Feedback is a powerful tool in business. It helps you understand what your customers want and what you can do to keep your employees happy.
Q&A sessions are a great way to get valuable feedback, delve deeper into the minds of your key stakeholders, and show them that you’re listening.
Join us as we look at why Q&A sessions are so important and how to plan an event that attendees want to engage in.
What is a Q&A session?
A question-and-answer session (Q&A session) is a live event where audience members can ask questions and receive answers from specialist speakers. Q&A sessions provide valuable insight into certain topics and ensure audience members feel heard. You can hold this event in person or online, but the key is that you hold it in real time.
What can you use question-and-answer sessions for?
Q&A sessions are an effective way to engage attendees, encourage meaningful discussions, and get valuable feedback.
They can be a standalone discussion or held as part of a larger meeting. For example, you might hold a session at the end of a sales meeting so attendees can voice their queries and concerns.
You can use Q&A sessions to:
- Introduce new products and services to existing and prospective customers.
- Show relevant stakeholders how you are driving your business forward and what your plans are for the future.
- Get ahead of any potential issues or bad publicity.
- Round off team meetings so employees can ask questions about internal strategies and processes.
What are the benefits of Q&A sessions for audience members?
Q&A sessions are an important component of any brand’s internal and external communications strategy. Here’s why they’re a fantastic way to get your audience on your side.
They provide a personalized experience
Customers these days want a bespoke service tailored to their needs, goals, and aspirations.
Q&A sessions allow them to tell you what they like and dislike about your business, as well as what you can do to improve their individual experiences.
They enhance understanding of a certain topic
Q&A sessions are an excellent opportunity to share your expert knowledge with an audience and answer any questions they may have.
This provides attendees with a more comprehensive understanding of a specific topic and offers an interactive and engaging learning experience.
They boost morale
Employees want to be heard by their employers. 90% of workers polled say that they’re more likely to stay with a business that listens to feedback and acts on what they say.
Q&A sessions give employees the chance to share their thoughts with management, increasing morale and job satisfaction.
What are the benefits of Q&A sessions for your business?
A major advantage of Q&A sessions is that they can help you save time. Rather than hold one-on-one discussions with staff, customers, and stakeholders, you can share valuable information and get useful feedback from multiple people at once.
Read on to understand the other important business benefits.
They establish trust
Successful businesses are built on trust—71% of employees say they’ll leave a company if it loses their trust. Similarly, only 33% of consumers believe companies understand the value of customer trust.
Q&A sessions show that your company is open, transparent, and willing to engage with the people who are most invested and involved in your business.
They let you tell your side of the story
If you’re experiencing a negative PR issue, Q&A sessions let you share your story with an audience, address misleading information, and change how people perceive your business.
By answering questions honestly, you can re-establish credibility and rebuild goodwill with attendees.
They provide valuable feedback
In the event your Q&A session is part of a larger activity (such as a presentation), it is during this time that attendees can freely provide feedback, both during and after your session.
You can use this information to improve your processes and generate ideas to help your business grow.
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How to host a question-and-answer session that gets results
You should aim to host a session that encourages open discussion and makes your audience glad they took the time to attend.
Here are our top tips for delivering a session that makes participants feel heard.
Understand your goals
Knowing what you want to achieve from your session will help you identify the right speakers to invite and topics to address, as well as encourage active engagement from participants.
For example, you might want to:
- Build trust among staff, stakeholders, and customers
- Address misunderstandings
- Demonstrate expertise in a particular subject area
- Increase awareness of your product or service
- Get feedback
And finally, put yourself in your audience’s shoes—what do you want to learn by the end of the session?
When you have a clear goal in mind and understand what participants want, you’ll be able to determine the topic of your Q&A sessions with ease.
Choose the right format to enhance attendee engagement
There are 3 types of Q&A session formats, and the best choice depends on the audience you want to target.
In-person Q&A sessions
With in-person Q&A sessions, the speakers and audience are in the same room.
This session is ideal for establishing a personal connection with participants—you can make eye contact and talk to them directly.
These Q&A sessions tend to be the most expensive, as you might have to rent a room and pay for travel costs.
Virtual Q&A sessions
A virtual Q&A session is held over a live-streaming platform like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Chat.
The biggest benefit of virtual Q&A sessions is that your audience can join from anywhere in the world, meaning increased attendance.
However, you may have less of a connection with virtual participants than in-person ones, and technical difficulties could disrupt your session. You also need to think about time zones and how they might affect virtual attendees.
Hybrid Q&A sessions
Hybrid Q&A sessions are the best of both worlds and ideal for larger meetings. In these types of sessions, participants can choose to attend in person or through a live-streaming platform.
This provides people with flexibility over how they attend. For example, if you’re hosting the session near your office, nearby employees can participate in person, while staff who live farther away can watch online.
However, this type of session requires careful planning. You not only have to organize an event space but also arrange a live-streaming platform for virtual attendees.
Determine a structure
Having a schedule for your session means you can control the narrative and ensure that you stay on track.
Start by establishing how long you want your session to be and what you want to cover. You can then identify the order in which your speakers will talk, how long they will speak for, and how much time there will be for answering questions.
Allow plenty of time for questions—if your session is 60 minutes long, you should allocate at least 20 minutes for audience engagement. Establish a time limit for each question asked and take follow-up questions into account.
It’s also a good idea to establish ground rules that you can relay to your audience at the beginning of the session. Tell them how long the session will be, what topics are up for discussion, and how they can submit a question.
Use a moderator
A moderator is someone who leads your session and ensures it runs smoothly. A moderator:
- Opens and closes the discussion
- Talks the audience through the ground rules
- Introduces the speakers
- Chooses participants to speak and encourages active participation
- Moves the discussion away from inappropriate or unrelated questions
- Enforces the event schedule
Having a skilled moderator is vital—they can make or break your session.
Your moderator needs to be an effective communicator, have exceptional time management skills, and be a good listener. Your moderator must also be flexible and think on their feet—it’s their responsibility to keep the conversation flowing.
You have 2 options when selecting a moderator. You can choose a member of your team or ask someone outside of your business.
There are benefits to both. A member of your team has knowledge of your business and can build a rapport with fellow participants, while someone external can bring an objective perspective to the discussion.
Practice beforehand
Running through your session beforehand helps you deliver a confident, more precise presentation.
You can:
- Prepare answers to pre-submitted questions, as well as plan answers to potential questions and follow-up questions.
- Determine how much time you need to dedicate to each section.
- Fine-tune your thoughts and decide if you need to dive deeper into particular topics.
- Test your equipment (e.g., microphones and laptops) to make sure they work.
We recommend going through the session the day before with everyone who needs to be involved—you can do this in person or virtually.
Make it easy to submit a question
In order to ensure a well-rounded discussion, it’s essential to have a good selection of submitted questions.
Encourage participants to submit questions before the event, either by email, online form, or through social media—the benefit of this is that you can vet questions and prepare responses ahead of time.
If sensitive topics are up for debate, participants may feel more comfortable submitting questions anonymously.
Also allow the audience to ask questions during the event. If you’re holding your session online, many platforms have a chat feature that lets virtual attendees submit questions in real time.
It’s also helpful to have some prepared questions ready. These are useful if participants are hesitant to ask questions or if you want to steer the conversation toward a particular topic.
Follow up with attendees after the session
Your session was a resounding success—what next?
Following up with attendees after the session allows you to address key points, discuss next steps, and answer additional questions you might not have had a chance to respond to.
You can also ask your audience for feedback to help you improve your sessions in the future.
If you recorded the presentation, you can email it out so people who couldn’t attend on the day can watch.
Increase customer satisfaction and boost employee morale with well-run Q&A sessions
A well-organized, well-structured, and well-managed Q&A session will provide your business with the answers it needs to move forward and evolve. The key to a successful session is to provide valuable content—give your audience a reason to attend and make their efforts to take part worthwhile.
So, don’t be afraid to foster an open dialogue with your key stakeholders and show that you’re listening to them.