1. Start Early
Perhaps the most frequent challenge we see with OTI clients is inadequate time for meeting preparation. The hectic nature of business today makes this a very common issue.
When planning for your interactive meeting it is important to begin your preparations as early as possible. This will help insure that your audience response software (e.g. OptionPower ) is properly installed, your hardware drivers are up to date, and your interactive polling exercises work as intended with your audience.
All too frequently we recieve calls from clients who wait until the night before, or the morning of their presentation to install polling software and test their wireless keypad hardware. This can result in a needless crisis with frantic last minute support calls and scrambles.
We encourage you to view time as a finite and critical resource. Start early to prepare your interactive polling files and test your system.
We live in a world where short deadlines are common. In those cases, it becomes especially important to avoid cutting corners as you prepare. Short cuts can lead to embarrasing failures in front of your audience and real heartburn. Get ahead of the meeting schedule and leave yourself a day or two of slack for the unexpected.
2. Test Your Equipment
OptionFinder audience response hardware is incredibly reliable. Often this can lull clients into a sense of complacency. They don't see a need to set up and test the computer, base station, and keypad system in advance of the meeting. You should test your system before EVERY meeting.
One or our most frequent support calls involves a failure to successfully connect polling hardware. This can be the result of a bad or missing cable, driver changes, operating system updates or antivirus blockers. Normally these problems can be resolved fairly quickly. But, itcan be an incredibly stressful experience when it happens ten minutes before your session and the audience is already in the room.
If it has been a while since you used your response system, a best practice is to plug in and test your base station at least a day or two before your meeting. Use some keypads to vote and make sure things are working smoothly. Try the process using more than one USB port to make sure your hardware drivers are properly installed. Test all your keypads and replace any dead batteries.
Then, the day of your event, plan to arrive at your meeting room at least an hour or so before your session. Plug in and test the base station with a few keypads. Then, if possible project the keypad test grid as you walk around the room so you can see the response verified from each keypad as you put it in place for the audience. This will confirm that keypads in the far reaches of your meeting room are transmitting successfully. Relocate your base station if necessary.
3. Test Your Polling Exercises
The more complicated your presentation and the more polling slides you will be using, the more time you should allow for rehearsal. It is important to rehearse every exercise, at least a little, to make sure all of your interactive slides work when populated with data from the audience.
Whenever possible, complete the final draft of your polling slides at least 48 hours before your scheduled presentation. Do a practice poll of all slides with your audience response hardware a day or two before your meeting. This will help you find typographical and formatting errors along with data display design flaws.
The day of the presentation arrive at your meeting room with time to spare. Connect your base station and wireless keypads and do another quick run through of all your polling slides using one or two voting keypads. This will verify that any last minute changes or edits you have made are working correctly. It also allows time to correct for the unexpected.
By following a thoughtful process of meeting preparation you will minimize the potential for hassles and heartburn. Now you can present with confidence!
Photo: John Hall and Associates
