Closed Q&A—This is where you collect audience questions ahead of time, screen them, and then you read them off on behalf of the person asking it. This is ideal if you want total control over the material and the flow of the conversation. Open Q&A—This is where anyone can raise their hand and ask questions. This is a good idea if you want to facilitate organic conversation, but risky if you may have an audience who isn’t interested in participating. Reverse Q&A—This is where the speakers probe the audience with their own questions. This is a great option for educational panels, or company Q&As where you want employee feedback.
Some panelists may not want to address certain topics or answer a particular question. It is your job as the moderator to redirect or deflect these questions. Speakers may really want to touch on something they couldn’t cover in their formal presentation, and the Q&A session may be the perfect time for that.
You might say, “Please give me your questions before Thursday so that I can compile the most interesting questions for our panelists!” For a less formal panel, you can get on stage at the beginning of the event, explain that you will have a Q&A session, pass out pencils and paper, and ask the audience to come up with questions while they listen. Include the Q&A on the agenda for the event and put it on the flyer or program if you’re in charge of the materials.
You can sort the questions by most interesting to least interesting to ensure that you get to everything that seems worth addressing. Alternatively, you can try to arrange the questions so that you provide a diverse range of unique and interesting convo topics. If you want to reward the audience for submitting questions ahead of time, present the questions in the order you received them,
Try to come up with a question for each panelist if there are multiple speakers. You could ask questions about a speaker’s thought on a current cultural problem, a topic that’s adjacent to their field, or ask them to expand on a comment they made while presenting. For a company Q&A with the management, you might ask the managers about future plans for the company, or for the managers to comment on the state of certain projects.
Slack is a popular video chat platform among companies. If you’re doing a Q&A for work on Slack, set up a new channel for the Q&A and allow users to submit questions. [6] X Research source Zoom is a popular, easy-to-use option. It has a “raise hand” feature that will allow people to signal that they have questions, and you can mute or unmute users as needed to control discussions. [7] X Research source Airmeet is a live video presentation program that’s perfect for Q&A panels. It has a built-in Q&A feature that allows people to enter questions in a queue. [8] X Research source Microsoft Teams has a dedicated Q&A feature where users can submit their inquiries to speakers. [9] X Trustworthy Source Microsoft Support Technical support and product information from Microsoft. Go to source
You might say, “Thank you, Mr. Gordon for that wonderful presentation. Now we’re moving on to the Q&A section. If you’d like to ask a question, please raise your hand. We’ll take questions one at a time, and an usher will bring you a microphone. ” For a closed Q&A, you might say, “Now, we’re going to start the Q&A. You’ve submitted your questions to us and we’ve compiled them here. Our first question comes from Amanda…”
If an open question is provided and a particular speaker signals that they want to take it by sitting up excitedly or by making eye contact with you, give it to them first. If you get a question about a topic and you have an expert on that topic on stage, you might say, “Professor Jones, this sounds like it’s relevant to your work, would you mind answering this one?” This is especially important for digital Q&As where you can’t really rely on body language or gestures to determine who a question is meant for.
If the audience walks away from the event and they have no idea what your beliefs are, you’ve done a successful job remaining impartial!
For example, if an audience member asks, “Why do you think that…we’re expanding in Michigan, right, and so…I’m curious if we’ll go to Wisconsin next?” you might say, “I think Amber is wondering if the company has any plans to expand into Wisconsin. Could you speak to that, Jason?” You might repeat questions if you’re doing an open Q&A and the audience doesn’t have access to a microphone, since people in the back may not be able to hear. For a digital Q&A, rephrase any questions where the person asking it seems to have a spotty connection, since some people may not have heard it.
For example, if someone asks, “Do you think your argument about the colonization of Australia has some racist implications?” you might say, “Thank you for that important question. Ms. Gibson, race is certainly important when we talk about Australian history, how does your work comment on that?”
Always blame the time. When you jump in, you might say something like, “Sorry to hop in here Andy, but I know we are short on time, and we have a few more questions to get into. ” Keep your audience in mind here. A bunch of grade-school students will probably struggle to follow longer answers, while a room full of grad school students will likely appreciate it if the speaker goes in-depth on an answer and really takes their time.
You might say, “Thank you for that wonderful answer, Professor. Just to clarify, I know we have some younger audience members here, could you say a little bit about what you mean when you said Hawking’s thesis wasn’t particularly complete? What did you mean there?”
Don’t pull a slide up if it would distract anyone or interrupt the speaker. For example, if a participant casually references a slide and moves on immediately, don’t worry about it. If they want a specific figure or chart though, pull it up.
If you aren’t doing a digital Q&A and there is no visible clock at the back of room, check your watch. Don’t pull your phone out—even if it’s just to check the time. It’s a bad look as a moderator. The organizers of the event will tell you how much time you have for the Q&A. If you’re choosing the time, 15-30 minutes will allow for some solid, meaningful discussion.
You might say, “That’s it for today’s Q&A, thank you Mr. Jones, Dr. Thompson, and Ms. Tosh, your insights have been absolutely wonderful, and I’d like to thank you all for being a brilliant audience. Thank you for coming out, and good night. ”
