Mastering the Art of Live Polling at Events

Hamilton Hamilton

Using live polling at your event is truly an art form. Asking the right questions creates an opportunity to boost audience engagement and form meaningful connections. Live polling helps when gathering votes or responding to attendee questions. Let’s break down live polling for events so you can best utilize this tool. 

How does live polling work?

The live polling tool allows brands to ask participants questions and receive real-time feedback. Live polling can occur by simply asking a group of people to raise their hands to indicate yes or no; today, most live polling happens digitally. 

Why Use Live Polling for Events

Live polling is beneficial to have in your toolbox. Here are the top three reasons to use live polling for events. 

Boost Audience Engagement

Live polling invites viewers to become active participants. The engagement possibilities are nearly endless. Ask participants about their demographic information, preferences, ideas, knowledge, and passions. Utilize the poll results for a fun competition, inspiring collaboration, or a highly personalized recommendation. No matter the strategy you choose, live polling is a valuable way to collect real-time feedback. 

Offer Multiple Types of Engagement

Live polling offers different paths of engagement for audiences.  Participants respond to a poll and move on or use the polling questions to start an enlightening conversation with readily available brand representatives. If polling results integrate into visual displays or presentations, audiences can view and respond to the information. 

Capture Leads

Polls allow brands to collect information from leads. Live poll activities spark conversations enabling brands to cultivate meaningful and lasting relationships. 

Best Practices for Live Polling

Many valuable benefits come from live polling when implemented appropriately. Here are three best practice tips. 

Customization

For live polling to engage your audience and deliver your desired results, customize polling questions, response choices, and all other relevant features. To best align with your objectives, tailor polling elements to your audience, brand, and event. 

Formatting

It is essential to fine-tune the formatting of your live polling at events to suit your audience. The perfect number of questions will excite your audience and facilitate meaningful conversations. A limited number of questions may result in missed opportunities. Too many questions could cause your audience to burn out faster.

Delivery

Send live polls directly to event attendees via an app, QR code, or email. Alternatively, live polls can be distributed to participants by event staff. Each option provides unique opportunities to connect with your audience, gather information, and raise awareness about your brand. Make sure your technology is well-designed, user-friendly, and customizable. If you choose event staff to deliver the polls, ensure they receive the proper training to use the technology, start conversations, and engage with participants. 

Best Tools for Live Polling

The leading tools for live polling are split into those utilized by customers and by event staff.

Customer-Facing

HUB LIVE™ is Hamilton’s touchless attendee engagement solution. It is a “mobile first” web app platform that facilitates engagement and content delivery using a QR-code activation; operates as a mobile web app that does not require a download; and allows for customizable design, colors, and branding. The solution features interactive lead capture, event information showcase, content library, meeting schedule, hybrid audience support, CRM platform and Google Analytics integration, and enhanced gamification and education opportunities to create activities such as live polls. This award-winning solution can be implemented before, during, and after the show. 

Rep-Facing or In-House

Hamilton inSIGHT™ is a proprietary lead capture solution that allows brand representatives to use their own devices to capture qualifying leads from exhibit visitors. Hamilton inSIGHT™ includes the same badge scanning and survey qualifiers as show-provided lead retrieval, plus an extensive list of key differentiators, including: 

  • Custom qualifiers that allow you to create custom survey questions and custom tags
  • Dynamic literature fulfillment sends attendees emails with information pertinent to their poll responses
  • Engagement integration incorporates in-booth engagement activities like collaborative displays of poll results

Hamilton is a full-service event marketing agency with a 75-year legacy of creating immersive brand experiences for companies throughout North America and around the world. We design, produce, and execute integrated experiences – exhibits, proprietary events and conferences, corporate environments, outdoor events, mobile tours, and digital solutions – that drive meaningful connections between your brand and your audience.

To master the art of live polling at events, contact Hamilton today!