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Creating and Managing Polls

Canapii
Updated on March 24, 2026

6 min read

What are Polls? #

Polls are a great way to engage attendees and collect feedback during your event. Whether it’s during a live session, across the event as a whole, or within specific sponsor zones, polls help you interact with your audience in real time.

Note:

Note: You can enable or disable the Polls page by navigating to General Settings > Pages > Access > Polls.

To rename the page, go to General Settings > Pages > Web/Mobile App > Polls and click the pencil icon under the Custom Label column.


Table of Contents

When to Use Them and How to Set Them Up

Types of Polls

Important Settings to Update

Polls for VOD sessions



When to Use Them and How to Set Them Up

Event-wide polls:

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These polls appear in the dedicated Polls section of your event website, where attendees can view and respond to them. 

  1. Go to the Content tab and click Polls.
  2. Click Create and work through the setup options available, i.e, type of poll, title, and poll question.
  3. Leave the Sponsor and Session blank, and the question will appear on the dedicated polls page. 
  4. Once you have worked through the other setup options, hit Save.

Session-specific polls:

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These polls are tied to specific sessions, making them useful for gathering real-time feedback, running live questions, and increasing audience engagement during the session. There are two ways to create this type of poll.


Via Session’s Settings Page:

  1. Go to the Content tab and click Sessions.
  2. Select your desired session and scroll to the bottom.
  3. Select the Polls tab. Here you can create, manage, and analyze your polls and any responses you receive from within a session.

Via the Polls Section:

  1. Go to the Content tab and click Polls.
  2. Click Create and work through the setup options available, i.e, type of poll, title, and poll question.
  3. Upon reaching the Session, choose the specific session from the dropdown that the poll should appear in.
  4. Once you have worked through the other setup options, hit Save.
Tip:

If you’d like a session poll to also appear on the dedicated Polls page, click “Update” and find the “Display in Polls Page” option, and set it to “Yes.”

Session hosts and event admins can create polls on the fly directly from the session front end. Above the session’s date and time, you’ll find the Manage Polls button. This lets you ask questions in real time without needing to preload them before the session begins.

Sponsor Zone polls:

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These polls are created and managed by sponsors within their designated sponsor zone. These polls allow sponsors to engage visitors, gather feedback, and capture insights directly from attendees who visit their booth or page.

Via Sponsor’s Settings Page:

  1. Go to the Sponsors tab and select your desired sponsor, and scroll to the bottom.
  2. Select the Polls tab. Here you can create, manage, and analyze your polls and any responses you receive from the attendees.

Via the Polls Section:

  1. Go to the Content tab and click Polls.
  2. Click Create and work through the setup options available, i.e, type of poll, title, and poll question.
  3. Upon reaching the Sponsor, choose the specific sponsor from the dropdown that the poll should appear in.
  4. Once you have worked through the other setup options, hit Save.

Four Types of Polls

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  1. Open text: This poll type is ideal when you want attendees to provide customized and free-form responses.

    Example questions:
    – “Tell us about your experience.”
    – “Share your favorite part of the event.”
    – “What did you learn during Session X?”

  2. Multiple choice: If you want to quantify responses, use a multiple-choice poll. This format provides attendees with a set list of answer options to choose from, making it easy to analyze trends and understand how the majority of attendees felt about specific aspects of your event. An example of a multiple-choice question would be:

  3. Grouped Multiple Choice: This type of question is best used when you want to ask multiple questions that all have the same answer options. 

    For example, you could be curious to know how your attendees rated all of the event sessions.
    – You have a rating system of “Excellent”, “Good”, “Neutral”, or “Poor” (these are your answer options). 
    – Your group title could be: “How would you rate the following Sessions?”
    – Your questions would be the names of each session in question: “Session A”, ” Session B”, and ” Session C”.

    Below is an example of how the above question would appear for your attendees to answer:

  4. Multiple answer: This type of poll is best used if you like the multiple choice format, but your questions require your participants to select multiple options or answers.
  5. Star Rating: This type of poll allows attendees to rate an item using a visual 1 to 5-star scale. It’s a quick and intuitive way to collect feedback on sessions, speakers, or the overall experience.

Important Settings to Update #

  • Status: make sure to select Active so the poll becomes live and visible on the front end.

  • Editable Answer: allows attendees to update their response after submitting it.

  • Required: makes it mandatory for attendees to answer the poll.

  • Target attendees: lets you control who can see the poll. This is ideal if you want to show it to a specific attendee group only.
  • Preview Background Type: allows you to choose a background for the poll, either a solid color or an image.

If you have selected Multiple Choice / Multiple Answer

  • Options: this is where you input the answer choices for your question. Be sure to enter one option per line.
  • Other option: allows attendees to submit an answer not listed. When this is selected, an Other Option Label field will appear so you can add custom text (e.g., “Other, please specify”).
  • Correct Answer: this is optional, but if the poll is quiz-style, you can specify the correct answer here.

If you have selected Group Multiple Choice

  • Group Title: the main heading for your grouped poll.
  • Group Subtitle: an optional subheading to provide additional context.
  • Options: this is where you input the answer choices for your question. Be sure to enter one option per line.

Sponsor-Specific Poll Settings

  • Open In: lets you choose where the poll appears, either inside the session’s interactive panel or as a pop-up.
  • Display Result: gives you the option to show poll results in the web app once attendees have answered.
  • If you want the poll to become visible at a certain point within a session, you can schedule the start & end time accordingly. 

Polls for VOD sessions  #

You are also able to create polls scheduled to appear at the end of VOD sessions regardless of when an attendee watches the VOD sessions. Simply enable “VOD ends pop up” for your VOD sessions.