Collect attendee emails at a workshop

The workshop runs three hours. Attendees have a workbook in front of them, a pen they'll lose by the break, and a phone face-down on the table. The host has a sign-in sheet, but it belongs to the host. If you want to collect attendee emails at a workshop and keep them as your own contacts, the ask has to give people something they need for the session itself. This page covers when to ask, what to offer, and how to collect feedback and an email in the same text conversation.

Where does the usual approach break down?

Trainers tend to rely on one of three things. The host's sign-in sheet is the most common, and it's someone else's list: the people on it registered for an event, not for your newsletter. A feedback form handed out at the end gets filled in by people packing up, and the email field is usually left blank. "Connect with me on LinkedIn" turns into a few connections and few conversations.

Workshops have one advantage over keynotes: you have the room for hours, and the materials are part of the session. That gives you a natural reason to ask.

When in the workshop should you ask?

The same advice that works for a keynote speaker works here, in a shorter form. At the start, tell people they'll get the slides and the exercise templates sent to their phone, so they don't need to photograph every slide. They can work on the exercises instead of copying them down.

Then give a concrete instruction instead of "email me if you want the slides":

"Take out your phone. Scan this QR code, or text WORKBOOK to 33777, and I'll send you the workbook and today's templates."

Workshops add a second moment that keynotes don't have: the last ten minutes. A feedback flow at the close asks for a rating and a comment while people still remember the session, and catches the attendees who skipped the first ask.

How do you set it up?

1. Two flows, two triggers. Use "Give away a download" at the start for the workbook, and "Collect session feedback" at the end. Each flow has one trigger, but a QR code and a keyword can each start a copy of the same flow. Give the workbook flow a keyword like WORKBOOK (one keyword is included on your plan) and a free QR code for your opening slide, and give the feedback flow its own QR code on your last slide. Each one reports separately.
2. Upload the materials once. The workbook PDF, slide deck, or templates go into Handouts, up to 1 GB per file (100 MB for new accounts). Use them in any flow.
3. Keep the first flow short. Email, then first name. Across Textiful flows over 90 days in 2026, one-question flows were completed 89.5% of the time and two-question flows 83.1%.
4. Add a custom question if it helps you. A custom data step with a label like "Role" or "Team" tells you who was in the room. For corporate trainings, it can be the department.
5. Set the actions. "Text a handout" for the workbook now, "Email a handout" so they have it at their desk tomorrow, and "Add to Mailchimp" or "Add to Kit." Tag the contact with the client and date. Your email tool's welcome sequence takes it from there.

The feedback flow's answers live on each contact's page, with the conversation timeline, and export as CSV if you send results to the host.

What about multi-day trainings?

Give each day its own feedback flow and QR code. You'll see day one and day two ratings separately, and you'll know if the afternoon of day two is where the room lost interest. The workbook flow only needs to run once, on the first morning. If an attendee joins on day two, the same keyword still works for them, and their start counts as one conversation like everyone else's. A conversation counts once however many questions it has, so a rating, a comment, and an email cost the same as a single question.

What should you offer workshop attendees?

The materials are the obvious offer, and the best one. A few others that work for training sessions:

• The completed version of an exercise you did on the whiteboard
• A one-page checklist for putting the session into practice on Monday
• Templates or worksheets you didn't hand out on paper
• A recording of the session, if you record

Attendees also respond to a live poll during the session, like "Which of these is your team's biggest problem?" It gives you material to discuss, and the vote can come with an email in the same conversation.

Before and after

	Sign-in sheet and paper feedback	With Textiful
Whose list it is	The host's	Yours, in your email tool
Getting materials to attendees	Printed workbook or a follow-up email	Sent by text and email when they ask, during the session
Feedback	Paper forms at the end, typed up later	A 1 to 5 rating and a comment by text, saved per contact
Knowing who was there	Names on a sheet	Contacts tagged by client and date, with roles if you ask
Repeat workshops	A new sign-in sheet each time	The same flows, a new tag per cohort

Who this is for, and who should skip it

This fits independent trainers, facilitators, coaches running group sessions, and consultants who deliver workshops at client sites in the US. It's especially useful when you run the same workshop many times and want every cohort in one list.

In-house trainers whose attendees are colleagues may not need a list at all; for them, the feedback flow is the useful part, and the email step can go. If your client forbids collecting attendee contact details, respect that and use the feedback flow without an email step. See pricing for plans, which start at $19/month and include every feature.

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