How To Manage Audience Q&A

Learn how to moderate and respond to audience questions.

The Q&A is a popular engagement feature in Goldcast. During a Goldcast session, attendees, speakers, coordinators, and producers can submit questions via text or video, depending on the settings enabled in Studio. 

Attendees can use the Q&A tab in the engagement panel on the right to submit text questions and click the Raise Hand button at the bottom to submit a video Q&A request. A red dot next to the Q&A tab indicates a text or video question has been submitted. 

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Audience stage view

 

Turn on/off Q&A at the session level

Follow these steps to turn on/off text and video Q&A for each session in your event:

For Events

  1. Log into Goldcast Studio and open your preferred event. 
  2. Navigate to Program → Agenda using the left side tab and click your preferred session to open the Edit Session Details window. 
  3. Scroll to Q&A, and turn on/off Text Q&A and Video Q&A using their respective toggles. 
  4. Click Save
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Heads up! You can enable or disable Q&A for each session in your event. This feature is useful if you want Q&A for Session 1 but not for Session 2, and so on. 

 
 
 

For Webinars

  1. Log into Goldcast Studio and open your preferred webinar. 
  2. Click the Edit Event button on the top-right, and navigate to the Settings tab. 
  3. Turn on/off the toggles for Text Q&A and Video Q&A, as required.  
  4. Click Save
 
 

 

Event-level Q&A settings

Heads up! These settings apply to all sessions in your events. 

 

Goldcast offers the following event-level Q&A settings:

1. Moderated vs. Unmoderated Q&A

Goldcast allows you to view and approve text questions before allowing all attendees to view and upvote them. 

2. Anonymous Text Q&A

Attendees can ask questions anonymously. All questions will include the attendee’s name if you've turned off this setting. 

3. Show the answerer’s identity

Show the name of the person who answered each question. If you’ve turned off this setting, responses will not have the name of the organizer/speaker who answered them. 

4. Answerers’ alias

Sometimes, you might want to use an alias like “Team Goldcast” or “Events Team,” etc., as the answerer to audience questions. 

5. Assign Q&A to Speaker

Turning this toggle on allows producers and moderators to assign incoming questions to specific speakers for them to answer. 

Configure event-level Q&A settings

For Events

  1. Log into Goldcast Studio and open your preferred event. 
  2. Navigate to Look & Feel using the left side tab. 
  3. Scroll to Engagement & Communication → Chat Experience in the menus on the right. 
  4. Turn on/off Moderate Q&A, Anonymous Q&A, and Answerer’s Identity using their respective toggles. 
  5. Use the Answerer’s Alias text box below the Answerer’s Identity toggle to add an alias. 
  6. Click Save
 
 

For Webinars

  1. Log into Goldcast Studio and open your preferred webinar. 
  2. Click the Edit Event button on the top-right, and navigate to the Settings tab. 
  3. Scroll to the Text Q&A Settings section, and turn on/off Moderate Text Q&A, Anonymous Text Q&A, and Answerer’s Identity using their respective toggles. 
  4. Use the Answerer’s Alias text box to add an alias. 
  5. Click Save
 
 

 

How to respond to audience questions

Producers, moderators, and speakers can answer audience questions during the session. Use the Q&A icon on the left panel to respond to text queries and the Raise icon to accept or deny video Q&A requests. 

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Approve

When a text or video question has been submitted, you can notice a red dot next to the Q&A and Raise icons. If you’ve enabled the Moderate Q&A parameter, you must click the Approve button to make the question visible to other attendees under the Q&A tab. 

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Heads up! The Approve button is available only for questions asked by attendees. Questions from speakers or organizers are automatically approved. Take a look at the screenshot below. 

 

Share onstage

Once a text question has been submitted (and approved if Q&A is moderated), you can share it onstage by clicking the Share button. Click Stop Share on the left panel or the bottom right to remove the question from the stage. 

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Assign to speakers

Heads up! Assigning Q&A to speakers will be available in your Goldcast account from 16 Dec 2024. 

 

Producers and moderators can manage Q&A sessions effectively by assigning specific questions to different speakers. This is particularly helpful when you have multiple speakers at your event, as it ensures better coordination among the event team and helps speakers quickly identify which questions they should address. 

For Producers & Moderators

  • Click the Q&A tab in the Event Space. 
  • Click the Assign button below the question to allocate to a specific speaker. This button appears alongside other Q&A actions such as Answer, Mark as Priority, Share to Stage, Delete, and Approve (in moderated Q&A)
  • Choose the speaker you want to assign to from the dropdown menu and click the Assign button.  
  • You'll get a notification saying, “Question assigned successfully.”
  • To reassign a question, click the Assign button next to the question and select a different speaker from the dropdown. 
  • To unassign a question, click thebutton. 

 

For Speakers

Speakers can filter and view the specific questions assigned to them. 

  • Click the Q&A tab in the Event Space. 
  • Click the Assigned to dropdown at the top of the panel. 
  • Select your name to view questions earmarked for you. 
  • Select “All Questions” to view all user questions. 
  • Click the Answer button to submit your answers in text. 
  • To unassign a question, click thebutton. This removes the question from your queue and the moderator/organizer can assign it to other speakers. 

 

Answer via text

You can also respond to submitted questions via text by clicking the Answer button beneath the question. Your reply will be visible to all attendees directly under the question. 

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Note: You can submit only one response per question. If you typed a wrong response, you can modify it by clicking the Edit button. Both organizers and speakers can respond to questions and edit them.  

 

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Once you post a response to a question, it’ll be automatically marked as Answered, and attendees can view the reply. You can also share answered questions on the stage. However, it can no longer be upvoted. 

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Delete a question

Delete a question by clicking the delete (trash) icon next to the question. 

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When you delete an attendee's question, Goldcast will remove it from the Q&A tab visible to attendees. 

 

Mark as priority

If you have multiple questions from the audience, you can mark the ones that must be answered on priority. Speakers, moderators, and producers can use the Filter By dropdown in the left panel to quickly filter questions. 

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Filter & Sort Q&A

During the event, use the Sort By and Filter By dropdowns to sort and filter audience questions. 

Sorting options:

  • Most recent
  • Most upvotes

Filtering options:

  • All 
  • Prioritized 
  • Approved and unapproved (in moderated Q&A)
  • Answered and unanswered 
  • Unassigned questions
  • Questions assigned to specific speakers

To clear applied filters, click “All.”

Video Q&A

Besides text Q&A, Goldcast also offers video Q&A for live sessions. If any attendee submits a video Q&A request, you will notice a red dot next to the Raise icon on the left panel. You can either approve or decline the request. If approved, the attendee will join the stage live and ask the speaker their question directly onstage. 

Heads Up: Attendees can turn on/off their cameras before joining the stage. 

 

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Q&A Best Practices

  • Use the Assign button to distribute questions evenly among speakers and to avoid multiple speakers answering the same question. 
  • When assigning questions, consider the speaker's expertise. 
  • Inform speakers before the event (during the dry run) about the Q&A assignment feature. Explain how they can use the Filter By dropdown to view and answer questions assigned to them. 
  • Encourage speakers to regularly check their assigned questions and answer them.
  • Use the Filter By dropdown to regularly check if any questions are unanswered and assign them to specific speakers. 
  • Share interesting questions onstage to keep the conversation flowing and for lively discussions. 
  • If you have Video Q&A enabled for the session, inform the audience about this feature and encourage them to join the stage to ask questions by clicking the Raise Hand button. 
  • You can assign Q&A to speakers even after the session ends (until it goes into on-demand). This approach is helpful if there are unassigned questions and speakers prefer answering them async after the session. 

Troubleshooting

If you experience any issues with Q&A during the event, you can follow these troubleshooting steps:

  • Refresh the browser tab to check if the questions are loading correctly
  • Check your internet connection
  • Contact technical support if issues persist

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