Like all of us, event organisers always look for value for money. A Network Rail event organiser recently discovered three ways of using audience response system (A.R.S.) voting pads at her conference. In doing so she well and truly hit the ‘value for money’ jackpot.
Network Rail frequently use Crowd Insight’s technology to engage their audiences. Helen, their event organiser called us to discuss providing a system for a quiz at an upcoming conference. While discussing the event, we told her about the keypad’s texting function.
It allows delegates to send comments and questions to presenters. Suddenly new possibilities opened up for this meeting. Now Helen was on board with all the system features, a quick brainstorming session followed. We found three parts of the event that would benefit from our system
The Three Ways the Voting Pads Were Used at the Conference
Here’s how the keypads were used at this conference:
1) Best Practice Health & Safety quiz
Safety is a feature at all Network Rail meetings and conferences. To start the meeting we devised a ‘Best Practice & Safety’ quiz. This allowed 240 Network Rail executives to answer 12 multiple choice questions using their keypad. Our system recorded who answered the most questions correctly and winners were rewarded accordingly. Not only was the quiz fun for the delegates, it also addressed many crucial issues regarding safety when working around railways.
This interactive quiz was at the start of the conference. A bit of friendly competition early on was just the ticket for the event ice breaker.
2) Register Volunteers
One of the conference presenters at the meeting described four new safety initiatives for workers. The presenter looked for volunteers to help her drive the initiatives, advise and train colleagues. For volunteers to register their interest, she invited them to use their keypad to text their name and their choice of initiative to work on. Within minutes, we had the names of 45 volunteers and their chosen initiative.
All this data was automatically saved on our system. We then saved it as an Excel document and emailed it to the relevant people. The texting function proved to be the perfect platform for finding volunteers. Collecting this list of names took just 60 seconds. I wonder how long it would have taken some poor soul to have entered that information manually? This speedy solution was a fantastic alternative to a ‘hands up’ system and kept the event timetable running on track.
3) Q&A
Two hours before Q&A was scheduled, delegates were invited to text questions to their bosses using their keypads. By the time the Q&A session started, an impressive 70 questions had already been received. These questions were printed and given to Network Rail bosses at a break prior to Q&A. This gave the bosses 15 minutes to pick out the best questions/ comments. It also gave them time to consider their answers to deliver the best answers and responses.
Texting is a great alternative to microphones. Not everyone is comfortable with speaking to a crowd especially when addressing their seniors. Also texting is anonymous, allowing conference delegates freedom to be open and honest with their questions.
Three uses, one cost
It doesn’t matter how many uses you have for our system at your event. There will only be one cost agreed in advance. Our pricing structure remains one of the best in the UK so if you are looking for a reliable but cheap voting system, contact us today.
This Network Rail conference was a Full Hire that included an experienced technician and Reply Plus keypads. To find out how your event or meeting can be enhanced by Crowd Insight’s response system call us today on 01483 300121 or email info@crowdinsight.co.uk
