Tales from The Reg Desk

The ARS is Dead, Long Live the AMS

Now that our smartphone survey platform has been busily buzzing the mobile devices of conference goers throughout the US (and Japan!), we come to the obvious next step in this convenient and economical technology- the ARS. In fact, it could be that more people are asking us about our mobile survey app as ARS (Audience Response Systems) than about general conference evaluations. 

In order to utilize our smartphone survey app as an ARS, we had to solve a couple of challenges:

1-What about attendees who do not have web-enabled smartphones? Their opinions must be heard!

Answer- we bring along (or send) web-enabled "Go Phones" (pay-as-you-go mobile phones) to use as loaners for sessions. These are MUCH less expensive than traditional ARS equipment.

2- Our eval system is set to push one URL to phones or email for a group of questions at the end of a session, and report on the session's total question set. What is the best way to send and report on questions individually within the session?

Answer- our dev team added a secondary grouping layer to our session survey builder to allow for a survey link per question, with a corresponding link for show producer to embed in slides for the question's instant response report.

Below are some pix of the mobile survey in action. Fun stuff!

 

 

And instant reporting sample screenshot

Please turn phones ON while in session

There is currently a lot of debate out there about audience Twittering in session rooms. (Senators and Representatives made big news of this during Obama's recent address). However, we see Tweets as a fantastic method to engage with an audience during a session, if managed properly by the speaker. See the Langwitch blog post about conference Twitters to see how speakers and participants are using this technology to provide input and categorize information from sessions. We're even seeing some speakers project the Twitter commentary from a session adjacent to the projected slide presentation.

Are participants who are eager to contribute and comment during a session via Twitter absorbing the information in a way that solo notetaking lacks? Is a presentation that is displaying running audience commentary enhancing or detracting from its content? We feel that busy hands can free the mind, and that greater collaboration and interaction is better between the speaker and the participants. We look forward to incorporating mobile technology into all session rooms- from Twitter to Smartphone Session Surveys (by AMS, of course)!

Tag-Triggers: paperless possibilities for conferences and tradeshows

Why are we so excited about Microsoft Tags?  Admittedly, we've been known to get our gadget geek on.  (We're still listed as member of a Yahoo Cassiopeia Pocket PC user's group that has been utterly silent since 2001). The possilities of Tag, though, get our brains churning like a PowerBuoy.  This technology combines the free-to-downloadTag Reader, (which turns your smartphone's camera into a bar code reader), with the Tag generator- an online portal to create Tags (as below). Once you've downloaded the reader on your phone, look around for a Tag. Hey! I see one!
	You may snap the tag above to view the AMS Vcard.  Tags also can launch websites and your phone's dialer. What are the uses for conferences and tradeshows? We have already demonstrated the power and possibility of smartphone surveys in sessions, and we've taken this one step further with the Tag-Trigger of the session survey. We see this technology as a future alternative to Audience Response Systems as well. Why pay for AMS equipment when each participant has a mobile device in hand already?
Tradeshows will benefit from this paperless solution as well. Tags may be posted in booths- launching e-brochures, mobile demos, and exhibitor V-Cards.  Participants are able to store, sync and share the information downloaded via Tag at a tradeshow without one business card or brochure printed. A coming post will detail the successful demo of the Tag-Triggered Smartphone Session Surveys at the GMIC "Greening the Hospitality Industry" Conference in Pittsburgh.