PULTEVENT
Live voting for events: 6 moments where the room decides
A fortieth birthday in a golf club function room. The dance-off final is two uncles: one in a waistcoat doing something that might be the twist, one who has taken his shoes off. I ask the room to clap for their winner. The room claps for both, equally, very loudly. Both uncles look at me. So does the birthday girl. I realised right then that the applause meter in my head was about to start a family feud.
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Since then, anything that needs a verdict goes to the phones. Guests scan a QR code on the screen, the options appear on their phones, and bars grow on the big screen as the votes come in. When I close the vote, the winner lights up and nobody can say the host picked his favourite.
This page is about the moments in an evening where a vote does real work: not surveys, not feedback forms, but the points in a party where the room should decide something and see the answer together.
6 moments in an evening where the room should vote
1 Naming the teams
Each table suggests a team name, you type up the best few, and the room picks. It's the first vote of the night and the easiest.
How to run it. Keep the options short so they read from the back. "The Latecomers" works. A twelve-word pun does not.
It teaches the room how voting works on something harmless, before anything important is at stake.
2 Best toast of the night
After the speeches, the names of the people who spoke go on the screen. The room votes for the toast they will remember.
How to run it. Run this one anonymous. Nobody wants their mother-in-law to see that they didn't vote for her.
Speakers suddenly care about being good, and the next wedding you host with the same family has better toasts.
3 Dance battle verdict
Two dancers or two teams, the screen keeps the pace of the battle and shows who's on. When the music stops, phones decide.
How to run it. Close the vote while the dancers are still on the floor, so they find out together with everyone.
No more clapping contests where two uncles tie and look at you.
4 Karaoke battle scoring
Singers perform one after another, the room votes, and the scoreboard counts the points across rounds.
How to run it. Tell the room they are voting for the performance, not the voice. That takes the pressure off the shy ones.
The worst singer with the best commitment often wins. That's the right outcome at a party.
5 What happens next
Let the room choose the next part of the evening: which game, which song, which of two cakes gets cut first.
How to run it. Only offer options you are actually ready to run. A vote you then ignore is worse than no vote.
Guests feel the party is theirs, and you get a clear signal about what the room wants.
6 Awards night
Votes and game results feed the team scoreboard, and the evening ends with an awards ceremony on the big screen: fun awards, third, second, and the winner.
How to run it. Rehearse the order: awards first, then places. Pause before the winner longer than feels comfortable.
A string of votes becomes a proper finale instead of a list of results read off a phone.
Everyone votes, not the loudest
One phone, one vote. The table at the back counts as much as the table by the dance floor.
Results the room can see
Bars grow on the big screen. When you close the vote, the winner is highlighted for everyone at once.
No app, no sign-up
Guests scan the QR code once at the start. Every vote after that opens on their phone by itself.
Anonymous if you need it
Switch to anonymous before opening a vote and not even the host can see who chose what.
Why the leader stays hidden until you close
While a vote is open, the big screen shows the bars growing, but the winner is not highlighted. That's on purpose. Once a room can see who is ahead, people start voting for the leader, and the question turns into a poll of people who have already decided.
So the drama is saved for the end. You close the vote, the result is locked, and the winner lights up on the screen. The room reacts to one clear moment instead of a slow drift.
Anonymous or with names
The switch is set before the vote opens. In anonymous mode the guest's name doesn't reach anyone, not even the host. It is real anonymity, not "we promise not to look".
Use names when it's a game and the room enjoys seeing who voted for whom. Use anonymous for anything that touches feelings: best toast, favourite colleague, whose cake was better.
What guests actually need
A phone with a camera and internet. They scan the QR code on the big screen once, type their name, and they are in the event room. When you open a vote, the buttons appear on their phone by themselves.
The internet part is not optional. Voting from phones goes through a server, so every phone needs mobile data or wifi. Guests don't have to share one network, which helps in venues with weak wifi, but a basement with no signal at all will not work. Check before the night.
How many votes in one evening
Four or five is plenty. A vote is a spotlight moment, and too many spotlights make none of them special. I spread them out: one early and easy, one after the speeches, one or two tied to games, and the last one feeding the finale.
Keep each vote short. Thirty seconds is usually enough for a room of a hundred. If you wait for the last three people, you lose the other ninety-seven.
And have a plan for a tie. It happens more often than you'd think, usually in the final. My rule is a thirty-second rematch: both finalists do one more chorus or one more move, and the room votes again. Say the rule before the first vote, so a tie feels like part of the game rather than a problem the host is solving on the spot.
Voting at online and hybrid events
Share the stage window in a video call and remote guests see the same screen. They scan the code off their monitor and vote on their phones, and their votes land in the same bars as the room's.
Leave the vote open a few seconds longer when people are joining remotely; video calls lag behind the room.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, a host who has run weddings, company parties and birthdays since 2014: more than 500 events, and TOP 100 Awards best host in Moscow (2024) and Saint Petersburg (2023). He built the console for his own events first.
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How to run live voting at an event
- 1
Decide which four or five moments of the evening deserve a vote.
- 2
Connect the laptop to the venue screen and check the phone signal in the room.
- 3
Show the QR code early and let guests join with their names.
- 4
For each vote, type the question and two to six options, and choose anonymous or named.
- 5
Open the vote, give the room about thirty seconds, then close it to reveal the winner.
- 6
Feed the results into the team scoreboard and finish with the awards ceremony.
FAQ
Do guests need to download an app to vote?
Can one person vote twice?
Is voting anonymous?
How many options can a vote have?
Does it need internet?
What language do guests see?
How do I pay for it?
See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
All audience interactions, a second screen and timing in one app. Guests join by QR — internet is needed for you and for them.
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