Why don’t participants want to ask questions at events?

Picture this scene. The presenter finishes their session, the moderator steps on stage and asks the audience “are there any questions?”

Tumbleweed rolls by as delegates shuffle nervously in their chairs. Eventually, the polite moderator asks an obligatory question and the session comes to a rather anti-climactic end.

Anyone who has ever organised a conference will know this scene well. In fact, during our recent client event, over 50% of event professionals cited a lack of questions from the audience as the biggest barrier when looking to create audience interaction at events.

As event organisers, it is our job to try to combat the fear of the Q&A and encourage our delegates to participate, yet this always seems to be easier said than done. So why don’t participants want to put their hands in the air and get involved?

Hurdle #1: Fear of looking stupid

One of the biggest obstacles we face is the fear of looking stupid.

As humans, we tend to feel a bit stupid when asking questions. If you think back to your school days you were made to feel that asking questions meant you didn’t understand something and so you would hold back on asking too much to avoid looking stupid in front of your peers. 

This is something many of us have taken into adulthood.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 74% of us are scared of public speaking and it is known that having to ask questions increases this anxiety. 

Of course, no one wants to feel stupid and it is always easier to remain silent than risk feeling embarrassed, however, as the organizer, there are ways we can help ease our delegates’ fears in order to encourage interaction.

Tips for #EventProfs

One solution is to evaluate your space. Large rooms with a theatre setup discourage dialogue as any intimacy or friendliness between participants and speaker is ruined by the sheer size of the room. 

By creating a setup that is intimate and delegate-friendly, it will encourage interaction between the speaker and the audience, or delegates themselves.

Eric de Groot elaborates on this point in this great video and demonstrates the power of facilitation by creating intimate conversations in a large hall.

Another effective solution is looking to technology. We are lucky enough to be living in a world where putting up your hand and asking a question is no longer the only way to get your voice heard at a conference or speaking event.

Interaction technology has become a powerful enabler democratising the Q&A and panels. Anyone can participate – introverts, extroverts and everyone in between.

One of the most gratifying things for us is when we hear from our customers and their participants that Slido allowed them to better voice their thoughts.

@Slidoapp I’m an assertive introvert, I always have stuff to ask and contribute, much better to do it through an app

— Julia Mariani (@seedkeeper) September 22, 2016 

Hurdle #2: Session formats not optimised for interaction

Most presentations at conferences are one-way monologues where the speaker delivers a tightly choreographed performance to drive certain points to the audience. It is very much like telling a story. And, as you can imagine, people usually don’t ask questions in the middle of someone’s story.

Tips for #EventProfs

Whilst it might seem natural to wait for the speaker to finish what they are saying, the chances are that the audience will be disengaged by the time you open up the floor for questions.

By experimenting with the timing of the Q&A, for example opening up the floor for questions in the middle of a presentation, you will be able to draw people into the story and you will see a rise in audience interaction.

Even better, you can ditch the traditional keynote and replace them with much more interactive fireside chats and turn the whole session into a two-way dialogue.

Hurdle #3: Ineffective Q&A time

If you think about it, it is not feasible to expect 300 participants to each ask a question during the five to ten minutes dedicated to a Q&A session. Plus, allocating such a small amount of time to discussion allows only a few vocal people to ask questions while the rest needs to do only listening.

To make things worse, it’s hard if not impossible to gauge if a question that an attendee will ask will be relevant to people in the room. It’s often a blind bet. And unless a question an attendee asks is useful to the entire room, Q&A can be a waste of time for the majority of the audience.

Tips for #EventProfs

Not only can interaction technology help you collect audience questions effectively, it can also give you a clear overview of the popular topics as people are able to assign upvotes to the submitted questions.

With this in mind, Chris Chapman, Head of Content at Festival of Marketing and the team used Slido to “maximize the effectiveness of the limited time available for audience participation.”

By giving the participants the option to upvote their favourite questions, the team ensured that “the questions asked had the support of the majority within the room, guaranteeing that the time available for Q&A was fully utilized.”

When facilitated well, you might not even have enough time to address all the questions. To give the participants the answers that they’re seeking, Pioneers Festival in Vienna sends archived questions to their speakers who in return churn out and share their answers after the event. Read more on how to do the post-event Q&A here.

Hurdle #4: Lack of encouragement and facilitation

When it comes to speaker presentations, an event organizer’s main aim is to deliver useful material which sparks some great audience interaction. However, if you are hoping to create this memorable communication then you need something a little bit more than a speaker standing on stage and asking “are there any questions?” 

This instantly creates too much pressure, forcing participants to hesitate getting involved even though they might want to.

Tips for #EventProfs

The best way to encourage questions is to create a “question-asking environment”. You must encourage questions constantly by allocating some time for the audience to reflect on the content and have them proactively brainstorm some questions in pairs or smaller groups.

You could also let people brainstorm their challenges midway through the presentation and then have them submit and upvote their questions. Your speaker can address the most pressing questions straight away and keep the rest for the Q&A at the end.

Alternatively, once the presentation is over, you can create mini-meetings and encourage your delegates to discuss what they have just heard, sharing comments as well as raising questions.

Wrap up

Of course, there are hundreds of ways to help encourage participation at Q&A sessions, but by understanding why your audience is hesitant is a good place to start. By understanding some of the reasons why delegates would rather sit quietly than put themselves in the spotlight you will be better able to create an audience based discussion without suffering from the dreaded, awkward silence that follows ‘are there any questions?’