PULTEVENT
Town hall meeting Q&A: 6 segments for an all-hands that people actually speak up in
Town hall meeting Q&A usually fails in the same way. The chief executive finishes the update, asks for questions, and the room goes quiet. Two people from the leadership team ask something friendly, and the real questions get asked afterwards, at the coffee machine. PULTEVENT changes the mechanics: employees send questions from their phones, anonymously if you choose, others support the ones they share, and the leader sees what the company is actually asking before answering.
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An all-hands is an internal event with high stakes and low tolerance for friction. Staff will not install an app for a one-hour meeting, and IT will not thank you for asking. Here the question form opens in the phone browser from a QR code on the screen. No account, no email address, nothing left on the phone afterwards. The office network or mobile data is enough, as long as there is a connection.
Besides questions, a town hall often needs a quick read of the room: how people feel about the new strategy, which of three initiatives matters most, whether the reorganisation was explained clearly. The same panel runs reactions, two-position polls and a priorities game, so HR or internal comms can build the whole meeting in one place.
6 segments for a town hall or all-hands meeting
1 Questions open from the first minute
Put the QR code on the screen before the meeting begins and leave the question form open during the whole update. Employees send questions when they think of them, not only when asked.
How to run it. Say at the start that questions are anonymous and that the most supported ones will be answered first.
By the time the update ends, leadership is looking at real concerns, ranked by the company.
2 Pulse during the strategy update
While the leader presents, employees tap reactions. Relabel them for an internal audience: clear, useful, worried, agree, thanks, lost me.
How to run it. Decide beforehand whether the reaction wall is on the main screen or only on the comms team's laptop.
Leadership sees in real time which part of the message landed and which part worried people.
3 Two-position poll on a real choice
More office days or fewer? Launch in spring or autumn? Put two options on the screen with a short line each and let the company show its preference.
How to run it. Only ask what leadership is prepared to take into account. Asking and then ignoring the result does damage.
People see that their view was collected and heard, in the room, at the same moment.
4 Where should we invest next
Each employee gets a budget of points to split across three to six initiatives: a new office kitchen, a training fund, a tool the engineers keep asking for. Bars grow on the screen as points come in.
How to run it. Present each option in one sentence with a picture. Long descriptions on a phone screen do not get read.
It shows the strength of preference, not just a count, and it is fun enough that people stay engaged.
5 Answering the top questions
The moderator sorts by support and pushes the top question to the screen. The leader reads it out and answers. Then the next.
How to run it. Answer the hardest popular question first. Staff notice when the uncomfortable one is skipped.
Credibility. People judge a town hall by whether the hard question got a straight answer.
6 What we could not answer today
Questions that ran out of time are marked as passed to the speaker, then answered in writing within the week.
How to run it. Announce the follow-up date from the stage and keep it.
The meeting ends with a commitment rather than a cut-off.
Anonymous by design
Set questions to anonymous only, and neither the moderator nor leadership sees who asked.
The company decides what matters
Upvotes, one per phone, show which questions are shared by many people rather than one.
Quick polls, clear screens
Two-position polls show a large split bar. Reactions show proportions without numbers.
Internal comms stays in control
Pre-moderation, hide after publishing, and your own wording on every button.
Why anonymity changes the questions
In most companies, the questions people most want to ask are the ones they are least willing to put their name to: job security, pay structure, a manager's behaviour, a decision that looks wrong from the floor. An anonymous channel does not make people rude as often as leaders fear. Mostly it makes them honest.
Pre-moderation is the safety net. The comms team sees each question before it becomes public and can hold back the rare personal attack while letting through tough but fair questions. Agree the rules with leadership before the meeting: what will be rejected, and what will be answered even if it stings.
Polls in a town hall are not a formal vote
Everything in this section measures opinion in the room at that moment. It is not a ballot, it does not establish a quorum and it does not produce minutes. If a decision needs a formal vote under company rules or employment law, run that procedure separately. Say this from the stage when you open any poll, so nobody mistakes a show of preference for a decision.
Hybrid all-hands
Many town halls have part of the company in the room and part watching a stream. Put the QR code in the stream as well. Remote employees join from their phones in exactly the same way and their questions and votes land in the same panel. Allow a few extra seconds before closing any poll, because streams run behind the room.
Mistakes that make town halls worse
Running Q&A with names required at a company where trust is low. You will get the same three friendly questions as before, now on a big screen.
Leaving the priorities game open while the leader reacts to the result. The ranking shifts under their feet. Close it first.
Asking a poll question with an answer already decided. Staff can tell, and the next poll gets fewer votes.
Forgetting the export. Questions and poll results are a record of what the company asked. Save them before you clear the data.
Setting it up
HR or internal comms can build the whole meeting during the free 72-hour demo, no card needed, and rehearse it with a few colleagues. After that, monthly access or a single payment for lifetime access both cover every section of the platform. Details at pultevent.ru/en. Data is stored on servers in Russia and can be exported and cleared after the meeting.
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.
How to run town hall meeting Q&A and polls
- 1
Agree with leadership which questions will be answered and what counts as off limits.
- 2
Set Q&A to anonymous, switch on pre-moderation and relabel the reactions for staff.
- 3
Prepare the two-position polls and the investment options with short texts and images.
- 4
Show the QR code on screen and in the stream before the meeting starts.
- 5
Collect questions during the update, then answer the most supported ones on screen.
- 6
Close every round before reading results, export the data and publish written follow-ups.
FAQ
Can employees ask questions anonymously?
Do staff need to install anything?
Can remote employees take part?
Are the polls binding decisions?
Can we stop a hostile question appearing?
Can we rename everything for our company?
See also
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