There are many audience interaction tools. After trying several, the one I keep coming back to is Slido. We used it for 600 experts across eight workshops for the National Infrastructure Commission, and in meetings of ten people. Here is why, and how to use live polling well.
Ten reasons we use Slido
- It makes meetings participatory. Everyone can contribute at once, not one at a time.
- Participants enjoy it. Almost every time, someone tells me afterwards how much they enjoyed interacting.
- Polls show the headline opinions in the room in seconds.
- It gathers useful data. At the NIC workshops it produced 2,638 fields of polling data the Commission could use.
- Anonymous questions. People can ask questions when they arise, not only in the Q&A, and can ask the difficult ones anonymously.
- Upvoting lets the room decide which questions matter most.
- Easy to set up before an event and run live, with no technical support.
- Simple for participants. It runs in a browser, so there is nothing to install.
- Light on data, so venue wifi copes.
- It works in the room, online and hybrid, which puts remote and in-person participants on equal terms.
How to use live polling well
- Ask questions that change what happens next. A poll whose answer you ignore teaches people not to bother.
- Show the results, then talk about them. "Why do you think a third of us chose this?" is where the value is.
- Mix it with other methods. Polling shows what people think; gridcards and table conversations show why.
- Keep the anonymous questions moderated for large or sensitive events.
Slido is now part of Cisco, and other tools such as Mentimeter do similar jobs. The principles matter more than the tool. For how we design interactive sessions for large groups, see conference facilitation.
Sean Blair is the founder of ProMeet and Serious Outcomes, an IAF Certified Professional Facilitator and a LEGO® Serious Play® Master Trainer. About Sean.