Love ‘em or hate ‘em, polling is pretty ubiquitous in the event industry and deep down we all know that they’re useful (see below). So here are a few of our tried and tested techniques for getting the most out of your polls.

1. The times they are a-changing: Make sure you know what options are out there
Old school clickers and paper feedback forms have had their day. Whether you use Survey Monkey, or get audiences to vote via their smartphones with Glisser, take a look at the surprisingly simple new ways of polling out there on the tech scene.

2. Kick off with a few light hearted polls
Polling doesn’t have to be serious. Live polling is a great way of making everyone feel like they’re in an episode of ‘who wants to be a millionaire’, and gets your audience interacting with your presenters and each other right from that start. Keep everyone engaged by asking questions like “if you were a superhero, what special power would you have?” and then showing the results there and then (this one’s a Team Glisser favourite as it’s usually a dead cert for raising a laugh).

3. Use them to build up a picture of your audience
Don’t just use your polls to ask people what they think of you – asking just a couple of questions about your audience can really help your sales and marketing teams to build up a picture of your clients. Even simple questions like asking what function people work in, or what region they live in, can help you to segment your attendees for post event follow-ups.

4. Embed your post event survey into your event app
A sure-fire way to up your response rate is to get your audience to fill in their feedback surveys there and then. If your audience are already using an event app, make the most of the fact you’ve got their attention by building your feedback questions into your app. Glisser presenters often add in feedback polls at the end of their presentation slides to capture feedback as soon as they’ve finished their presentation.

5. Closed questions work best
Let’s face it – no one wants to feel like they’re being asked to write War and Peace when they’ve been promised a survey will take no longer than a couple of minutes to complete. Speed things up by keeping your questions to multiple choice or out of 5 formats, and limit answer choices to short responses like yes and no.

6. And if all else fails, bribery works
While we don’t want to condone that you all start bunging your event attendees great wads of cash, it’s remarkable how far the promise of a free drink at the bar, or the chance to enter a prize draw can go! Incentivising your audience to answer your feedback surveys will always help you to get people answering your polls and surveys.