Conference Engagement Platform: Reactions, Q&A, Debates, Pitches
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Conference engagement platform: 7 sessions where the room gets a say

A conference engagement platform proves itself at 11:40 on day one, when the second keynote overruns, four hundred delegates are quietly answering email, and the moderator needs the hall back before the panel starts. On PULTEVENT she taps once on the laptop, a QR code fills the LED wall, and within a minute phones are up, questions for the panel are arriving in her queue and the reaction bubbles behind the speakers are starting to move.

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This page is for conference producers, event agencies and in-house teams who are choosing one tool for the whole programme rather than a separate trick for each session. The Forum Interactive section of PULTEVENT has four mechanics: live reactions, questions to speakers with moderation, an opinion battle for debates, and an investor game where the audience funds projects with virtual capital. All four run from the same browser control panel and show on the same second screen.

Attendees scan a code and take part in the mobile browser on their own phone. There is no app to install and no sign-up form. The server counts every tap in real time, so what the hall sees on the projector matches what the moderator sees on the laptop. Delegates' phones and the laptop both need internet, which is the first thing to confirm with the venue.

7 points in a conference programme where the engagement platform does real work

  1. 1 Opening keynote with a reaction wall

    Delegates tap reactions while the keynote runs: a light bulb for something new, a target for a strong case, a flame for a hot take, a handshake for agreement, a heart for thanks, a question mark when a slide lost them. Bubbles on the screen grow in proportion to each reaction, with no numbers shown.

    Mechanic
    Live reactions
    Length
    Whole talk
    Best for
    Plenary hall

    How to run it. Set a rate limit, for example one reaction every three seconds per phone, so the wall reflects the room and not two enthusiasts.

    The speaker gets feedback while talking, and you get a record of which minutes landed.

  2. 2 Questions collected during the talk

    Instead of waiting for the microphone at the end, people send questions as they think of them. They pick the speaker from a list and choose whether to add their name, if you allow a choice.

    Mechanic
    Speaker Q&A
    Length
    Runs in background
    Best for
    Keynotes, plenaries

    How to run it. Turn on pre-moderation for anything with press or senior guests in the room. You approve before anything appears.

    By the time the talk ends you already have a ranked list rather than an awkward silence.

  3. 3 Panel with a shared question queue

    Four panellists, one moderator, one queue. Each question arrives tagged with the panellist it is meant for, and other delegates upvote it once from their phone.

    Mechanic
    Speaker Q&A
    Length
    30 to 60 minutes
    Best for
    Panels

    How to run it. Sort by popularity for the last ten minutes, by speaker when you want to balance airtime.

    Quiet panellists get asked things too, and the moderator is not guessing what the room wants.

  4. 4 Debate between two positions

    Two speakers, two photos, two positions written in one line each. Delegates choose a side, a large split bar such as 57 | 43 moves on the screen, and a line chart records how the hall moved during the argument.

    Mechanic
    Opinion battle
    Length
    One round per motion
    Best for
    Debates, Oxford format

    How to run it. Decide in advance whether people may change their vote. For a persuasion debate, allow it: the swing is the story.

    A debate with a visible score keeps the room listening to both sides.

  5. 5 Startup or innovation showcase

    Each delegate gets virtual capital, 100 coins by default, renamed to whatever suits the event. They split it across project cards and confirm. The screen shows bars growing and the ranking reshuffling live.

    Mechanic
    Investor
    Length
    10 to 15 minutes
    Best for
    Pitch sessions

    How to run it. Close the round on the screen before you announce anything. Once closed, allocations are locked.

    The winner is decided by total capital, which rewards conviction rather than a simple show of hands.

  6. 6 Mid-afternoon reset

    After lunch the hall is slow. A two-minute reaction warm-up or a light debate motion wakes people up before the next heavy session.

    Mechanic
    Reactions or battle
    Length
    2 to 5 minutes
    Best for
    Post-lunch slot

    How to run it. Pick a motion with no right answer and a bit of humour about the industry.

    It costs almost nothing in programme time and saves the session after it.

  7. 7 Closing plenary recap

    Put the reaction charts from different sessions side by side, replay the debate chart and name the winning project. The day ends with the hall seeing its own verdicts.

    Mechanic
    All four
    Length
    5 minutes
    Best for
    Closing session

    How to run it. Prepare the recap during the last coffee break so the host is not scrolling on stage.

    Delegates leave with a summary they helped create, and sponsors see the room engaged.

No download for delegates

A QR code or short link opens the session in Safari or Chrome on iOS and Android. Nobody creates an account.

One panel, four mechanics

Reactions, speaker Q&A, debate voting and the investor round all sit in the same control panel.

Built for the big screen

A separate full-screen output goes to the projector, LED wall or TV while you keep the controls on the laptop.

Your branding, set by you

Logo, colours, background, mechanic names and button labels are edited in the panel, without a developer.

Four mechanics, one control panel

Most conference days mix formats: talks, panels, debates, pitches. A platform that only does polls or only does questions forces you to juggle tools, logins and QR codes. Here the operator switches mechanic in the same panel and the screen follows. Each talk can have its own reaction session with its own set of emojis and its own chart, so you can later compare the opening keynote with the afternoon workshop.

The moderator side is where most of the control sits. In reactions you can pause intake, clear the wall, switch off a single reaction or start a new session. In Q&A you approve, reject, hide an already published question, push one to the screen and mark it as passed to the speaker. In the battle you open, pause and finish a round, set a timer, hide results from participants until the reveal, and reset for the next motion. In the investor game you set the capital, the currency name and whether people must spend everything.

How to choose a conference engagement platform

Start with the delegate. If joining takes an app store download and a registration form, a large part of the hall will not bother. Test the join flow on an old phone with poor signal, not on your own.

Then look at moderation. At a conference with a chief executive on stage or journalists in row three, you need to see every question before the screen does, and you need to be able to take something down after it went up. Check that anonymity is a setting, not a fixed rule: anonymous, name required, or the delegate's choice.

Third, the screen. A good output reads from the back of a ballroom: large type, no clutter, no tiny numbers. Reactions should show proportions, the debate should show a split everyone understands in a second.

Fourth, branding and data. Organisers will want the client's logo and colours and their own names for each mechanic. They will also ask where the data sits: PULTEVENT keeps it on servers in Russia, and results can be exported and then cleared after the event. Finally, ask about the large hall: one phone gets one vote and one capital, repeat attempts are blocked on the server, and a phone that drops its connection returns to its own session without losing its choice.

Industry scenarios

The same four mechanics look different in each sector. A medical meeting might put a clinical case to the room and ask which treatment path people would choose. An association congress uses quick opinion polls on draft positions, as long as everyone understands these are not formal ballots. A dealer or partner conference lets partners back the initiatives they want funded next year. A hackathon final lets the audience pick its favourite team next to the jury. A corporate summit uses anonymous questions to leadership. Each of these has its own page, linked below.

Mistakes producers make on the day

Not testing the second screen from the back row. Text that looked fine on the laptop can be unreadable on a wide LED wall. Walk to the last row during the technical rehearsal.

Leaving a battle round open. If the moderator forgets to close it, late votes keep moving the bar while the speakers are already thanking the room. Give the operator a cue sheet with every open and close.

Running Q&A without pre-moderation because it felt friendlier. One off-topic or rude question on a six-metre screen costs more goodwill than the delay of approving each one.

Showing the QR code once. Latecomers arrive all morning. Put the code on the holding slide between sessions and ask the host to mention it after every break.

Access and the demo

You can use the platform free for 72 hours, without a card, which is enough to build a programme and run a full rehearsal with your team's phones. After that you choose monthly access or a single payment for lifetime access, and either option opens more than a hundred sections of the platform, not only Forum Interactive. Current prices are on pultevent.ru/en.

About the author

PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who moderates business forums and corporate conferences and has hosted over 500 events since 2014: best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own events first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.

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How to set up a conference engagement platform for your event

  1. 1

    Map the programme and decide which session gets reactions, Q&A, a debate round or the investor game.

  2. 2

    Add your branding, rename the mechanics and buttons, and set anonymity and pre-moderation rules.

  3. 3

    Create speakers, debate positions and project cards, with photos where you have them.

  4. 4

    At the venue, connect the laptop to the projector or LED processor and open the full-screen output.

  5. 5

    Put the QR code on the holding slide and test joining from a phone at the back of the hall.

  6. 6

    Run each session from the panel, close rounds on cue, then export results and clear the data.

FAQ

Do attendees need an app?
No. They scan a QR code or open a short link and take part in the mobile browser. No registration.
Does it need internet?
Yes. Every vote, reaction and question goes through the server, so both delegates' phones and the control laptop need a connection.
How quickly do reactions appear on screen?
Within a couple of seconds of the tap, which is fast enough for the speaker to notice mid-sentence.
Can one person vote twice?
One phone gets one vote in a battle and one budget in the investor game. Repeat attempts are blocked by the server.
Can we use our client's brand?
Yes. Logo, colours, background, the names of mechanics and buttons, and confirmation texts are all editable in the panel.
Is there a limit on hall size?
It is designed for large halls. For a very big event, run a rehearsal with as many phones as you can gather and talk to us about your numbers.
What happens to the data afterwards?
Results can be exported for your report and then cleared. Data is stored on servers in Russia.

See also

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