Attendee chat

What is Attendee Chat?

Attendee Chat is an engagement tool within the ON24 Platform that enables real-time communication between attendees and presenters during webinars. Integrated directly into the Audience Console, it allows participants to exchange ideas, ask questions, and share opinions. By fostering interaction and collaboration, Attendee Chat enhances audience engagement and helps webinars feel more conversational and dynamic. This feature turns passive viewers into active participants, encouraging learning, networking, and community-building throughout the virtual experience.

Why it matters

• Drives real-time participation: Encourages audiences to engage actively rather than simply observe.
• Creates community: Fosters relationships between attendees and presenters through shared dialogue.
• Generates valuable feedback: Provides immediate audience reactions and insights that inform content and engagement strategies.

How it’s used

• Use Attendee Chat during webinars to promote discussion, gather questions, and encourage peer-to-peer interaction.
• Monitor chat activity to identify engaged participants, common themes, and trending topics.
• Collect post-event chat transcripts to uncover audience interests and improve future session content.
• Combine chat insights with ON24 engagement analytics to strengthen audience segmentation and follow-up messaging.
• Encourage presenters to respond in real time to questions or comments to maintain conversational flow and energy.

Key benefits

• Boosts audience interaction: Converts attendees from passive viewers into active contributors.
• Enables deeper insight: Provides qualitative feedback alongside quantitative webinar metrics.
• Enhances event energy: Creates a sense of connection and immediacy during digital experiences.
• Improves content development: Helps marketers refine future webinars and follow-up materials based on live discussion trends.
• Supports lead qualification: Identifies high-intent or engaged attendees based on participation levels.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Attendee Chat in ON24?
   • Attendee Chat is a real-time engagement feature that allows attendees and presenters to communicate and share ideas directly within the webinar console.
2. How does Attendee Chat improve engagement?
   • It creates interactive opportunities for participants to contribute questions, opinions, and insights, increasing overall event participation.
3. Can presenters use Attendee Chat to respond during webinars?
   • Yes. Presenters can answer questions, highlight key comments, and guide discussions to keep the audience engaged.
4. What happens to chat data after the webinar?
   • Chat transcripts can be exported after the event and used to analyze audience sentiment, identify hot topics, and inform follow-up campaigns.
5. Why should marketers use Attendee Chat?
   • It helps marketers create a two-way dialogue, collect valuable engagement data, and improve attendee satisfaction and retention.

Editorial & Methodology Notice

This glossary entry was created by the ON24 Editorial Team using verified 2025 ON24 benchmark data, platform analytics documentation, and first-party reporting standards aligned with EEAT principles. Updated: October 2025.