How to electronically poll the audience during panel discussions at meetings, conferences, and conventions. Professional Panel Moderator Kristin Arnold asked this question of Brian Walter, Founder of Extreme Meetings and member of the US Speaker Hall of Fame. He’s a freakin’ brilliant meetings maestro who amps up the energy, engages audiences as a way of life.
Video Transcript
Kristin: Brian, what options are available for electronically polling large audiences?
Brian: Poll Everywhere is a great way instead of using the physical devices which cost money to rent or to purchase. I purchased it, but let’s say if you’ve got a group of 1000 people, that’s a big rental thing. That’s going to be a couple grand easy for that. With Poll Everywhere, everyone’s using their smartphones and you pay it on a monthly basis, so for 1000 people that might be $180 for that month, and that’s nothing. But, the only challenge with Poll Everywhere, well two, is one, your show computer needs to have a connection to the internet, and also you need to explain to people how it works. You have to say, “Okay, here’s where you’re going to text. Now, here’s the number and the different choices. You plug that in, and you get set.” It may take a little longer, but it’s great. In fact, you can also have people from remote locations voting at the same time.
I did an event for Bank of Hawaii. I love Bank of Hawaii. Any sentence that answers “In Hawaii” is a wonderful company. So, I’m doing this thing for Bank of Hawaii and we were doing a live event in Honolulu but then we had team members from other islands who were watching simultaneously through a webcast, and they were able to participate instead of just observe. This all happened to be in real time.
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Kristin Arnold, professional panel moderator, and high stakes meeting facilitator is on a crusade to make all panel discussions informative, interactive, and interesting. Specifically, she wants to help YOU become a better panel moderator. Why? Because 95% of annual meetings have panel discussions – and according to the 2014 Panel Report, it’s a fifty-fifty proposition they are any good at all! Expectations decrease dramatically when your attendees walk in and see the traditional draped head-table with microphones on short stands. There are sooooo many other ways to have a stimulating conversation! So let’s increase the probability of success for your next panel discussion with these resources.
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