Entrepreneur@NU
The Entrepreneur@NU Conference is a showcase of the entrepreneurial community at Northwestern University and around Chicagoland -- a wide array of panels, expos, and demos provides advice and experiences for entrepreneurs at all stages of their journey
How Conferences i/o Was Used
For each of the nine smaller panels, audience members were encouraged to ask and vote for questions using Conferences I/O and each panel moderator had an iPad in front of them in order to facilitate the most popular questions to the panel members. During the smaller panels hand raising during Q&A was still allowed, though most audience members opted to use Conferences i/o.
For the final Keynote, audience Q&A was facilitated only by submissions on Conferences I/O. In order to make the most efficient use of available time, hand raising for questions was not allowed during the final Keynote.
Interview With Mike Deem
Why Entrepreneur@NU decided to use Conferences i/o
We used Conferences i/o to manage the enormous crowd at the keynote. Plus, we wanted the Q&A time during the panels to be more interactive and engaging for the audience.
For the conference organizers, Conferences i/o solves the problem of ushering mics around large crowds and having poor or inappropriate questions come up. We can moderate them. For conference attendees, Conferences i/o helps them enjoy the conference more by getting them involved in the conversation, and connecting them to their fellow attendees.
Was using Conferences i/o a positive experience at Entreprenuer@NU?
Absolutely. Conferences i/o made Q&A run much smoother for both the organizers and attendees. The audience really liked it, and being able to see everyone else's questions actually inspired more questions from our audience. We wanted them to feel smarter and more connected at 5pm than 9am. Conferences i/o naturally served that purpose.
After using Conferences i/o, would you ever go back to calling on raised hands for Q&A at a conference that size?
For an audience of that size, we're never going back to calling on raised hands.