Completev1.8.2 · updated 2026-10-23

Lucky Draw

Prizes, a number for every attendee, and a draw screen that rolls to the winner while somebody holds a microphone.

What it is

A prize draw with four moving parts: the prizes, the rule for who is in it, a unique number for every attendee who qualifies, and two links — one that runs the draw, one that goes on the projector.

When to use it

It is the part of a gala dinner that goes wrong in public. Doing it from a spreadsheet means somebody reads a number off a laptop, twice, while the room waits — and there is no record afterwards of who was called.

Before you start

Lucky Draw to hand. It is an add-on: open it from Apps at the end of the bar of apps on the left, and click Add beside it to keep it on your bar.
Attendees on the event. The numbers are assigned to people, so an empty list is an empty draw.
Somewhere to put the big screen — a projector, a TV, or a second browser window.

Try it — this is a sandbox, nothing here is real

Set up a draw for a gala dinner and run it. Two of the doors are the mistakes that actually happen — one before anyone is in the room, one in front of everybody.

Two prizes on the board. Nobody has a number yet.

Weekend for two in Kyoto
1 of 1 · none drawn On the board

Noise-cancelling headphones
3 of 3 · none drawn On the board

Prizes are what can be won. Who can win them is a separate screen — and the draw needs both.

Nobody is left in the draw

Check the participation rules, or assign numbers to more attendees.

A prize is not an entry. Until numbers are handed out there is nothing to draw from, and the console refuses rather than announcing a blank.

Who is in the draw

Ticket type is any of Delegate, VIP

How often someone can win

1 prize per person · winners do not go back in

Not enough combinations

A 3-digit numeric number has 1,000 combinations, which is not enough room for 1,840 entries.

Numbers are random so nobody can guess a neighbour's. Filling more than about 60% of the possible values makes that guessable — and the last few impossible to find — so the length is refused before anything is written.

1,840

Issued

1,840

Active

4821
Dana Kwan · [email protected] Delegate

Host console

Draws the winners. One person only.

Draw screen

Watches only. Safe on an unattended laptop.

A Draw button is now on the wall

Anyone who reaches that laptop can draw a prize, and the address on screen is the grant itself until it is opened.

On screen now — Weekend for two in Kyoto

1 of 1 left · 1,840 numbers in the hat

4821 — Dana Kwan

Already saved. Reloading the screen, or losing the wifi, cannot change it.

Prize returned to the draw

4821's win is voided and kept on record as called-but-not-collected. Dana can win this prize again if drawn.

That is the whole loop

Prizes, rules, numbers, links, draw. The winner sees it under Lucky Draw in the attendee app, and you can mark it collected on the Winners screen.

Click a control above. One of them is the mistake people actually make — take it on purpose.

Step by step

1
Add the prizesLucky Draw → Settings → Prizes
Name, picture, description and how many of each. Quantity is what lets one prize be drawn ten times: three headphones is one prize with quantity 3, not three prizes.
Tip. Write the name the way you want it read aloud — it appears on the screen exactly as typed.
2
Or bring the whole list in from a spreadsheetLucky Draw → Settings → Prizes → Import CSV
One row per prize: name, description, quantity, image URL, and whether it is on the board. Headers are matched by name, so the column order does not matter, and Download a sample gives you the exact shape. Paste the rows or choose the .csv — either way you see what it read, and how many, before anything is saved.
Tip. Worth it from about a dozen prizes. A mall giveaway with eighty vouchers is a file somebody already has.
3
Decide who is in itLucky Draw → Settings → Rules
Everyone, or a rule over attendee fields — *ticket type is any of Delegate, VIP*. Then how many prizes one person may win in total: once, a set number, or no limit. Nobody can win the same prize twice.
Tip. The rule editor is the same one Session Tracking uses, so a rule you have written before means the same thing here.
4
Hand out the numbersLucky Draw → Numbers
Assign numbers gives one to every matching attendee who has not got one. It is safe to press again after a batch of late registrations — nobody gets renumbered.
Careful. Assign & sync also suspends the numbers of anyone who no longer matches the rules. That can cut off somebody standing in the room holding a printed coupon.
5
Get the two linksLucky Draw → Links & QR
The host console draws winners; the big screen only watches. Open the screen link on the projector, and the console on the phone or tablet of whoever is running the draw — that is the case it is built for, so the emcee can do it from the stage with a microphone in the other hand. A laptop works, but nobody has to be sitting at one. Neither link needs a dashboard login, so the MC or the AV desk can hold one.
Careful. Only an event owner or manager sees this page's links: the host link gives prizes away. A viewer sees a note asking them to get the link from one of them.
6
Run it
On the console — usually a phone in the emcee's hand: choose a prize (the room sees it), then Draw. The number rolls on the screen and lands on the winner. If nobody answers, Not here — redraw puts the prize straight back in the hat.
7
Put the winners on a screenLucky Draw → Links & QR
The winners board is a running list of everyone who has won, and it comes as two links from the same page. The TV one is sized for a screen in a foyer and can scroll itself; the phone one has a search box and is the one to share with attendees so they can look up their own number.
8
Choose the colours, text and background of the screensLucky Draw → Settings → Screens
Two tabs, Draw screen and Winners board, styled separately. Pick one of the six themes — Midnight, Gala gold, Aurora, Sunset, Emerald, Mono — or click Custom to open the colour controls: Background, Background picture, and the two text colours. The winning number colours the number, the winner's name and the confetti; Everything else colours the prize names, headings and the event name. Each shows a sample on your real background, so you can see whether it is readable before it reaches a wall.
Tip. Start from a theme, then change what you like — a theme sets the background, highlight and text together, which is the combination that is hard to get right by hand.
Careful. The colours are not on Links & QR — that page only hands out the links. And there is no font picker: the text colour can change, the typeface cannot.
9
AfterwardsLucky Draw → Winners
Every win, with the winner's contact details, and a mark for collected or not collected. Export downloads them as a spreadsheet (CSV), and the Numbers page exports every number the same way — both need edit access. Attendees see their own wins under Lucky Draw in the app.

When it goes wrong

Every one of these has happened to someone. Symptom first, because that is what you will have.

Imported the file twice and now every prize is doubledwarning

What you see: Two of everything on the board.

Why: An import always ADDS. It never matches a row to an existing prize — two rows called "Tote bag" are genuinely two prizes, and guessing otherwise would silently overwrite one somebody had already drawn against.

Fix: Delete the duplicates from the list. A prize that has not been won deletes cleanly; search for the name to find both copies quickly.

Lucky Draw is not on the bar of appsgotcha

What you see: You have read this far and there is no Lucky Draw icon to click.

Why: Add-on modules are not on the bar until you add them, or until you have opened them often enough that the bar adds them by itself — so an event that never runs a draw is not carrying the icon for one.

Fix: Click Apps at the end of the bar of apps on the left and click Lucky Draw. To keep it on your bar, click Add beside it. It stays until you click Remove, and the choice is yours alone — it does not change the bar for anyone else on the event.

Pressed Draw and nothing happenedblocker

What you see: The console says nobody is left in the draw, with prizes plainly on the board.

Why: Prizes and entries are separate. Adding a prize does not put anybody in the hat — numbers have to be assigned first.

Fix: Lucky Draw → Numbers → Assign numbers. The count at the top tells you how many eligible attendees still have none.

Assignment refused because the numbers are too shortwarning

What you see: A message about not enough combinations, and nothing is issued.

Why: Numbers are random so nobody can guess a neighbour's. Filling much more than 60% of the possible values makes them guessable and the last few very slow to find, so the length is refused rather than half-assigned.

Fix: Add a character, or switch to letters and numbers — four alphanumeric characters is nearly a million combinations against ten thousand for four digits.

The host link ended up on the projectorblocker

What you see: The Draw button is visible to the whole room.

Why: The two links look similar and show the same board. Only one of them can give away a prize.

Fix: Use the Draw screen or Winners board link for anything the room can see or anyone can walk up to. If a host link has been shown, Replace this link on the Links & QR page revokes it.

Someone who registered this morning has no numbergotcha

What you see: An attendee is on the list but the draw does not know them.

Why: Numbers are handed out when you press Assign, not continuously. That is deliberate — the pool a draw runs on cannot change while the host is standing on a stage.

Fix: Press Assign numbers again before the draw. It only fills gaps.

Turning on 'only draw people who have checked in' emptied the poolwarning

What you see: Hundreds of numbers issued, nobody in the hat.

Why: It reads the attendee check-in field, and many events never record it — arrivals are often tracked as session scans instead.

Fix: Turn it back off unless your door genuinely checks people in. It is a filter over data you must actually be collecting.

A winner's full name went up on a wallgotcha

What you see: Somebody objects to their name being displayed.

Why: The screen shows the winner's name by default, which is what most hosts want and not what every attendee expects.

Fix: Lucky Draw → Settings → Screens: turn the name off entirely, or shorten it to a first name and initial. It applies everywhere at once.

Cannot find where to change the text colourgotcha

What you see: The Screens tab shows theme tiles and no colour boxes.

Why: The colour controls stay closed while a theme is selected — a host on a preset has already made that choice.

Fix: Lucky Draw → Settings → Screens, then click Custom at the end of the theme tiles. The winning number and Everything else are the two text colours; the Winners board tab has its own pair.

What people ask

Kept in the words people use, because that is what you are about to type.

Can attendees see the full list of winners?

Only if you share the winners board link with them. It is not public — the link carries a signed grant that can read the board and nothing else, so it is safe to put in an announcement or behind a QR code on the big screen.

How do I change the font colour or text colour on the lucky draw screen?

Lucky Draw → Settings → Screens. Click Custom after the theme tiles, then set The winning number (the number, the winner's name, the confetti) and Everything else (prize names, headings, the event name). The Winners board tab has the same two colours for the board. Only the colour changes — there is no choice of font.

Can I put our own picture behind the screens?

Yes — Lucky Draw → Settings → Screens, Custom, then Background picture. Both the draw screen and the winners board take one, with a slider to dim it so the numbers stay readable over a busy photo. They are set separately because they are usually shown in different rooms.

Is the draw actually random?

Yes — cryptographic randomness, uniform across the pool, and without replacement so one prize cannot go to the same person twice. The winner is picked and saved before the screen starts rolling, so the animation cannot influence the result and a reload cannot change it.

Can one person hold more than one number?

No. One number per attendee, so 'have I won?' has a single answer. Give a group more chances by drawing more prizes rather than more tickets.

Can I run the draw without the attendee app?

Yes. Turn off Show it in the attendee app and the draw runs entirely from the stage — numbers still exist and can be printed on badges or handed out on coupons.

What if the internet drops mid-draw?

Anything already drawn is saved. The screen keeps showing its last frame with a small red dot, and catches up when the connection returns. Draw again only if the console shows no winner.

Can I set the numbers myself?

Yes — click any number on the Numbers screen to change it, which is how you match numbers already printed on physical coupons.

attendees upload attendees session tracking live qa