Using Audience Response Pads at EMS Today
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 at 12:51PM 
At the 2012 EMS Today Conference I was selected to present 4 different sessions. I planned on using Audience Response pads (ARS) in all of my sessions where each attendee would interact with my presentation. These little devices allow me to ask questions during my PowerPoint so I know what the audience knows.
To get started, I thought I would ask a few polling questions in the Photoshop for PowerPoint session and see where people where at. I didn’t expect the pads to contribute much other than being kind of “cool”, but boy was I wrong.
The first polling question confirmed for me the direction I wanted to take during the presentation, plus I received additional information I wasn’t counting on. The question seemed to be a very logical straight forward question:
What is your comfort level with Photoshop/Elements?
A) Very comfortable (7%)
B) Somewhat comfortable (23%)
C) Not comfortable (38%)
D) I don’t have either (30%)
As you can see, 38% of the audience stated that they were not comfortable with Photoshop (this I expected), but what I did not expect was that 30% didn’t even have Photoshop/Elements.
This question helped me on many different levels during and after the session.
#1. It helped me confirm the direction I planned on taking during the session. I had geared the session for the novice user and the poll confirmed to me that I took the right path.
#2. In regards to 30% of the audience not having Photoshop or Elements, I expected a few, but not this many. I used this data when I talked about the difference between Photoshop and Elements.
Because the results were visible to everyone in the session, those that chose Very Comfortable (7%) would have a better understanding of why I needed to keep things pretty basic in this session. Also I feel that people feel a sense of comfort knowing that they are on the same level as the majority of attendees in the session.
As I look to my next session, I plan on making the ARS pads a integral part of my presentation, not because they are cool, but that they really DID add more value to my presentation and will now be a must for any presentation I do in the future.
Check out a Blog by Dave Konig, The Social Medic who attended this session click here