If you are an event professional, you have probably conducted some meetings and wondered what your attendees thought about it. You might have been so lucky to receive random comments here and there or had about 10% of your attendees fill out a paper survey; but truth be told there is a much easier and faster system available. What is it you might ask? Audience Response System rental units of course!

This blog will focus on the best way to prepare and use ARS devices in your meeting – from the planning to the execution stage.

Planning for ARS Rentals

Here are the four things you need to do to most effectively engage your attendees.

First, remember that Audience Response rentals allow attendees to answer close-ended questions. So it is important to have a mix of multiple choice, true and false, and yes and no questions for your attendees. I would suggest you have a committee brainstorm what questions you want answers to before starting. In addition, determine how often you are going to poll your audience – at every session, at the end of the conference, or stages in between.

Second, use ARS to measure ROI. Review your conference goals and objectives and determine what questions can be posed to your attendees. For example, perhaps you want 85% of all attendees to feel that the conference was excellent or very good. You can ask a multiple choice question to obtain this answer. You will receive quick, quantitative data that you can use in planning next year’s conference.

Third, ask all your presenters to use ARS integrated into their talks. It is vital that your presenters are engaging attendees. The quickest way to do this is to ask a question, obtain the immediate feedback from the system, and have your presenters use this information to reswizzle their content. Ask them to have 3 ARS questions in their presentation.

Fourth, obtain your ARS rental units, LCD projector rental, as well as your computer and screen rental for each room. Have an experienced AV tech team load the PowerPoints and go through the questions with each facilitator or presenter. Have the tech team test the ARS wireless devices and explain to each presenter how they work.

Using ARS Rentals

Below are the two items you need for maximum audience participation.

First, take time to show attendees how to use one. Don’t assume everyone knows how to use an ARS device; some may have never even seen one before. Explain that the information gathered is anonymous and can not be linked to the person holding the device. Also explain they will see the results instantaneously and their feedback will help with speaker interactions, spark conversations, and make the conference next year all that much better.

Second, when completing corporate training, an excellent way to get attendees involved is for them to answer pre- and post-training session questions. This will do two things: 1) It will allow the trainer to know very quickly where the attendees are in terms of knowledge and 2) At the end, the trainer will know whether or not employees understand the material.

Why You Should Source Your ARS Rentals From Smartsource

By choosing SmartSource Rentals, you can count on guaranteed delivery, 24/7 technical support, and certified AV technicians who can remain onsite during your entire conference to make certain everything goes according to plan. Give us a call at 800.888.8686 to learn how we can help you!