Run a Live Event with a Moderator and a Phone Remote

A live event rarely has one person doing everything. Someone moves the slides from the side of the stage, someone reads the questions as they come in, and a laptop at the AV desk drives the big screen. PollsLive gives each of those jobs its own link. This guide walks through setting them up for a real event, including the newest change: helpers now ask to join, and you let them in by name.

Three links, three jobs

• Phone remote (every plan): moves the slides, shows or hides results, starts and ends the session, moderates Q&A and removes participants. It cannot run a prize draw.
• Moderator link (Pro and up, or with an Event Pass): lets questions and open answers onto the screen, or keeps them off it.
• Display link (every plan): the projection only, for the big screen, the AV desk or the PollsLive browser extension.

All three live under Remote & links on the presenter bar. Each link card has a copy button and a QR code, and the phone remote and the moderator link also show a 6-digit PIN. Every link stops working when the session ends.

How a helper gets in

Remote and moderator links need the PIN and your approval. Opening the phone remote or the moderator link takes three steps:

1. PIN. Your helper opens the link and types the 6-digit PIN shown next to it in Remote & links. Send the PIN separately from the link, by voice or in another app.
2. Name. They type their name and tap Ask to join.
3. Your answer. A request appears on your presenter screen, for example "Priya wants to use the remote". Choose Approve or Deny. Their page moves on by itself as soon as you answer.

A forwarded link is not enough on its own. Someone who gets hold of a link and its PIN can only send a named request, which you can see and decline.

A display screen works a little differently. It has no PIN: whoever opens the link names the screen, for example "Main hall projector", and it starts showing the session straight away. It still appears in your list, and you can remove it at any time. The PollsLive browser extension keeps using the display link as before.

Knowing who did what

People helping, in Remote & links, lists everyone who opened one of your links and whether they are waiting or approved. Remove cuts one person off at once, and their screen tells them the host removed their access. Replace link gives one role a fresh link, and Regenerate links replaces them all and removes every approved helper.

Every slide move, reveal, moderation decision and helper change is recorded with the name of whoever made it. You see it in the Activity list during the session, and it is printed on an Activity page in your PDF export and in the recap PDF you receive. The public shared report leaves it out, so helper names never sit on a link anyone can open.

Sending a link by email

Each link card in Remote & links has Send by email. Enter up to 5 addresses at a time and an optional note, and each person gets a PollsLive email sent in your name. It says what the link lets them do, lists the steps to join, and carries a button and the link itself, with a reminder not to forward it and when it stops working.

When helper approval is on for the room, the PIN is in the email too, and you still approve each helper by name. Otherwise the email asks them to get the PIN from you. While approval is on, the person you sent it to, signed in with that verified address, gets in at once; anyone it is forwarded to still waits for you. Sending needs a verified account email address.

What your moderator sees

The moderator link opens on a dark stage with the PollsLive logo, the room PIN, a Live indicator and how many answers are waiting. On a phone, each answer arrives as a card: swipe right to show it on the screen, or left to keep it off. On a laptop the same queue comes with the roster. The PIN, name and waiting screens use the same stage, so your moderator always knows where they stand.

What the phone remote shows

• Now showing: slide N of M with a progress bar, the slide title, and which slide comes next.
• Three live numbers: responses on this slide, a clock (time on the slide, or time left on a timed quiz or estimation question), and how many people are in the room.
• Big buttons where your thumb is: one Show or Hide results toggle and large Previous and Next buttons sit at the bottom of the screen. End and Participants sit higher up, out of the way.
• Safer taps: Next is off on the last slide and Previous on the first, so a stray tap cannot reset a slide the room is looking at. Phones that support it give a short vibration on each tap.
• Your language: the remote is translated into every language PollsLive offers.

What the room sees while answers are hidden

If your deck hides results until you reveal them, the big screen no longer looks idle. It shows Answers hidden by presenter, a large count of votes received that rises as answers land, and "Responses are being collected live". When the room size is known, a bar shows how many people have answered. No option, answer or name appears until you reveal it.

A simple setup for your next event

1. Start the session a little early and open Remote & links.
2. Give the display link to the AV desk, or open it on the presentation laptop and name the screen.
3. Send the phone remote and the moderator link to your helpers with Send by email, or copy them and pass on the PIN separately.
4. Approve each helper by name as their request appears, and remove anyone you do not recognise.
5. Afterwards, read the Activity page in your recap PDF to see who did what.