A live poll app for events that puts the results on the big screen

Audience polls die when the results live on a laptop. Here is how to run a live poll where the bars fill on the room's own screen while people vote.

Why most live polls fall flat

The mechanics of audience polling have been solved for a decade, and yet most polls at most events still land badly. Usually for one of three reasons:

• The results are on the wrong screen. They live in a browser tab on a laptop, and getting them in front of the room means someone alt-tabbing out of a slide deck. Half the audience never sees the answer they just gave.
• Voting has friction. A URL to type, a room code to squint at, a page that will not load on venue Wi-Fi. Every step loses a slice of the room.
• It is a one-way instrument. The poll happens, the bar chart appears, and nothing carries over. Nobody feels more part of the room than before.

A live poll works when the question, the voting and the result all happen in the same place the room is already looking - and when answering costs one tap.

How it works in Billbo

The room's screen runs BillboTV; everyone in the room has Billbo on their phone. A poll is sent from the phone straight into the room: the question appears on the big screen and in every guest's chat at the same moment.

Each option is a horizontal meter. As votes land the meters fill and the percentages move - on the screen and on every phone simultaneously. There is no refresh, no reveal, no “let me just switch tabs”. While a poll is running, the screen is pinned to the live page and will not drop into its ambient screen saver, so the question stays up for as long as it is open.

Running a poll, step by step

1. 1

   Open your saloon

   With BillboTV running on the screen, open your saloon in the Billbo app on your phone and go to the Chat tab.

2. 2

   Create the poll

   Tap the + button next to the message box and choose Create A Survey. Type your question and the options.

3. 3

   Send it to the room

   The poll appears at once on the big screen and in every guest's chat. A countdown starts and the screen stays on the live page instead of dropping to the screen saver.

4. 4

   Watch the bars fill

   Each option is a meter that grows as votes land. Percentages update live on the screen and on every phone.

5. 5

   Leave the result up

   When the countdown ends the poll settles into a flat results card that stays readable in the chat, so latecomers still see how the room voted.

Who is allowed to vote

Only people who are actually in the room. Billbo classifies everyone who opens a saloon as either local or remote: you are local if your phone puts you at the venue, or if you scanned the QR code on the screen. Locals vote; remote viewers can watch but cannot.

For an event this is the feature, not a limitation. A poll about the room, answered by the room, is a real result. A poll anyone on the internet can brigade is a number nobody believes.

What happens after the countdown

Each poll runs on a short timer so the room answers while the question still matters. When it closes, the card settles into a flat set of percentages and stays in the chat as a readable result - the meters drop away so a finished poll never looks like a live one. A latecomer scrolling back sees how the room voted.

What to actually ask

Polls are cheap, so use them for small things rather than saving them for a big moment:

• Let the room decide something real. The next track, the special that stays on the board, which of two events runs next month. A poll whose result visibly changes something gets a much higher response rate than an opinion question.
• Break the ice. A silly four-option question early in the evening is the cheapest way to tell a room that the screen is theirs.
• Take the temperature at a conference or meetup. Ask before a talk and again after. Two data points on the same screen the audience is facing.
• Warm the room before a game. A poll costs one tap and has no losers, which makes it the natural opener before anyone will accept a game invite.

What you need

A screen with BillboTV on it and the Billbo app on phones. No laptop, no projector software, no presentation to prepare, and nothing that can crash halfway through a session. If you have not set the pair up yet, the setup guide walks through it end to end - including the option of using a spare phone as the screen if there is no TV box in the venue.