The majority of delegates ask short questions at events, but long questions prove more popular, audience interaction platform for meetings and events, sli.do, has revealed in its latest study.
According to sli.do, two thirds of questions asked by delegates at events are under 70 characters in length, with longer questions of over 100 characters being up to four times more popular with other audience members.
The study also revealed that questions beginning with ‘What’ or ‘How’ represented three-quarters of all questions examined, with time-related questions, such as those beginning with ‘When’, receiving an average of 40 per cent more likes via the sli.do system. It was also shown that 82 per cent of questions were asked in the present tense.
Peter Komornik, sli.do chief executive (pictured) said: “Audience interaction and audience engagement are absolutely integral to the success of events. With this research we wanted to take a granular look at the anatomy of questions asked by delegates to better understand their concerns and interests and ultimately help planners deliver more engaging events.
“The results can be interpreted in a number of ways. Knowing, for example, that longer questions receive the most ‘likes’ might suggest more time needs to be allocated to Q&A sessions to allow a greater depth of discussion. Similarly, we can assume that attendees are looking for actionable tips since ‘What’ and ‘How’ questions were the most numerous. This notion may affect the content of a presentation or lecture.”
The study examined the content of 15,000 questions asked via sli.do’s Q&A tool at international events.
The analysis was carried out on questions starting with ‘What’, ‘Why’, ‘Who’, ‘When’, ‘Where’ and ‘How’, from public events held globally across the last 36 months.
