How to set-up and run a live session Q&A

What is a live session Q&A?

A Q&A session is enabled and configured in Backstage, in a live session. Enabling Q&A in your live session will allow your audience, to connect with the speakers and host by asking them questions or posting comments. These questions and comments can then be addressed live on stage.

Attendees post their questions through the mobile app or the web app, whether they are attending the live session in person or remotely (with a live stream).

Example of Q&A seen in the web app by a participant joining a live session remotely with a live stream

Participants can post their questions or comments to the Q&A during the live session and during the countdown leading up to the start of the live session. Event planners can also add questions or comments directly to the Q&A via Studio, in order to kick-off the Q&A or make sure certain topics or questions are discussed during the Q&A.

Once the session is live, the Q&A moderator will need to control the incoming questions via Studio, and in particular choose what questions to show on stage according to when they are discussed live by the host and speakers.

To do this, they will have access to a number of controls that are located in the Q&A section of Studio (to the right in the example below):

Q&A moderator view in Studio, with Q&A question controls (among others)

Speakers will also be able to see the incoming questions in the Q&A section in Studio, so that they can prepare for the next question and better read the room, but they will have no controls over the flow of Q&A:

Q&A speaker view in Studio, without Q&A question controls

In this article we will explain how you can set up a live session Q&A, what options you can use based on your needs, and how the host or moderator can control the flow of questions during the live session.

Enabling Q&A in a live session

To add a Q&A to your live session you will need to enable it, as explained in the Creating and configuring live sessions article.

Multiple options are available for your Q&A:

• Enable or disable the moderation of questions.
• Enable or disable upvoting.
• Allow or disallow the posting of comments or questions as anonymous.
• Choose whether or not the Q&A should be private.

Moderated or unmoderated incoming Q&A questions

If the Moderated option is enabled, incoming questions or comments from participants are received in the Incoming tab of the Q&A section in Studio:

From here, moderators can choose to:

• Approve the question, i.e. move it to the Discussion tab so that all the attendees can see it, or
• Archive it, in which case the question will not be visible at all in the app, and will be moved to the Archived tab, from where it can be moved back to the Discussion tab if needed.

Questions that are present in the Discussion tab are visible to
all attendees in the Q&A section of the app (unless the Q&A is private).

Moderators can also Edit the incoming question if needed, by clicking on :

If the Moderated option is disabled, incoming questions from participants will go straight to the Discussion tab in Backstage, and the Incoming tab will no longer appear in Studio:

This also means that from a participant's perspective, if the moderated option is disabled, questions will directly appear in the Q&A section of the app for all the audience to see, without being moderated.

Note: With moderation disabled, users in the app can only post up to two questions per minute.

Posting a Q&A question via Studio (on behalf of the event team)

In Studio, either before you go live or during the live session, you can enter Q&A questions that will be automatically and immediately approved, and will therefore go straight to the Discussion tab for your audience and speakers to see:

This is done via the Q&A panel to the right, in the Incoming tab, by typing the question there and hitting Send.

There are various interesting uses for this:

• Ask a question or raise a topic to be discussed on stage. We recommend that you inform your speakers beforehand that the question will be raised so you do not catch them off-guard.
• Share information in writing during the live session with your audience, including links.
• Answer certain approved questions in writing via the Q&A section instead, of addressing them live on stage, for example to save time.

Remember that these questions added directly via Studio are posted on behalf of the event name. They go straight to the Discussion section of the Q&A and are immediately visible in the app by the audience.

Managing the approved questions

Once a question has reached the Discussion tab it is visible to the attendees in the app, unless you are using the Private Q&A option.

Note: The Q&A panel in the app can contain up to 200 questions. Any new questions that are submitted and (optionally) approved will be displayed there but they will replace the oldest questions in the list. To avoid this, we recommend that you archive the questions in Studio that have been discussed in order to make room for new ones.

In the Discussion tab, the moderator or host can:

• Edit or archive the questions, as explained above.
• Filter the questions, based on the time when the question reached the Discussion tab, or the number of upvotes it has received (if upvoting is enabled).
• Push the question to the screen by selecting Answer now, in view of the speakers discussing the question.
• Move the question to the Answered tab without pushing it to the screen by selecting the button.

In Studio, selecting Answer now will mean that the question will be pushed to the stage for the viewers to see it, and for the speakers to address it.

In the app, the question will show as follows with a ANSWERING NOW tag:

In studio, the question will also show with a ANSWERING NOW tag, for example:

From here, the moderator in Studio can:

• Select Undo, in order to remove the question from the stage and move it back to the Discussion tab.
• Select Answered, once the question has been fully discussed, therefore removing the question from the stage and moving it to the Answered tab in Studio:

Once the question is moved to the Answered tab, the moderator in Studio can at any time:

• Select Answer again to immediately push the question back on to the screen in order to discuss it further. Doing so will also move the question back into the Discussion tab in Studio, with a ANSWERING NOW tag.
• Use the ⋮ button (locate to the top right of the question) to edit the question or move the question back to the Discussion tab without pushing the question on to the screen:
  
• Select Archive, in order to move the question to the Archived tab, therefore removing the question completely from the app so that attendees can no longer see it at all.

From the Archived tab, the moderator in Studio can if needed select Restore, in order move the question back to the specific tab from which it was previously archived.

To note, whenever a question is moved from one tab to another, a message located at the bottom of the screen will tell the user where the question was moved to:

To push a new/next question to the stage, the moderator in Studio can simply head back to the Discussion tab, and click on Answer now for the question that they want to push to the stage.

Enabling upvoting in your Q&A

You can enable upvoting in the Q&A during your live sessions, to allow attendees to show their interest in the questions or comments that have already been submitted by other members of the audience, and indicate to the host what are the most valuable questions to address. More information

Note: Upvoting cannot be enabled when using Private Q&A.

Allowing anonymous submissions

You can enable the Allow anonymous submissions option in the Q&A, to allow your attendees to remain anonymous when they participate in the Q&A.

Doing so will display the Anonymous checkbox in the app, that attendees can choose to select when they enter their Q&A question or comment:

• When the attendee does not select the "Anonymous" checkbox, their question will always appear with their name and their initials.
• When the attendee selects the "Anonymous" box, their name will be replaced with "Anonymous" and their initials will be replaced by random characters. Each separate question that they post will use new set of random characters.

Private Q&A

How does private Q&A work?

Private Q&A is a special mode of Q&A, that can be used when you do not wish to show any of the questions posted by your audience to your attendees.

This means that with private Q&A in the live session, attendees will never see any of the questions that were posted by any attendees (including their own questions).

When an attendee enters and sends their question via the app, it will go straight to the moderators and will not be displayed in the app to them or to any other attendees:

With Private Q&A enabled, the "Q&A" section will be renamed "Private Q&A"
and the attendee will see a message informing them that the Q&A is private.

Only questions that were entered by the moderator via Studio will appear in the Q&A tab in the app.

When moderators enter a question or comment to the Q&A via Studio directly, they will see a message reminding them that they are using a private Q&A and that their submission will be visible to all attendees, and will need to confirm their action:

What about the questions that are pushed to screen by the moderator?

• If the moderator selects Answer now on a question or comment that was submitted by an attendee:
  • The question is only marked as ANSWERING NOW to the speaker and moderator in Studio Q&A panel.
  • It is not visible when pushed to screen in the player in Studio. 
  • It is not visible at all in the app.
    
    
• If the moderator selects Answer now on a question or comment that was submitted by a moderator via Studio :
  • The question is marked as ANSWERING NOW to the speaker and moderator in Studio Q&A panel, and the attendees in the app.
  • It is not visible when pushed to screen in the player in Studio. 
  • It is visible to attendees in the Q&A tab and when pushed to screen in the app.

How to enable private Q&A

Private Q&A can be enabled at the time of creating the live session, or at any time after the live session is created (including while live), via the live session options:

Please note that if you enable private Q&A on the live session, you will not be able to enable upvoting, as your attendees will not be able to see the questions via the app.