Uses and Benefits of Audience Response Systems
July 20th, 2009. Published under Presentation. No Comments.
Audience response is used to create interactivity between a presenter and an audience. Systems for co-located audiences combine wireless hardware with presentation software, and systems for remote audiences may use the telephone or web polls for audiences watching through television or the Internet. Is this type of system right for your next meeting or event? Here is a short guide to the benefits and uses of audience response systems.
First of all, the benefits. One of the most important advantages for the presenter is that ARS gives worthwhile feedback. The data collected by ARS helps organizations make strategic decisions by assessing the opinions and attitudes of their target audience while also gauging their understanding.
Other benefits include improved audience attentiveness, increased knowledge retention, anonymous polling, individual response tracking, immediate poll results, an interactive and fun learning environment, immediate confirmation of audience understanding of key points, and data gathering for reporting and analysis.
What situations can ARS be used in? When it comes to the corporate arena, there are many possibilities. Here are just a few:
1. Gathering opinion. In order to succeed, organizations must know what motivates their clients, attracts new customers, and concerns their employees. ARS makes getting that information easy and quick. Participants in meetings or focus groups anonymously respond to multiple choice questions using small wireless keypads. The answers to these questions give you instant access to the opinions and understanding of your audience.
Information can be gathered in the following contexts:
- sales meetings
- training seminars
- customer/employee surveys
- focus groups
- recruiting forums
- government hearings
2. Interactive entertainment. Combining audience response keypads with game shows, movie clips, music and other entertaining methods increases group interaction and involvement. Create a little competition by displaying a scoreboard; group members feel more part of the team and get to learn about each other and the company in the process.
Entertainment ARS can include the following components:
- host
- television game shows
- company trivia
- video games
- karaoke
- impersonations
- improv
- ventriloquism
3. Moment to moment polling. This is the best method to finding out how your audience feels about a presentation at a specific point. Group members respond in real time to live or recorded presentations, allowing a graphical point-in-time view of responses to speeches, demonstrations, advertisements, and so on.
Moment to moment polling is useful in
- product evaluations
- presenter (speaker) evaluations
- focus groups
- market research
4. Interactive white boards. A final interactive experience for your audience combines the usefulness of a white board with the power of a computer. You can write directly on the board with digital ink, use the computer, or opt for touch-sensitive displays. When your image is displayed on the IWB, you have complete control over any application you run.
Interactive white boards are most useful in these contexts:
- corporate retreats
- strategic planning meetings
- brainstorming sessions
- classroom instruction
- convention breakout sessions
- sports footage analysis
Pulse Interactive Media (http://www.pulseim.com) is your best source to rent or purchase audience response systems for your next corporate meeting or convention. Get the audience involved and entertained. Art Gib is a freelance writer.