The event Q&A runbook

What good event Q&A looks like

Most event Q&A is an afterthought: five minutes at the end of a talk, a chat box nobody reads, and questions that vanish when the stream ends. Good event Q&A has three phases, and most of the value is in the first and last.

Before, questions are collected, so speakers can prepare and attendees in other time zones take part. During, a moderator runs a fair queue. After, unanswered questions get written answers and the whole thing stays findable.

This runbook walks through each phase. It uses Dium terms where they help: a Flow is the event's community space, a Wave is a thread (a question, a discussion or a live session), and Pages are branded pages for speakers and sponsors.

Roles to fill

In Dium, set these up as profile types. A Speaker type might be allowed to create a speaker page and a few sessions. A Moderator can hold the moderator base role. Share an invite link per type so people land with the right permissions.

Two weeks before

• Create a Flow for the event. For multi-track events, create one Flow per track and group them in one Room so members and DMs are shared
• Set up profile types for speakers, sponsors and attendees, and send each group its invite link
• Ask speakers to create their speaker page and sponsors their sponsor page
• Create a session Wave for each talk, with the start time, length, capacity and meeting link (Google Meet or Zoom)
• Write the ground rules: one question per post, stay on topic, be kind. Link your community guidelines
• Name the follow-up owner

One week before

This is when you collect questions. Open each session Wave for questions and tell attendees in an announcement Wave.

• Post two or three seed questions per session yourself so no thread starts empty
• Ask attendees to like the questions they want answered, so the queue sorts itself
• Send speakers the top questions two days before, not five minutes before
• Ask attendees to RSVP to sessions so you know which rooms will be busy

For large events, run a pre-event AMA with the organizers. It answers logistics questions once, in public, instead of in a hundred DMs.

Time zones and remote attendees

Live Q&A favours whoever is awake and in the room. If your attendees are spread across time zones, the written thread is the only fair way in for many of them. Treat it as the main channel, not the backup.

• Write every session time with its time zone, and link a converter in the announcement
• Tell remote attendees their written questions count as much as raised hands, then prove it by taking one early
• Have the moderator read each written question out loud before the speaker answers, so the recording makes sense later
• For sessions outside most people's working hours, promise written answers within a day and keep the promise

Dium shows session times in each member's browser time zone, and email digests follow the time zone each member picks, so fewer people miss a session because of a conversion mistake.

Give sponsors a real part

Sponsors pay for attention, and a logo on a slide rarely earns it. Q&A is one of the few formats where a sponsor can be genuinely useful to attendees.

• Offer each sponsor one short AMA or office hours slot on their own product area
• Route product questions that come up in talks to the sponsor's page instead of answering them on stage
• Let sponsors post in their page's discussion thread, not in the main event feed

In Dium, every sponsor, exhibitor, speaker or partner Page has its own wall, sessions, team and discussion thread, so sponsor conversation has a home that does not crowd the main feed.

On the day

A simple run of show for a 45-minute session with live Q&A:

In Dium, a moderator takes the session Wave live in one click. Members join through the meeting link, raise a hand to speak, and answer polls. For bigger sessions, open breakouts with a set number of seats per table. Co-hosts can help run the room. Everything posted in the session chat stays attached to the Wave.

Moderator lines that work

Moderators do better with a few ready lines. Copy these and adjust:

Opening: "We have 20 minutes for questions. I will start with the most liked ones from the thread, then take raised hands."

Merging: "A few of you asked versions of this, so I am combining them."

Redirecting: "That is a great one for the sponsor booth. I will post a link in the chat."

Off-topic: "Let us keep this one for the discussion thread afterwards so we stay on the talk."

Closing: "We did not get to everyone. Every question left in the thread gets a written answer by Friday."

For hostile or off-topic questions, climb the moderation ladder one rung at a time. In a heated thread, slow mode limits how often each person can post. Anyone can report a post, and moderators can hide it or mute the member without stopping the session.

Within 48 hours

• Answer every question left in each session Wave, in writing
• Mark the best answer on each question so readers can skim
• Post the recording and a short summary in the session Wave
• Thank speakers publicly and link their speaker pages
• Share with sponsors how many people visited their page. In Dium, page owners see visit analytics for their own page
• Ask attendees one question: what should we cover next time?

The follow-up owner signs off when every session Wave has either a best answer or a written reply on each question. This is the step most events skip, and it is where most of the long-term value is.

Common failures and fixes

Copy this checklist

TWO WEEKS BEFORE
[ ] Flow (or one per track, grouped in a Room)
[ ] Profile types and invite links for speakers, sponsors, attendees
[ ] Session Waves with time, length, capacity, meeting link
[ ] Ground rules posted
[ ] Follow-up owner named

ONE WEEK BEFORE
[ ] Questions open on every session
[ ] 2-3 seed questions per session
[ ] Top questions sent to speakers 2 days before

ON THE DAY
[ ] Links tested 15 minutes early
[ ] Moderator per session, separate from speaker
[ ] Session taken live, polls ready

WITHIN 48 HOURS
[ ] Every question answered in writing
[ ] Best answers marked
[ ] Recording and summary posted
[ ] Sponsors sent their page visits

Planning a single session? The free AMA and office hours planner builds the agenda, seed questions and promo post for you.