When you’re in the business of uniting and engaging large groups of people from various walks of life in the same space, there are few tried-and-true methods you can bet your last buck on: scrumptious food, great entertainment and AV technology coupled with the right digital and presentation solutions.
Case in point: A leading provincial organization produced a breakthrough event, from which the organization will reap the benefits for several years. “Our clients still talk about what a great day it was and how we used innovative ways to bridge the distance of the province,” said the group’s transition manager.
This provincial organization provides services to encourage industry development in Northern Ontario. Some affiliates it serves are in very remote locations – extending across two time zones and including communities that cannot be accessed by road.
Difficult task
The organization had the difficult task of planning a symposium to collect input from stakeholders in all areas of the province. After an initial needs assessment with a professional audio visual consultant, a pre-conference online survey was distributed to delegates across Northern Ontario, allowing conference planners to gear the agenda to the specific issues of its members.
As the organization found when securing AV equipment for the symposium, it’s not always necessary to have massive, larger-than-life-size screens and flashy animation to impress a crowd. In fact, just a standard screen and projector were required. The key to this organization meeting its objectives was encouraging involvement from the delegates, onsite and off-site alike.
For in-room participation, Audience Response System keypads were provided to 600 attendees to engage the audience with interactive questions, enriching the relationship, not only between speaker and audience, but between every attendee.
Instant results
In addition to the hundreds of delegates onsite, numerous attendees from 35 remote sites viewed the event via live webcast, with access to all audio and video components. The remote participants were able to vote online live with the in-room delegates, while responses, both in-room and online, were tabulated instantly to provide real-time data.
There were no long waiting periods or awkward intermissions in which attendees might lose focus or interest. The organization had the ability to instantly display the voting results to all participants, onsite and on-line, for the entire group to discuss. After the results were reviewed by the group’s committee during the lunch break, the committee members quickly incorporated new questions for the afternoon session.
Staying connected
As a result of this customized collaboration of technologies, all of the organization’s counterparts in Northern Ontario had the opportunity to be represented and connected as if in the very same room. “The day went off with no major problems, and our clients who viewed from the comfort of their branches also had a sense of being part of the process,” reported the transition manager.
Technology seems to have a way of bridging communication gaps—and, really, what could be more fulfilling than having the means to unite people together for a common cause? Consult with a professional and reputable audio visual solutions provider to see how the world can shrink—strangers can feel authentic connections—and how the right technology solutions can make it happen.
