How?s the industry doing in this recession?
Mood:  a-ok

I thought I’d try to answer the question that I get asked most often these days, how’s the industry doing?  Well, I think it is much like most other industries in that the global recession has hurt, but most audience response companies are hanging in there.

 

I have spoken with at least a dozen business mangers in the industry and they report that since early November sales are down by anywhere from 15% to 35% depending upon a given company’s product mix.  So, most have had to cut costs to the bone.  Of these, the highest profile is Turning Technologies cutting about 30% of their workforce. 

 

The thing is, the users of this technology really need it more now than they did before.  And as a service provider, I find it very frustrating that corporate users still aren’t taking the tool more seriously.  These days, most corporations are going through major upheavals.  The world is changing faster than we forecast.  There are dozens of new issues to deal with day in and day out.  So, business managers need data from the front lines faster than ever.

 

The best tool out there for communicating exactly what is happening in the field and for developing plans to deal with what is happening is an audience response system.  Don’t they see it?  Why not? 

 

For an organization to be light, nimble, maneuverable and dead-on effective it needs feedback from those in the trenches.  And to get that feedback, you’ve got to bring the people together and talk about what’s happening.  Yes, it will cost a few bucks to do that.  But, it’s the only way to survive these brutal economic times.

Audience Response System Demand

InfoComm 2008 in Las Vegas (June 18-20) this year was hot, and not just because the temperature hit 107 degrees by 12:30 pm.  From my vantage point, traffic seemed quite strong.  In fact, Infocomm states that attendance was over 38,000 people, an increase of more that 5,000 over last year in LA.

 

I spent my time in ComTec’s booth of course, where we focused on Fleetwood’s audience response system hardware.  In general, interest was extremely high in Reply Mini and Mini Plus.  It was my first look at Mini Plus and I have to say, this product is going to be a winner.  It’s due to launch this summer.

 

In my view, the fact that with the Reply Plus product line you can have a full featured keypad with an LCD, or a “smaller than credit card” sized keypad (no LCD) is huge.  As a rental service provider I can fill any traditional customer need with this combination, providing either a power based or a price based solution.  And in either case, I don’t forfeit quality.

 

Reflecting on the show, it struck me just how educated most potential buyers were.  Most knew exactly what they were after, asking questions like “can this system support a 300 seat auditorium and avoid 2.4 GHZ wi-fi?”

 

It was also nice to see a number of industry friends who I haven’t seen in . . . well, too long.   Padgett Communications hosted a cocktail party for “Friends of ComTec” who attended the show, and what a great time we had.  Thanks Todd.

 

 

ComTec Releases Software for Reply Plus
ComTec has recently announced the release of software for Fleetwood’s latest audience response system, Reply Plus.  Unity Plus which targets decision making and Synthesis Plus which targets learning support are both available in sizes from 100 to 15,500 keypads. Elect Plus which is designed for parliamentary proceedings is due for release in the third week of December.  Elect will also support the maximum 15,500 keypads on initial release. All three software applications allow multi-digit entry so audience members can easily log in with an employee or student number for easy identification to the system.  Standard polling questions can have up to 20 choices each.  Demographic questions can list up to 99 groups, and priority questions can include up to 99 issues.   Both Unity and Synthesis now include a multiple entry type question that allows users to enter a number of up to 9 digits.  Data is then displayed based on a maximum of 20 user defined ranges.  With Synthesis, multiple entry data can also be saved on-the-fly to a text file, for easy import into other applications. I have had the opportunity to test the combination of ComTec software and Reply Plus quite extensively over the past 3 weeks and find this system to be extraordinarily robust, stabile, and easy to use.  For those considering a system purchase, I’d look no farther.

Audience Response Systems at InfoComm 2007

InfoComm was in Anaheim California this year and according to the staff there were a record breaking 30,000 attendees.  While I did get around to most of the exhibits, I focused on the audience response system companies, of course.

 

There are two main conclusions that I am able to draw from the time spent talking with vendors.  First, the audience response industry continues to grow rapidly.  Second, not all vendors are benefiting from the growth.  It seems to me that quality is more important than ever.  Those who are out there doing quality work day-in and day-out are being rewarded.  And those who are not, receive very little repeat business.

 

I counted roughly 18 companies who are now selling systems.  That’s a major change from years ago when there were typically only 4 or 5.  Even so, every one of them seemed to be busy with strong traffic and truly interested visitors.

 

While I did see a few new products, I was most interested in Fleetwood’s ‘key fob’ keypad.  It’s a very small device, about the size of your car’s keyless entry remote and like that remote, hangs nicely on a key ring.  It has just five buttons, but Fleetwood’s Pat Moody states that they may develop a version with either 7 or 10.  I’m not sure yet exactly how it will be used, but I do know that it will be a very ‘hot’ product upon release.

 As many of you know, I am also involved with ComTec Audience Response Systems. So, I spent some time staffing their booth.  It was a huge effort for ComTec’s staff to make this first-ever appearance at InfoComm, especially since they were moving offices at the same time.  Nice work guys. . . next year will be a cakewalk. :-)

New Reply Audience Response System

Rumor has it that Fleetwood will be introducing a new audience response system at Infocomm this year.  It is supposed to be much like Reply Worldwide, but with a slightly smaller footprint, thinner, and with an LCD.

 

Interestingly, it is a multi-digit system.   I assume that the multi-digit capability will be something less than that found with Reply IQ, as it appears to position between the Worldwide and IQ platforms.

 

I expect to have more info in the next couple of weeks.

 

What Happened To ResponseCard?

A number of customers and partners have been asking why we no longer sell ResponseCard and “is there a problem that we should know about?”

 

Well, there are no problems that we are aware of.  The sole reason for no longer selling ResponseCard is the new contract that Turning Technologies is requiring dealers to sign. 

 

There are three major issues that Rich I and simply could not agree to.  First, we would have to agree to not sell any competitive product.  Second, we would have to agree to sell at list price, regardless of quantity.  And third, our discount was reduced.

 

While we could live with the lower discount, we felt that eliminating competition and selling at list price only is not in the customer’s best interest.  Of equal importance, we felt that these two requirements might even be a violation of U.S. anti-trust law.  Although I am not a lawyer, I do know that any attempt by two or more companies to fix pricing or eliminate competition is a potential violation, and we simply could not be a party to it.

 

One of our partners here in NJ who we have known for about twenty years has decided to sell the product.  So, if you have purchased equipment from us and need support, please do contact either Rich or me.  We’ll put you in direct contact with our partner where you will be well cared for.

Where are we going?

Every once in a while, it’s good to stop and think about where you are going, and for what purpose.  In the audience response industry, not very many vendors do this.  Perhaps the five largest companies do it routinely, but if so, they don’t have enough influence on the others to really affect any sort of industry wide change. 

I am in the unique position of having relationships with close to thirty different audience response companies around the world and I tend to communicate with these folks regularly.  While I can’t say that I know everything that they are planning, I do know enough to get a sense of where they are going. 

Based on that, I’ll take a shot at predicting the future, at least the short term future.  First, I would say that the market overall is growing quickly and broadly.  It seems to me that interactive meetings and interactive classrooms are becoming mainstream technologies, and may have already reached that point.  The companies that receive the biggest benefit of this are the manufacturers, including Fleetwood, Turning Technologies, IML, and others.  

In general, businesses continue to engage their audience with this technology and although interactive systems have been in broad use for a decade, there is no sign of market fatigue.  The same seems to hold true with higher education.  These folks are spending lots of money on classroom response systems and there’s no sign of declining demand. 

The most intriguing segment though is public schools, commonly referred to as k-12.   While most would agree that kindergartners don’t need wireless keypads as learning tools, it is equally apparent that high-school students do.   

Because the size and cost of handhelds are moving lower rapidly, and because higher education has already worked out the issues of ownership and logistics, high-school classrooms are in my view the next big market opportunity for student response system vendors.     

 

Strong Turnout At ASTD
Attendance at the ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) annual convention is nothing short of ‘very strong’ which could signal that corporate America is once again investing in training. From what I saw, the seminars were fully attended and traffic in the Expo Hall was bustling with trainers in search of solutions.

As you would expect, the major industry players were all there. But since I’m most interested in classroom response systems (aka student response systems) I found the mix of these vendors to be rather interesting.

It’s not too long ago that Fleetwood was pretty much the only audience response vendor at the annual ASTD show. This year though other vendors included: eInstruction, Option Technologies, Turning Technologies, and Qwizdom (listed alphabetically).

I was fortunate enough to be in a position to eavesdrop on more than just a few conversations between trainers and response system salespeople. The common theme seemed to be that most trainers had very specific questions about how each vendor’s system fit with the way that the trainer needs to work.

Many had advanced questions regarding reporting methodologies, data import facilities, export capabilities, and tools for freeing the instructor from the keyboard. Most important, the days of explaining what a student response system is seem to be gone. . . finally.

Another observation is that hands down, trainers want PowerPoint plug-ins for driving these hardware systems and have little interest in standalone software applications. The exception is with advanced, or power users. These instructors are not at all shy about tackling technology. But by and large, the average trainer has had more than his/her share of new technology to digest over recent years.

I did see one new plug-in called PowerCom, which is designed for use with Fleetwood’s Reply Worldwide system. It is a stable, easy to use (wizard driven) system with a feature set that is typical for plug-in polling modules. I understand that an ‘education market’ feature pack is in the works and expect that PowerCom will become a top player in the plug-in market.

Reply Worldwide Price Reduction
Well changes in this industry just keep on coming. In a major move and the first that I've seen this year, Fleetwood has reduced the purchase price of Reply Worldwide from $139.95 per keypad to just $79.95.

This should be a good thing for those companies who have been considering buying gear for Interactive Meetings, but who have had a difficult time justifying the cost. Now's the time to get off the fence and buy a system.

I could understand the indecision seven months ago. RF keypads were big, clunky, and expensive. But Reply Worldwide is small (although not so small as to be easily lost) contemporary looking, and now very affordable.

If you're thinking about buying, we suggest that you read buying tips: Audience Response Systems - About the Technology.

And one more thing, Fleetwood's advanced system Reply IQ has been reduced from $239.95 each to $179.95. IQ is a great system for those who need multi-digit entry.

A Look Back At The Audience Response Industry: 2005
I’ve seen more changes this year than perhaps in the previous five years combined. While the first half of the year was quiet, the second half was far from it. It started with Infocomm. Fleetwood introduced Reply WW (Worldwide) a much smaller, lighter, more powerful and more cost competitive product. Turning Technologies ventured into the radio frequency market with ResponseCard RF which has been broadly accepted by higher education. Soon thereafter, Ubiqus purchased Reactive Systems Inc (RSI) audience response business, the owners of Audience Response Rentals LLC purchased a majority stake in Communications Technology (ComTec) and National Auto Credit who already owns Audience Response Systems Inc (ARS) purchased Option Technologies Interactive LLC (OTI). As the year winds down, we are hearing from more than one source that Fleetwood is gearing up for a major marketing push early in 2006 to deepen their hold on the US market and to expand significantly in Asia. So where will this take us? My guess is that the interactive meeting market will continue to grow quickly, driven by easier to use products at lower prices. This year could prove to be the one that takes audience response voting to the mainstream where we might see as many as 1 in 8 meetings using the technology to one extent or another.

TurningPoint 2006 ? Product Review
TurningPoint 2006, the PowerPoint plug-in from Turning Technologies started shipping about three weeks and we were fortunate enough to receive one of the first-to-ship release versions. And since it is summertime, I’ve had lots of time to play.

First, I really like the fact that there is now a full-blown hardware wizard to ease the task of setting up your system for the first time. Since TurningPoint is compatible with a number of polling devices, the wizard makes identifying your particular hardware easy. And, the wizard recognized and correctly installed required files for every device we tried.

Overall, this ‘from-the-ground-up’ rebuild is quicker, more robust and easier to use than ever before. Adding interactive questions to PowerPoint is a snap. Default graphs are visually appealing and change automatically when you select a new theme. There’s a new selection of great looking count-down clocks, more response counters, and even new ‘Answer Now’ reminders.

For those who are all about data mining and reporting, there’s lots for you to be excited about as well. The Excel reports we generated (with just a couple of mouse clicks) were perfectly formatted and great looking. And, we were able to serve up data in just about any way we imagined.

The development team at Turning Technologies should be very proud of the product they’ve built. It looks good, feels good, and runs like a champ.

Advertisement: You can purchase TurningPoint 2006 from our Buy Stuff page.

The Battle For Mindshare
Production of ResponseCard RF and Reply WW seems to be in full swing, pitting two of the largest USA players against one another in a battle for market share, and more importantly, for mindshare. There's no question that Fleetwood is the most popular hardware brand in the USA. And there's no doubt that Turning Technologies is the most popular software vendor with TurningPoint, a PowerPoint plug-in.

But now, through an exclusive distribution agreement with Responsive Innovations, Turning Technologies is a serious player in the hardware market. They have a broad customer base, and seem to be strongest in higher Education where they have primarily sold small IR systems.

Within Higher Ed, Fleetwood has had the traditional advantage in auditoriums. IR simply doesn't work well in large densely populated rooms. But Turning Technologies' ResponseCard RF is of course radio technology and therefore, like Fleetwood products, can service even large lecture halls.

I think that what we are seeing is the formation of more than a simple battle for hardware sales. It looks like a battle for mindshare is shaping up. These two very qualified companies will do whatever they each need to in order to grow their businesses. The beneficiary will probably be the end user who now has more choices than ever, including a CLIKAPAD which is distributed in the USA by ppvote LTD a UK audience response company.

New Products Announced
Lots of new products have been introduced at Infocomm 2005 in Las Vegas this week. Two of the most notable in the interactive meetings industry are the ResponseCard RF from Turning Technologies and Reply WW from Fleetwood Electronics.

These 2.4 GHZ audience response systems are crashing through existing price levels with ResponseCard selling for $89 a keypad and Reply WW selling for $139 each. Compare this to a price of $189 each for standard Reply just about a month ago, and $269 for standard Reply just prior to September 11, 2001.

These systems will make audience voting (polling) far more affordable for many more organizations. It is unclear as to how these price reductions will effect the rental market, but it’s probably safe to bet that equipment rental costs will slide as well.

You can already buy these response systems online, and you can get a bit more detail from industry insiders at Audience Response news.

Maximizing The Value Of An Audience Response System
Many times an audience response system is used only to add some fun to a meeting. At other times it may be used to simply wake people and push a button. But, it can be rather difficult to cost justify perhaps $20 per person for such basic functionality.

In order to maximize your value, it is wise to ask one or more questions that have the power to effect company revenue, cost, or profit. Generally, these questions will go to the heart of your strategic plan. And so, you should probably familiarize yourself with your company’s specific strategies.

Here’s an example of an effective question: “From your daily view of the organization, how well are we doing in getting cost out?” The choices are best defined as a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is ‘not doing well at all’ and 5 is ‘doing extremely well’.

Unless your organization is exceptional, the audience is going to tell you that there is substantial room for improvement. So, the obvious question is ‘what can we start doing that we’re not already doing?’ Have some handheld microphones available, and you are very likely to get some great ideas. If the discussion is not as forthcoming as you’d like, cut the total groups’ response by business unit, or department. This will show which units feel there is the most opportunity. Discussion is then sure to become lively.

Once your meeting has concluded, submit the ideas and comments to your planning group, and follow through on where they go. Chances are that they will impact your strategy, even if only in a small way. If so, try quantify the impact in terms of real dollars. Then compare the dollar impact to your original cost for the audience response system rental. Chances are you will find a 10 to 50 times return on investment.

Drilling Deeper Into Issues
Very few presenters really engage the audience, even though they may be using an Audience Response System (ARS). Most often, the system is used for asking the group?s opinion on a few basic questions and typically, very little dialog surrounds the results graph.


In fact, discussing results and the reasons why people voted as they did, is one of the most powerful aspects of using a polling system. Doing so will help build a true understanding of the issue, and will lead to better information with which to make decisions.


Let?s take an example, one of my favorites.


Our corporate values are clear, concise, and representative of how we should conduct business.
1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neutral
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree


Most often, the results look something like this:





What we see is a mean average of 3.3 which is of course just above neutral. More important, we see a sharp split between those who agree and those who disagree. This is an excellent place to launch discussion. The moderator might comment something like: ?very interesting. . . we are obviously split on this issue. Let?s see what this issue looks like when we cut it by gender?.


Assuming we have asked the question, ?what is your gender? 1. Male 2. Female? the audience response system operator can now cut our ?values? question by our ?gender? question. In this example, the results are:





What we see is that males are in agreement with the statement, whereas females are not. This is the power of demographic questions in that they give you the ability to drill deep into issues. An experienced presenter will now ask for discussion: ?can anyone tell me why we are seeing this??


When meeting participants see that they are not alone in their opinion, they are far more likely to speak up. So most often, discussion is lively. In our above example, you would probably receive 3 or 4 reasons as to why the group voted as they did. But the most common reason is that the organization?s values are communicated to only senior level people and since very few females are in the senior level, women by-and-large are not even aware of the company?s values.


As you can see, within just a few minutes of voting, we have determined that there are two major issues in play. First, communicating organizational values is seriously lacking. Second and probably more important is the acceptance of women in senior roles.


I think it is fair to say that the audience response system has done its job. More so, the demographic question has helped reveal some major issues. This one happened to be gender related. But, others could be related to functional area within the company, time with the company, or even geographic location.


So, it is wise to include 2 or 3 demographic questions that are the most appropriate to your meeting topics. But don?t over do it. Asking too many demographic questions can undermine anonymity. For example, I might be the only male, from the southwest region who has been with the company for less than one year. If so, I might feel that by asking all of those demographics, someone would be able to zero in on me and determine how I answered every question.


So use demographic questions, but only those that will have value and use fewer for smaller audiences.

The Hardware Quality Imperative
As things heat up for the spring meeting season, I thought it would be worth taking a few minutes to look at the current state of hardware. The reason for this is simple. If your audience voting hardware underperforms, your interactive meeting takes a black eye. And rest assured, there will be no shortage of embarrassment to go around.

Since I'm most familiar with the USA market, I'll focus on the Fleetwood Reply platform, which is considered the industry workhorse. Standard Reply first surfaced in the mid-80's as the wireless alternative to an otherwise wired world. Although eight different channels were available, changing a channel in the field was not possible, and changing a keypad number required fiddling with dip-switches.

The last twenty years have brought a product that now allows the channel and keypad numbers to be entered on the keypad itself. More important though, the last three years have brought us a far more reliable system than ever before.

I'm the first to admit that the Reply system has always been a solid performer. But since we are dealing with radio based technology, getting a system to perform its best in an unknown environment (meeting room) has always been a mix of both science and art. We saw a major improvement in system performance a few years ago when Fleetwood released a channel selectable version that also increased transmit power. Bingo, it was just what the audience response industry needed.

But as with any new design, there were a few issues to be resolved. None were severe. In fact I'd classify them as nuisances more than anything else. In the early going I tended to see keypads that needed more frequent tuning than before. And for a period, I saw a higher than average out-of-box failure rate. But those days are gone.

Over the past two months, we (Audience Response Rentals) have purchased a few hundred keypads, more than enough to draw conclusions. Of these, we didn't have a single failure, nor did we have a single keypad that was out of tune. I know that Fleetwood has invested heavily in quality improvements - manufacturing processes and test equipment. I think those investments are paying off. I'm truly impressed with Reply's flawless performance, and respect this platform's contribution to the industry.

We don't have first hand information on Fleetwood's newest product, Reply IQ. But, we will before long.

Take It Seriously
I've seen all too many end users take a cavalier attitude toward interaction, even though they are the ones responsible for integrating the technology into their group's meeting. I don't know if people are just stretched too thin these days, or they simply don't care. But either way, it will show in the end.

Pushing buttons on keypads for the sake of pushing buttons is of value to no one. So, using your audience response system for dealing with real issues is a must. If you can't come up with good business reasons, don't bother renting (or buying) a system. And if you do have good reasons, then you'd be wise to take the system seriously.

Taking it seriously starts with choosing a vendor. In my view, only about 1 in 5 USA vendors really care about you and about doing the job right. The others are only in it for the money. If you're happy, fine. If not, oh well. There will be plenty of others. Some of the very large companies are headed by people who do in fact care about doing it right. But all too often, their days are so busy that they don't seem to have the time to get that message to the rank and file people who actually wind up delivering the service to you.

So, how do figure out which companies will help you navigate the often rough waters of using interactive technologies? In my opinion, there's rally only one way. Talk with the President, or in a large company, at least a Vice President. Most USA rental vendors are companies of 2 or 3 people. The largest companies have anywhere from 9 to 25. So, none of these are so large that you should not expect to have access to senior management.

Your first call is to request a time to speak. It's not fair to expect anyone to drop what they might be doing unless your situation is urgent. Go into your call with your thoughts and questions well organized. Take notes as to whether your questions were truly answered, or did you receive some unclear, dismissive response. Use the time wisely, but don't be ashamed to ask for a follow up call.

Ultimately, you want to evaluate "is this vendor looking out for me, or am I only another sale?" If the answer is positive and if you choose to do business, ask the President who you can expect to work with for the project. And, ask him to brief that person on the particulars of your situation. In that way, the person who you wind up working with knows that the President has taken an active role in your meeting.

SMS Text Messaging
The USA is well behind the technology curve when it comes to using cell phones for text messaging. Well, that's not completely true. Kids use about as much as they use instant messaging, and that's a lot.

However, the last time we checked there aren't too many kids in the mainstream business world. And so, US businesses are missing out on an extremely powerful communication medium, worldwide cellular text messaging.

The basic idea is that your business can send a message, or a question to hundreds (even thousands) of cell phones instantly. Of course, you must first have a list of cell phone numbers. Typically these numbers would belong to employees, or customers, or even meeting quests.

Let's say you have a few hundred employees, and you've been on a customer service campaign that encourages all employees to regardless of their job title, to interactive with customers. Now, what if you could send a text message "how many customers have you talked with today?" and within minutes be viewing a graph of how everyone answered.

Maybe you are holding a meeting and offering a welcome dinner the evening of arrival. You've asked guests to respond as to whether they'll make it for dinner, but of course, few did. Now, the morning of travel, the hotel is asking for a dinner count. How convenient would it be if you could send a simple "will you be joining us for dinner' question to everyone's phone? And, how efficient would it be if you received your head count within the hour?

It's all possible with worldwide cellular text messaging.

Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse
Did I mention rehearse? Technology plays a major role in your meeting. Don't take it lightly. If things are to go smoothly, your technical crew must know exactly what you are doing, and when. The only way this will happen is if you conduct a technical rehearsal.

I'll assume that for your meeting you will have a few hundred guests, a half-dozen presenters each with a PowerPoint presentation, an emcee, a large viewing screen, a projector, stage, podium, lighting, and sound system. Hopefully you'll be making your meeting interactive with an audience response system.

The presenters should arrive on site by mid-morning the day before. Have a separate room available for presenters to rehearse their content. That process should begin by late morning, scheduling one presenter at a time. Check content, spelling, grammar, and timing. Trim as much as possible from the presentation making certain that it can be done with at least 5 minutes to spare in the allocated time.

Right after lunch, your technical crew should begin their setup. The hotel banquette staff should also start about then. By about 5:00 pm your presenters will have finished, the tech crew will be ready, and tables and chair will be set. Schedule a one hour dinner break. At 6:00 pm provide the tech crew with the final agenda, script if you have one, and a printed version of each presentation. Then, begin a technical rehearsal.

This is the time to figure out who is getting wireless microphones versus who will speak from the podium. You should also have 3 or 4 wireless handheld mics that will be used for audience Q&A. Plan on 2 or 3 runners who can bring those mics to guests.

Each presenter should literally run through his slides. The tech crew just needs to confirm presentation order, PowerPoint file names, and transitional lighting. I strongly suggest that a technician run the PowerPoint presentation from `control deck' at the back or side of the room. The presenter should have a wireless remote (pickle) that tells the tech when to advance or reverse. But, please don't make your presenter run his own PowerPoint from the podium. He or she should be left to speak, not run technology.

You should be able to run through your 8 hour meeting in about two hours, tops three. If after this there are still some issues to be resolved, take a short break and dismiss the tech crew for the night. These people will have had a full day, and need to get their sleep if they are to be up to a top performance the next day.

At this point, resolve any issues that might still be open, but avoid major changes. Also, avoid many small changes. A few small changes are fine. Make sure the technical producer is aware of them so he can get word to the crew when they arrive in the morning.

If you follow this plan, the technical aspect of your meeting is certain to run smoothly.

Audience Response Systems
If you've seen the TV shows "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" or "America's Funniest Home Videos" you have seen audience response systems. The main component is some number of "keypads". Typically, each person receives one.

But audience response systems aren't just for TV. They've been used in business meetings since the mid-1970's. Today they are wireless and have become a staple for interative meetings. Here's how. . .

At various times during your presentation, you display an interactive question to the audience. They vote, and a computer generates a graph immediately. Today, the keypads are typically wireless. Also, there's a "base station" that gathers the votes and sends them to a computer that is running software. This 'specialized' software calculates the results, and displays a graph.

One of the most common reasons for using an interactive system is to keep the audience alert. Hey. . . make them wake up and press a button every once in a while! Beyond that though, it is incredibly interesting to see the audience's opinion on-screen. And no one loves to see it more than the audience themselves.

Depending upon your presentation topic, you could quite easily ask a few questions to determine the group's level of knowledge on each subject that you plan to present. Then, if it seems that they are more knowledgeable in an area than you thought, spend less time there. If they're less knowledgeable, spend more time.

If you need to know your audience's opinion, there's no better tool. And certain types of presentations like: market research, clinical rater testing, strategic planning, product knowledge testing, and employee or customer surveys lend themselves especially well to this technology.

Most important, if you have business issues to discuss with the group, this technology allows you to view the graph and verbalize a follow up question like: "can anyone tell me why 37% of us feel we are performing poorly on this issue?" Then, get some wireless microphones out there. Discussion will abound, guaranteed.

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