How to host the perfect digital webinar Q&A

Here at Univid interaction is our middle name. We are all about embracing and encouraging interaction and participation amongst live digital events that has been proven often to be more difficult since the pandemic and everything being taken online, from large conferences to your everyday webinars, and smaller seminars.

Our background attests to this- back in the day as engineering students at KTH in Stockholm, Sweden, we wanted to resolve the problem of the lack of people interacting with one another when attending lectures. We realised that, because people did not exchange information or network during the lectures, the content and ideas could not continue to live and grow afterwards. 

We believe interaction between guests at an event drives the content to expand out into the world. Who knows where one meeting might lead next?

If you're hosting a digital event or webinar soon, you might wonder how you can foster this type of inspirational interaction.

A Q&A is one of the best routes to go down.

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What is a Q&A - in the context of webinars?

A Q&A stands for ‘question and answer’. It’s a way to allow the audience to feel involved, inspired and included in a webinar, allowing them to interact with the host or guest speaker.

We’ve all been to those Q&A’s in real life, usually after some kind of event like a film, lecture or talk by someone we admire.

The inevitable post-discussion rears its head, when the mic is handed to the audience, and we know what’s coming: either the groan from the audience (“it’s more of a comment than a question” style audience members) or someone asks a question which elicits that rare response from the person/celebrity being interviewed (“that’s a good question!”).

Obviously, you want your webinar's Q&A to be the kind that falls into the latter category.

Hosting a Q&A means lots of valuable customer insights

Also, a Q&A is a great way for you as a company to gather tons of valuable information and insights into your customers and their minds - what parts of your offer is not clear enough, what parts of the product are your users struggling with? By looking through their questions - you get answers!

But what makes a Q&A stand out in the digital realm? 

You may be eager to host a digital Q&A at the end of your webinar, to further bring participants and speakers together and add something that makes your event stand out for participants afterwards.

But believe it or not, there are many differences between what makes a good Q&A in real life and online. Online etiquette differs from the real world, and there are all kinds of other varying factors to think of.

Here are our top tips to ensure your amazing webinar doesn’t get overshadowed by any faux pas’s that may arise!

1. Prepare, prepare, prepare

This goes without saying, but if you’re hosting the Q&A, making sure you have a list of your questions memorised beforehand is key. Knowing your guest and audience demographic will go a long way in making sure you know which questions will garner responses that will interest people the most.

However, humans are complicated, and conversation can sometimes not go to plan or follow the script you had in your head.

In this case, it is vital to have a list of back-up questions if the Q&A doesn’t go down the route you expected. This is also in the awkward (and rare) event that you don’t get as many questions from participants as you expected.

2. Make sure there are no technical difficulties on the day

Have a test-run through your webinar platform and ensure that you know how everything works. There’s nothing worse than a microphone that doesn’t work or a camera that is shut off on your own system preferences. Make sure things run smoothly ahead of time!

Use our free tool to test your livestream here.

3. Promote your Q&A before the webinar goes live

If you spring your Q&A session on the audience at the last minute, then it is inevitable that nobody may ask a question.

Ensure you promote both your webinar and Q&A session as soon as possible, so that attendees have time to prepare any questions they may have, rather than scrambling to think of something on the day. 

If you want the Q&A to inspire debate and an open discussion, giving attendees a heads up will increase the likelihood of this happening.

You can promote the Q&A on the social media pages of your event, on your website landing page, so that those signing up on your registration page or clicking on the LinkedIn ad will have a heads up.

4. For maximum answers, don’t ask closed questions

When asking your guest questions, don’t stick to things which will only generate ‘yes/no’ answers. You want your Q&A to take the participants on a journey to which they can be included, and so questions which uplift, generation ideas, or challenge the audience are best. Even a slight change in the wording of your question can make a huge difference in the type of answer you receive, so keep this in mind.

With our tips, the digital Q&A will be a nice value-add to your already awesome webinar - making it even more memorable and successful!

Get to practising now!