to post the question or comment (if enabled) anonymously. See Preserving attendee anonymity. |
| Responses can be viewed after Q&A has ended | Allow attendees to enter the Q&A even after it has ended, to view the responses. If disabled, attendees will be locked out of the Q&A session when it ends. |
| Question filtering | Approve or dismiss attendee questions before they are seen on screen. This is done via the Admin Panel interface. Questions not approved will never be visible to anyone else. As part of the approval process, you can also edit the question text and amend tags (if configured). |
Polls and Surveys
If you wish to conduct polls or surveys during this session, you can add Poll and Survey session types, then configure them to be nested under this Q&A session. Nested Polls and Surveys will not appear in the Agenda of the Audience Web App, but rather, only within the Audience Web App Q&A session page. There will also be a poll and/or survey icon for this Q&A session on the Agenda to indicate that there are nested polls and/or surveys.