A US company specialising in presentation services for conferences and meetings, has launched an intriguing new communication platform (an interactive video wall which allows for 16 individuals to access the unit at one time), looks set to take audience engagement to a whole new level.
“We know from our conferences in the UK, says Victor Tardieu of Full Circle Motivation that rich media and environments (e.g. an interactive video wall) actively engages delegates, stimulates discussion, facilitates learning, and can turn passive audiences into participating individuals and teams”
The company’s new platform uses next-generation digital signage that not only delivers striking and vivid entertainment and information in a digital format but also allows planners to customise it to their own unique themes. To cap it all, it also provides advertising opportunities and sponsorship.
Tardieu adds: “With this development, the use of the interactive video wall seems set to gain wider acceptance by conference organisers, particularly as larger format and higher quality hardware becomes available. In addition to the new wall, the options available right now include:
- The latest 90 inch touch screen, which has all the functionality of a tablet and is ideal for small meetings, breakouts and as information walls for public conference areas
- An 8 feet x 4 feet back projected screen, which isn’t a touch screen, but incorporates a feature which monitors the hand movements of the speaker as it passes over and touches the screen and then triggers an appropriate action”Of course, the Individual iPad (with conference app embedded) for every delegate is the perfect alternative. Full Circle’s mobile app for conferences is a fun way to connect the business message and the delegate. This leading edge tool for engaging conference attendees also provides unprecedented business intelligence to organisers. From the point of registration, with optimised user interfaces on all major Smartphones, tablets and the traditional web, conference audiences can be better, and more consistently served. Such apps can be used for pre-event educational games, Q&A, ensuring attendees are always in the know and for post event feedback (before delegates leave the conference).However, Tardieu claims to favour a mix of hi and low tech (e.g. de Bono’s Six Hats Thinking) in order to ensure that delegates are engaged and that conference learning is taken back into the workplace.
Technology such as that described above marks how far conferences and meetings have come in a relatively short period of time. The days of a talking heads drilling information into the brains of a passive – and possibly bored – audience from a podium are long gone, and they won’t be mourned.