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PowerVote brings a new dimension to multi-location symposiums

The symposium gathered medical specialists in psychiatry and neurology to discuss and review the latest developments and treatments in the field of mental illness.

Organised by the Mexican Psychiatry Association and sponsored by AstraZeneca, the medical symposium featured presentations by national and international experts, including Dr. Manuel Sánchez de Carmona, President of the Mexican branch of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD), Dr Mark A. Frye, Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic, USA and Prof. Allan H. Young, Chair of Psychiatry, Director of the Centre for Mental Health, Imperial College London, UK.

Professor Allan H. Young, keynote speaker at the symposium, already had experience of presenting to audiences in multiple locations. According to the Professor: “A dispersed audience may present technical difficulties and feel less personal. Bringing many specialists together and reaching a larger number of individuals in a single session achieves a greater synergy, is more convenient and cost effective. Both the remote participants and the organisers of the events benefit.”

The symposium audience consisted of 200 specialists in Mexico City and 450 scattered across a further 12 key Mexican cities. The remote audiences were able to follow the proceedings live via satellite. They participated fully in the debates and the clinical cases thanks to a chat facility allowing them to ask questions in real-time and electronic voting to answer questions, with instant feedback on the votes.

PowerVote’s technology was used to facilitate audience interaction in this complex multi-location set-up. The voting system allowed all the participants to answer a number of questions, with voting results instantly fed back to the speakers, who were also able to compare responses from all 13 cities. Together with the chat facility, this generated lively debate in spite of the geographically dispersed audience.

The audience and the speakers were very positive about using the technology. Dr. Manuel Sánchez de Carmona, President of the Mexican branch of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD), facilitated the symposium. In his experience, “multi-location events, such as the Taller Satelital en Psiquiatría, must rely on more than just a filmed presentation. Thanks to the satellite connection, the specialists were fully engaged in the meeting regardless of their location. They were most impressed with the technology and welcomed it. Throughout the day, I tried to ensure that the remote audience felt as involved in the proceedings as the core audience in Mexico City.”

Key success factors for medical symposiums relying heavily on technology to involve their audiences include thorough organisation and planning, full briefing and training of the speakers in the use of the technologies and provision of good technical back-up, as was the case at the multi-location symposium in Mexico. Dr. Manuel Sánchez de Carmona also adds: “Preparing a sound list of questions relevant to both the speakers and the audience is critical to ensure that the interactive technologies remain a valuable tool. Voting is very effective, be it whilst teaching or during meetings, to ascertain the audience’s knowledge on specific subjects.”

Professor Young concludes: “The use of the PowerVote system was an asset at the Taller Satelital en Psiquiatría. It allowed the audience to feel included and to participate remotely, leading to a more interesting event. Voting is a powerful tool to facilitate medical symposiums with satellite sites in multiple locations, as is a link to allow questions to be asked.”

PowerVote key in training of 25,000 Mercedes-Benz sales staff and dealers in 2011

When Mercedes-Benz launch a new car, they roll-out training programmes for sales staff and dealers throughout the world. These programmes are a key component in the launch of a new product. In 2011, this involved a global audience of 25,000 sales staff and dealers, who had to be briefed, trained and tested on the new product features. This training involved face-to-face sessions, each event gathering between 10,000 and 15,000 participants over a 3-month period.

For such large-scale events, preparation is the key. The specialist participant management and on-site project coordination company comware was briefed to source a voting system that would promote audience interaction and allow feedback and evaluation. PowerVote’s audience response system was quickly selected as the best solution for the Mercedes-Benz training programme thanks to its ease-of-use, full integration into Microsoft standard software, and the strength of its technical support.
Prior to the events, comware worked closely with Mercedez-Benz Global Training, a part of Daimler AG Group, to turn their training content into interactive multilingual presentations that would develop a barometer of public opinion with questions about the product, as well as test the knowledge acquired as a result of the training. This was translated in 21 different languages for the global training programme.

The voting sessions took place in 12 workshops, each involving up to 360 voting keypads.
Before the events, comware was responsible for training Mercedes-Benz trainers in the use of the PowerVote system, enabling them to use it on their own. This reduced the technical support requirements to a minimum and promoted more direct interaction between the trainers and their individual groups.
Once the voting was completed, individual results were imported into a web-based tool programmed by comware. The results were displayed through real-time online reporting, bringing distinct benefits to the training, such as:

voting results being immediately discussed within the groups, contributing to a better knowledge acquisition amongst the participants;
certain topics could be instantly revisited if the results highlighted poor understanding amongst the participants;
thanks to the PowerVote system, participants were fully engaged in the training process, leading to a better assimilation and retention of the course content.

Following several months of use for the Mercedes-Benz training events, Christian Kleffmann, Project Manager at comware, said: “We have found PowerVote to be a very reliable and robust interactive voting system. This positive experience has definitely convinced us to call on the PowerVote solution again in future contracts.”

About comware
German-owned comware TeilnehmerManagement specialises in solutions for the organisation and management of large-scale events, spanning from administration and software development to project coordination and on-site support. Established in 1990, the company manages national or international events involving audiences of 500-50,000.

L’Oréal

L’Oreal revitalises its training programmes thanks to PowerVote

Each year, 5,000 people are trained thanks to this system of interactive meetings based on electronic voting.

Each year, the Training Department of Biotherm develops training programmes for the sales teams of its distribution network. In total, 1,113 chemists and 1,302 perfume shops are concerned. Themes covered include the identity and positioning of the brand, the performance and technical nature of the ranges of treatment, the group’s sales techniques and sequences, and new products. Throughout each training session, the participants, divided into teams, use their electronic PowerVote voting keypads to answer a series of questions, so as to confirm their understanding of the messages being communicated.

A fun solution for more effective training

Since 2003, Biotherm has displayed a strong desire to develop original training programmes by offering the teams of its distribution network an innovative, interactive format that matches the brand’s dynamic, modern image. « The parallel between the technical nature of Biotherm’s products, whose performance can be measured, and the technological evolution of our training programmes is greatly appreciated by our participants, » declares the Training Director at Biotherm.

Breaking with the especially common tradition of paper-based questionnaires, Biotherm chose to acquire the PowerVote solution, which allows it to create interactive, fun presentations, to collect the participants’ votes in real-time, and to immediately display the results in the form of a “Leaderboard” with the help of a video projector.

For the Training Director, «PowerVote met two essential and concomitant goals: increase participant involvement thanks to interactive presentations and allow for a real-time confirmation of the participants’ understanding, through the use of electronic voting keypads.»

A friendly solution adapted to the need for flexibility

Easy to deploy, the PowerVote solution allows Biotherm to offer its training sessions in a variety of formats, no matter the number of participants.

“In 2003 and 2004, our training courses were offered in the evening, for groups of between 50 and 300 people. In 2005, we opted for a “roadshow” format, with training sessions organised in nearly 40 cities. These one-day courses are designed for groups of 20 participants. “It was therefore important that our instructors benefit from a solution capable of adapting to any configuration and in no way hindered by the number of participants,” explains the Training Director.

The use of electronic voting keypads is also greatly appreciated by the instructors who, thanks to the real-time display of the answers, can immediately react to the subjects touched upon. “The training sessions become much more dynamic and fun. There’s a real exchange, that had previously been checked by the paper-based questionnaires,” concludes Training Director.

About Biotherm
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Volkswagen

The Volkswagen Group is won over by PowerVote and doubles the number of interactive voting keypads for training
Since 2008, the Training and Human Resources Department of the Volkswagen Group has used the interactive PowerVote voting system to train the distribution and repair networks of its 5 brands (Volkswagen, Skoda, Audi, SEAT and Volkswagen Utility Vehicles), particularly for the launching of new products, such as the latest Skoda or the new Passat.

This solution allows the department to create interactive, fun presentations, to gather the participants’ answers, and to graphically display the results in real-time with the help of a video projector. Following the success of this method, the Group decided to extend this system to all training courses, thereby doubling the number of its voting keypads for a total of 48 cases of 15 voting keypads each.

Extending training via PowerVote

Improved knowledge acquisition thanks to the playfulness of the training, the possibility of measuring in real-time the training’s effectiveness and to react immediately, better performing teams, and, finally, ROI (return on investment) achieved in under a year: such were the benefits that convinced Volkswagen to extend its use of PowerVote to all training courses and all sectors of activity:
• Marketing.
• Parts and service.
• Technology/body work.
The Group’s interactive PowerVote training programme will be extended from 8,000 to nearly 12,000 workers, for a total of between 960 and 1,000 training courses taught each year by 40 instructors.
According to the Director of the Training Department for Marketing and Technology/Service at Volkswagen, “for us, the major advantage of the PowerVote solution is its flexibility and ability to evolve. And, above all, the system allows us, thanks to the possibility of modulating the frequencies, to simultaneously evaluate the participants’ knowledge acquisition in all 14 rooms of our training centre. Isn’t that incredible?”

An even more intensive use of the system

For next year, the Group plans on optimising the use of PowerVote by confirming each step of the training programme. This would allow instructors to verify knowledge acquisition and continually adapt their courses to their classes.
Internet-based quizzes are also planned.

About Volkswagen
For more information: http://www.volkswagen.com

Groupama

PowerVote: a tool to help mobilise young people with regard to sensitive issues

For the past few years, the multinational company Groupama has used the electronic voting system to raise awareness among young students of early driving instruction and road safety. An initiative that is spreading among secondary schools and to which Groupama has dedicated the PowerVote voting keypads the company acquired four years ago.
In the country and in the city, adolescents can practice driving in a safe, secure environment thanks to each of two prevention programmes: “10 for Young Driving” and “10 for Rural Driving”; these programmes allow young people to familiarise themselves with the automobile environment and are both promoted by Groupama, in cooperation with Renault Ltd. and Total.

The goal of the “10 for Young Driving” programme is to raise awareness among young people of the major risks met with out on the road, to teach them the basic rules of driving, and to teach young students the proper attitude to adopt when they find themselves behind the wheel. The goal of the second programme, “10 for Rural Driving”, is to teach young people how to operate farming vehicles in complete safety.

A dynamic and adapted educational tool

The teaching method used for the two programmes was developed by Groupama and is updated on a regular basis. According to the Director of Prevention at Groupama, the use of electronic voting keypads during these programmes “lends life to the courses’ theoretical instruction: the students answer a multiple-choice questionnaire while practicing driving at the agricultural and/or general educational establishments”.
The classrooms are equipped with a slide show and informative videos on the various subjects of discussion: the Highway Code, legal information and insurance, as well as the various risks posed by alcohol, drugs and speeding.

The PowerVote voting keypads are used to evaluate the level of knowledge of the students participating in these programmes. Placed before a video screen and with the help of their remote controls, the young people have between 20 and 25 seconds to answer the questions and thereby determine their level of understanding concerning the various subjects touched upon during the programmes.

As opposed to other group types that use these electronic devices for their training, young learners very naturally operate the PowerVote voting keypads to evaluate their degree of knowledge acquisition. Groupama’s Director of Prevention explains that “habituated as they are to using game consoles and other electronic devices, teenagers readily accept this voting system”. In his opinion, this electronic system, compared to other methods, proves “more didactic and less daunting” for the students.
The advantages of the PowerVote system
Likewise, the Director of Prevention admits that one of the main advantages of the system developed by PowerVote resides in the fact that, following suitable instruction, this tool is very easy to use.
For nearly five years, Groupama has made use of interactive voting keypads to develop its young driver programmes in both urban and rural settings. The company first discovered the PowerVote tools via “an Internet search, with the help of our computing colleagues in charge of developing a management tool for the two prevention programmes,” recalls the director of Prevention. The company owns the voting keypads it uses.

About Groupama
Groupama was created by France’s mutual agricultural insurance system at the end of the 19th century. For over a century, the company’s main goal was proximity and member service as its principal line of activity. Groupama has a large distribution network and insures not only vehicles, but also property and individuals; in addition, the company is active in the banking and finance sectors.
At the international level, the company has subsidiaries in the main markets of Western Europe, Central Europe and Asia. In 2007, Groupama recorded a turnover of €14,900,000.

Genzyme

PowerVote: a rapid means of knowledge evaluation!

Interactive voting keypads are increasingly being used in all types of companies. Companies rely most on electronic voting systems in publishing, property and, above all, the health-pharmaceutical sector.
Genzyme first made use of the voting system developed by PowerVote during a recent Conference of the Nephrology Society held in early October 2008.
This laboratory, by using the electronic voting keypads during the conference, had as its goal to “attract to the Genzyme stand the greatest number of people possible, while at the same time marketing its products via the questions themselves,” the product manager for Renagel at Genzyme.
The doctors who visited this stand could demonstrate their knowledge of nephrology by answering a series of questions developed by Genzyme’s specialists.

A favourable reception

The PowerVote voting system proved quite popular among visitors to the laboratory’s stand. As opposed to what happens with other technological devices toward which users prove immediately reticent, this time, just the opposite occurred. “I was greatly surprised that the clients demonstrated no reticence to using the voting keypads. They even came up to ask if they could use them,” admits with satisfaction the product manager.

Although, for the time being, this laboratory’s experience with the PowerVote tool is limited to the Nephrology Society conference, the system’s evaluation by the Product Manager for Renagel at Genzyme is very positive. In his opinion, the great advantage of electronic voting keypads resides in the fact that they are “useful icebreakers and help put their users at ease when one attempts to evaluate their knowledge”.
Likewise, he recognises that interactive systems that allow their users to vote or express their opinions encourage the audience’s participation during a congress, conference or other group event. This is because one is able to express oneself anonymously: “When several people answer at the same time, one is less likely to stand out”.

The Product Manager for Renagel at Genzyme admits that during a secret vote, it is much easier for the organisers to ask questions. He even recognises that “without this system, it would be impossible.” What is more, and contrary to more traditional methods, “the interactive approach allows for effective and easier communication. This is carried out in the form of a game and the client doesn’t feel agressed. That is why the audience feels much more involved.”

Extend its use

Although, for the time being, Genzyme has only used the electronic voting keypads during a congress with its clients, the company’s goal is to extend their use to other situation types. Indeed, the company has not ruled out the idea of using these devices during internal meetings, in order to “measure the benefits of sales meetings, as well as during round tables with doctors.”
For the sales meetings, the product Manager admits that the system represents “a practical and easy means of evaluating the representatives’ knowledge”, while for the round tables, the system would be useful for “observing a group of doctors before and after the meeting and influencing their behaviour.”
Concerning the facility of installing and using the electronic voting keypads developed by PowerVote, the Product Manager for Renagel at Genzyme admits that they encountered no difficulty whatsoever implementing the system. “Following an hour-long instruction, I was perfectly capable of using the keypads,” he concludes.

About Genzyme
Genzyme Corporation was founded by Henri Termeer in Boston in 1981, with its goal being to create products thanks to enzymatic engineering and its strategy being to fill the niche of treating rare genetic diseases. Today, Genzyme remains the leader in the development of treatments for Gaucher’s disease, Pompe disease, Fabry disease and type 1 mucopolysaccharidoses, but the company has opened up new avenues of research targeting kidney diseases, cancers, diagnostic testing and genetic therapies. This has allowed the company to position itself as the sixth largest biotechnology firm, thanks to its listing on the Nasdaq market.

Nycomed

PowerVote, an excellent tool for friendly learning!

Dynamic, fun and… different. The electronic voting system is increasingly proving itself an ideal tool for transmitting knowledge and information, whether at a meeting with the sales forces, or directly in a real-life situation with potential clients. This has certainly been the experience for Nycomed, a multinational pharmaceutical company.
Training is an important cornerstone for any company seeking an edge, but in the pharmaceutical sector, training is nothing less than essential. In this type of industry, one must be in the forefront of not only scientific innovation, but also employee training, so as to be able to position oneself competitively on the market. That is why multinational companies such as Nycomed have chosen interactive systems for the training of their executives.

“We started off with the remote controls developed by PowerVote in September 2008, when we acquired a total of 75 voting keypads,” explains Nycomed’s Training manager.

Up until now, the laboratory has relied on voting keypads strictly for internal purposes (specifically, during the various in-house training sessions for its sales network). This idea stemmed from the ingenious approach of the company’s National Sales Director, who had previously made use of these interactive devices for other events.

Fun training

“With this system,” explains the Training Manager, “our goal was to render training more interactive and increase our teams’ involvement in the learning process”. To this end, the Training Department developed an entire arsenal of questions in the form of a test, which was then integrated into a competition, the playfulness of which proved a decisive factor. These sessions gathered together 15 to 18 representatives.

“The teams that used the electronic voting keypads were very pleased. These devices are very dynamic and have the great advantage, compared to other systems, of allowing the instructor to capture and hold the trainees’ attention, much more easily than with other traditional training methods,” explains the Training Manager.

Likewise, according to her, the electronic voting keypads encourage the trainees to actively participate in the course. “The participation rate is higher, and not only because of a certain anonymity, but also because the use of these devices engenders a far more dynamic rhythm than training courses which rely on a more standardised methodology. And this, therefore, supposes that the audience is also enjoying itself while it learns,” she explains.

The Training Manager lists yet another advantage of voting keypads: the fact that they guarantee a better understanding of the ideas transmitted during the training course, as well as the audience’s memorisation of course content: “During this initial experience with the PowerVote system, we noticed that it proved very useful to fix concepts linked to specific subjects that we wanted to discuss.”

What is more, she believes that it is possible to use electronic voting keypads for any type of training activity, in particular, for the training of small groups with which it is possible to implement a much more dynamic work pace. But she points out that “this will always depend on the type of meeting that must be organised, as well as on the degree of effectiveness and of problem resolution that is being sought.”

Following this initial, successful experience, the Nycomed laboratories plan on using the electronic voting system during upcoming meetings with their clients, specifically with the doctors.
“For this occasion, we will have to come up with a different format, one that is much better suited than that which we adopted for our sales forces,” she states.

About Nycomed
Nycomed is a Danish-based pharmaceutical company active in over a dozen countries, including the UK, where it set up operations in 2003. Nycomed’s way of working differs from other pharmaceutical companies. It is more specialised in the development of molecules and pharmacological products than in fundamental research. Its main activity consists of developing discoveries made by the sector’s companies, by providing them with a specific application and a veritable entry onto the market.
In 2007, Denmark’s Nycomed increased its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) by 31% on the previous year, to €1,220,000 ($1,870,000).

Stihl

PowerVote, an attractive system!

The use of interactive voting keypads has resulted in significant changes for numerous companies with regard to their training procedures. Indeed, this is what happened for Stihl, specialised in the manufacture of farming, forestry and gardening machinery.
In September 2008, the company decided to equip itself with the PowerVote system in order to lend greater dynamism to the training courses offered to both its internal sales forces and its distributors responsible for marketing its products. This initiative was set up by the Products and Training department, headed by Wim Marjin Lammers.
Only a few months ago, Wim Marjin Lammers was unaware of the variety and the applications of the interactive voting systems available on the market today. He knew that such devices “perhaps existed, but,” he admits, “I was generally unfamiliar with their functioning and potential”. As opposed to the usual case among professionals, it was not by participating in any conference or meeting that the Director of Stihl’s Products and Training department first discovered interactive voting keypads.
It was simply by searching over the Internet that he learned about this system. To an extent, this discovery modified his view of new technologies applied to in-house training. His company eventually acquired 50 PowerVote voting keypads.

A variety of applications

First and foremost, Stihl uses the PowerVote system for what it calls its “summer camps”. These training sessions are set up to present the company’s internal sales forces with all the new products for the coming seasons. “We used the PowerVote systems to confirm the participants’ knowledge and make the product presentations more enjoyable,” explains Wim Marjin Lammers.
Likewise, the company has used the interactive voting keypads to present new products to its distributors throughout the country, with the goal of making its training sessions more fun and more dynamic. “We simulated a sales situation which the retailers must then put into practice with their store’s clients.” This type of meeting is part of a sort of roadshow that Stihl organises and which consists of twelve meetings gathering together a total of 1,200 participants.

In addition, in its retailer training centre, the company has also made use of the voting keypads developed by PowerVote. The training sessions last two or three days, and about half way through the course a quiz is carried out to test acquired knowledge. In this manner, “the instructors can make sure that the messages being sent are also being understood,” explains Wim Marjin Lammers, “and this, therefore, also allows the instructors to go back over certain points that have not been well understood by the entire group or by an individual”.
At the end of the training course, in order to measure the participants’ rate of satisfaction, Stihl once again relies on the PowerVote system: “It allows us to have precise, direct results for each question, without having to then re-enter the data,” he adds.

“Astounded” by this system

So far, those who have had the opportunity to use the interactive voting keypads during Stihl’s training sessions have, for the most part, greatly appreciated the PowerVote system: “People marvel at the system’s possibilities and its ease of use,” confirms Wim Marjin Lammers. What is more, “for those who design the questionnaires or who must manage the system, it’s also really simple, which is a huge advantage,” adds the Director of Stihl’s Products and Training department.
With regard to student participation, this has increased dramatically, especially during the product presentation sessions for the company’s distributors. It is always difficult, as Wim Marjin Lammers explains, to get the audience actively involved in this type of meeting. However, with the interactive voting keypads, “nearly everyone participates”. In addition, because these devices ensure a certain anonymity, “people say what they really think”.

At Stihl, the use of interactive voting keypads has significantly altered how the company communicates with its internal sales forces and with the distributors marketing its products.
“Previously, we had no dynamic tools at our disposal that allowed us to test their knowledge or to simulate sales situations. However, at the training centre, we naturally had paper-based satisfaction questionnaires, as well as paper-based evaluation questionnaires. For example, we passed out questionnaires at the beginning and the end of the training course, to see if the trainees had progressed in their knowledge of the various products and technologies. These paper-based tests were, nevertheless, much less fun,” as Wim Marjin Lammers admits.

According to Stihl’s Director of Products and Training, one must always keep in mind the concrete needs of each event when using this type of interactive tool. “While they can prove useful for any type of meeting, one shouldn’t overdo it. All the same, one must seek to either entertain or to train.”
Wim Marjin Lammers does not believe that interactive voting keypads should be used “simply because they’re a modern, fun tool”. However, he considers that a moderate use of such devices is the most effective and believes that using them once every meeting is sufficient.

About Stihl
Specialised in the manufacture of farming, forestry and gardening machinery, Stihl was founded in 1926 in Stuttgart, Germany, by the engineer Andreas Stihl, recognised as the inventor of the chainsaw. In 1971, the Stihl group became the world’s largest chainsaw manufacturer, producing 340,000 saws annually. Today, the company employs nearly 10,000 people around the world and sets aside a considerable amount of its investments for the training of its employees and authorized distributors. In 2007, Stihl’s turnover for all five continents exceeded £2 billion.

GILEAD Sciences

Avoid a restrictive evaluation and limit the pressure on participants

Training: a major issue for the pharmaceutical industry

HIV, viral hepatitis, invasive fungic diseases: within such specialised medical fields, knowledge is constantly evolving. To remain credible before high-level hospital doctors, Gilead laboratory’s hospital representatives must regularly follow particularly demanding training courses, which are indispensable for this laboratory that has rapidly conquered a leading position in in the world.

Modernising the evaluation process

All Gilead “Products” or “Competition” training sessions include an evaluation of their participants. Before turning to electronic voting keypads, the laboratory relied on paper-based evaluations. Understandably, correcting these 20-question tests given to some sixty people represented a particularly time consuming task. In 2006, the laboratory opted for the electronic voting solution, which has considerably facilitated these evaluations, which are now corrected automatically and instantaneously by the PowerVote software program.

Immediate results

The displaying of results in real time following each vote allows for immediate feedback. For each question, it is possible to determine the participants’ level of knowledge acquisition and to further develop any themes that have not been fully understood. At the end of the voting, transferring the results to Microsoft Excel allows for a statistical processing of all these data, which can then be analysed by the entire team. Furthermore, this system has made these evaluations more fun and therefore more palatable to the representatives: “This allows us to avoid a restrictive evaluation and to limit the pressure on participants,” explains the Director of Training at Gilead Sciences.

A turnkey solution

The Gilead laboratory has chosen the PowerVote turnkey solution for its meetings. Indeed, a PowerVote technician travels to each interactive meeting to manage all technical aspects of the voting system. This frees the hands of the event organiser and, as the Director of Training points out, allows them to focus on the subject at hand, and to comment on the PowerPoint presentation and the results displayed “live”.
The choice of interactivity has completely won over both this director of training and the system’s participants, because for the past few years, the Gilead laboratory has relied on this electronic voting system which it plans on making use of again and again!

About Gilead
Gilead is a biopharmaceutical company specialised in the discovery, development and commercialisation of innovative medicines for those fields whose medical needs remain unsatisfied. Its mission is to improve the care of patients suffering from life-threatening diseases all around the world.

Global Media Health

For GM Health, PowerVote is a real asset for training

The interactive voting solution allows for real-time monitoring of understanding and skills

This press group specialised in the health sector is at the leading edge of medical training for doctors. It is therefore important, during meetings organised by the group, to evaluate the doctors’ knowledge level before and after each session.
By considering the pre-test results, the instructor can organise their training session differently in order to optimise training. In addition, transferring the results to Microsoft Excel allows the instructor to analyse the entirety of the results following each session and thereby continuously improve instruction. “We process the data in such a way so as to adapt our training sessions and teaching aids,” explains the organisers of these events.

… and allow participants to express themselves anonymously

Thanks to the electronic voting keypads, “everyone can express themself anonymously and without being embarrassed, via voting”. Instructors are provided with an immediate consolidation of the participants’ results. GM Health’s training director also points out that interactivity greatly increases student participation, which in turn increases feedback and therefore improves the appeal of the training course. Before using the PowerVote solution, evaluations were carried out via paper questionnaires before and after each session. All results then needed to be recorded and the questionnaires returned to the participants. Electronic voting appealed to the events’ organisers: “We continue to work with PowerVote depending on our needs.”

A single solution for a variety of events

This turnkey solution was the best fit for this large group. The interactive voting system has been used since 2008 for the group’s regional meetings, as well as during its sessions, lunch discussions, conference workshops, etc. The number of participants varies between 30 and 200 people. “This solution provides both technical support and flexibility with regard to the number of voting keypads, up to 72 hours before the meeting,” underlines the director of the group’s conference department.

Ambulance service

Even the ambulance service uses the interactive voting keypads!

Training procedures for the acquisition and updating of skills and knowledge are the subject of ever greater attention, not only in the private sector, but also for local governmental institutions.
This is particularly true in such important sectors as emergency medical assistance. For this reason, a year and a half ago, this Emergency Assistance and Rescue Service turned to interactive voting keypads for the training of its own technicians, as well as of outside groups.
This tool provides flexibility and fun, while favouring greater involvement on the part of personnel keen to learn new skills.
Since the Service’s creation in 1992, in the same form with which we are today familiar, training has increased considerably in importance. The ever greater necessity for a service that can deal quickly and effectively with emergency health situations occurring on public driveways has turned the attention of the Ambulance service’s directors to the continuing training of their institution’s personnel: “Training that targets the acquisition and updating of skills and knowledge with regard to emergency medical assistance,” explains the Director of Training.

However, in addition to in-house training for doctors and health workers, the Ambulance service also provides training to outside groups. This has led those responsible for training to express the necessity to locate multifunctional and more flexible tools for teaching GPs, medical professionals and volunteers new skills with regard to emergency medical assistance.
“We realised that in order to render the training procedures more flexible and improve learning acquisition, we needed to make use of new technologies, namely interactive devices such as electronic voting keypads that facilitate the transfer of data and make the training sessions more dynamic,” he explains.
The voting keypads are used in a traditional manner at the Ambulance service: “We usually carry out a preliminary evaluation at the beginning of the course, by asking a series of questions, and ask another series of questions at the end of the session.”

Greater participation

The use of electronic voting keypads since 2008 for training has allowed instructors to rapidly evaluate knowledge acquisition thanks to the system’s simplicity. Before beginning a session, questions and answers are programmed to later be displayed as part of a PowerPoint presentation. Once programmed, the voting keypads are passed out to the participants and each time a vote is made, the system’s software programme displays the results.

That is why, according to the Director of Training, the voting keypads encourage greater student participation within the institution’s training courses. The fact that no one who expresses their opinion need do it in public or openly results in a much higher answer rate than when other survey methods are used. “With the voting keypads, almost 100% of students answer the questions they are asked,” he insists.

In addition to this anonymity made possible by technology, voting keypads boast yet another advantage, according to the Director of Training: “They allow us to compile – on condition that the students are previously made aware of the procedure – all data concerning each individual participant, with their full name.” What is more, the use of voting keypads means instructors no longer need correct their exams nor – and this is an important point – use paper, he adds.

Spreading their use

As the department offers its in-house and external training days on a continual basis, it decided to purchase 130 voting keypads in the second semester of 2007.
The director of training admits that the voting keypads have not yet been incorporated into all training courses, because “before giving their classes, the instructors must provide us with their series of questions, so that they can be entered into the system. This necessitates additional preparation time,” he explains.
That said, the Director of Training insists that the results have been excellent for those courses that have made use of the electronic PowerVote voting keypads.

Even if, for the time being, the electronic PowerVote voting keypads have only been used for training sessions, the SAMUR intends to extend their use to other situations. “We would like to use the system for all types of meetings, for it has proven itself to be the ideal means of gathering participants’ opinions rapidly and collectively.”

About the SAMUR
The service was created as a pilot project in June 1991. Later, in December 1992 and after having proven its usefulness, it was decided to attribute to this service the “Health Transport Section” category. The goal of this service is to quickly and effectively deal with emergency health situations liable to occur on the public road network.

National Veterinary School

In 2004, The National Veterinary School (NVS), as part of its policy to modernise its teaching methods via the use of ICTE (Information and Communication Technologies for Education), turned to electronic voting to lend interactivity to its lecture courses.

As for any ICTE tool, the instructor has several teaching scenarii to choose from. In addition to the more traditional scenario of asking questions during the course, so as to enliven instruction and make it more dynamic, the most effective teaching scenario is the following:
- Ask a few questions at the beginning of the session, in order to confirm the previous week’s instruction.
- Once again, ask a few questions at the end of the session, in order to determine the group’s level of understanding regarding what has just been discussed.

Based on the results, the instructors can reorganise their course and adapt it to their students, thereby ensuring a maximum level of understanding. At the National Veterinary School, the voting keypads are used to determine the students’ level of understanding and produce a “comprehension assessment” that is greatly appreciated by the students themselves and which helps them determine where they stand with regard to their training.
Question preparation is time-consuming…
NVS has obtained the support of the Region for financing the purchase of 50 PowerVote voting keypads.
It has even convinced the next-door Engineering School to co-invest in the project, potentially increasing the number of voting keypads to one hundred.
Thinking up and preparing the questions requires a significant amount of time on the part of the instructors; this would seem to limit the use of this solution. “Question preparation is too complicated. This task remains a hurdle for instructors, and so it is our ICTE centre that prepares the layout of the PowerVote questionnaires. Today, at NVS, only 10% of teachers make use of these voting keypads,” explains a research engineer responsible for the school’s ICTE.
… But the method pays off
“We spend time preparing the questions, but the results speak for themselves. The instructors have noticed that the students are more involved when the voting handsets are used during class,” she explains. Interactive and fun instruction seems to have won over these veterinary students.

A new software programme is currently being studied to simplify question preparation. This would allow the National Veterinary School to increase the number of instructors who make use of the electronic PowerVote keypads.

Dior Travel Retail

The experience of Dior Travel Retail

In charge of Business Travel activity for the Dior brand in airports and duty-free shops, DTR relies on PowerVote to optimise the training programmes designed for its international sales forces.
A total of 750 employees, exclusive representatives for the brand, are concerned by the programme.

Catering for passing trade, airport sales areas and duty-free shops are meant to put forward a “travel offer” and promote the latest products of the Dior brand, including beauty care products, make-up and perfumes.

In order to offer the friendliest service and impeccable advice to an often hurried clientele, Dior Travel Retail has chosen to use the PowerVote interactive meeting system, based on electronic voting, during all of its training courses.

“We require that our personnel memorise a considerable amount of information, in particular with regard to the beauty care treatments. This necessitates a perfect understanding of the technological aspects and performance of the various product ranges,” explains the Director of Training at Dior Travel Retail.

“In order to allow our teams to best position our offers before a particularly demanding clientele, we chose to favour a solution that provided both optimised message memorisation thanks to playful training sessions and an immediate evaluation of the audience’s knowledge level.”

The first training sessions began in March 2007 for the EMEA region and in June for Asia and America. “The added value of such a solution is allowing us to avoid the tedious, time-consuming processing of paper-based questionnaires. We could now freely create, modify and personalise our questionnaires, based on the immediate needs of each region. For our instructors, in charge of programme content, this saves precious time and ensures that the courses meet the needs and expectations of our personnel,” she continues.

The PowerVote system has already been enthusiastically tested by the DTR management teams and instructors (over 110 people) during the presentation of the 2007 marketing plan. Equipped with voting keypads, several teams representing each region were able to participate in an interactive presentation into which 30 questions had been inserted dealing with the positioning and specificities of the brand. “The interactive presentations – into which we were able to insert questions, while graphically displaying the results in real-time as ‘rankings’ – naturally encouraged the participants’ involvement and spurred competition among the teams,” concludes the Director of Training.

For more information: http://www.dior.com

Fast Food chain

This Fast Food chain boosts its training courses with PowerVote
To train the future managers of its restaurants and franchises, this Fast food chain uses the interactive PowerVote voting system to monitor the level of understanding of its trainees.

Setting great store by its teams’ performance, the fast food specialist, has set up a training centre for its restaurants’ team members, assistant managers and directors…

Each year, this training centre welcomes over 2,000 trainees for 25 different courses. These training sessions are designed around two main themes: mastering their technical know-how (product composition, hygiene and quality, food safety, stock management, marketing, etc.) and developing their management skills (team leadership, recruiting, etc.).

Confirm the level of understanding with PowerVote

In May 2003, the Training Department used the interactive PowerVote voting system for the first time during the inauguration of the I2M (Management and Trades Institute). The goal was to present in a fun, interactive manner this new institute, while at the same time convincing the audience of the advantages of using PowerVote. Following the great success of this dynamic presentation, the PowerVote system was integrated into the training courses to evaluate the trainees’ knowledge level.

The 3-month, 3-course training programme combines classes with work experience. Between 25 and 30 trainees participate in each training session. The first course covers the technical aspects of the trade (production, maintenance, etc.), as well as customer service. The second course concerns the various aspects of communication and team management (training and delegation). Finally, the third course tackles the administrative tasks of the trade (turnover, markup, etc.), followed by an overall evaluation of the trainees’ knowledge acquisition. The score awarded at the end of this training programme allows the regional manager to evaluate each trainee’s knowledge level.

The interactive PowerVote voting system is used with questionnaires for the confirmation of each course. These questionnaires are dotted with “best answer rankings”, which lend dynamism to the session and motivate the learners, while allowing each trainee to monitor his or her positioning.

PowerVote a source of envy within the Fast food Chain

Before PowerVote, the Training Department used paper-based questionnaires.
« The use of paper was especially time-consuming, for both the instructors and the trainees. What’s more, our trainees being rather young, they tended to trade their questionnaires. With PowerVote, there’s no way to cheat and due to the playfulness of the system, the trainees feel more involved. In the end, everyone’s happy,” states the Director of Operational Training.

“We use PowerVote every three weeks, and since 2003, we have trained over 2,000 employees. PowerVote allows us to immediately verify our trainees’ level of understanding. Thanks to its ease-of-use and the possibility to make immediate modifications, our questionnaires are always up-to-date with regard to standards. In addition, we save considerable time and paper. Now much easier to organise, our sessions are lighter and less boring, for we have eliminated the time-consuming corrections imposed by paper.”

PowerVote has then attracted more people within this fast food Chain! Today, the regional managers want to use the PowerVote system to evaluate their personnel, and other projects are under way: hygiene training, HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points), etc.

Risk Management specialist

This training specialist relies on the interactive PowerVote voting system for the implementation of its teaching methods
To provide training courses best suited to the real needs of its trainees, the group chose to use the interactive PowerVote voting system.

Specialised in inspection, consulting and training for risk control with regard to quality, safety, health and the environment, this group acquired the interactive PowerVote voting solution for its certification and accreditation training courses. Today, over 3,000 people are trained each year with the PowerVote system.

Redefining an educational itinerary thanks to PowerVote

The risk management specialist’s initial goal consisted of optimising the educational impact of its retraining courses on electrical certification.

Faced with a heterogeneous public with disparate skills and knowledge, the idea was to underline the need to up-date the trainees’ familiarity and understanding of the various products concerned.

The goal: find the best means to rapidly determine the trainees’ gaps in knowledge and implement a programme suited to these retraining sessions.

“PowerVote allows us to evaluate, via a quiz, the trainees’ skills and knowledge. Based on this evaluation, we can then implement an educational itinerary best suited to their needs,” underlines the Director of Training.

“The initial training course lasts three to four days, as opposed to the retraining session, which lasts only one day. Therefore, this allows us to return to various subjects and, by precisely measuring the trainees’ educational needs, PowerVote enables us to optimise the content of this single-day session.”

PowerVote boosts the group’s training courses

Today, this risl management specialist uses PowerVote for three types of training: electrical certification, the training of asbestos inspectors, and, recently, for a course on raising awareness of the health risks in buildings with regard to lead, asbestos, Legionella, etc.

These training courses are meant for all persons active in the fields of electrical installation, maintenance and equipment construction.

“We have used the PowerVote system since October 2002. It allows us to measure knowledge acquisition at the beginning and the end of the training course via a quiz,” states the Training director.

“What is interesting with PowerVote, is the real-time aspect of the system: after asking three or four questions, we analyse the answers together with the trainees, and following this analysis, we ask for their feedback on the content of the answers. In this manner, we can play around, get moving again, and return to particular questions and answers. This dynamism is very motivating, as much for the instructors as for the trainees, while the paper-based questionnaires that we used before PowerVote made the training static.”
Finally, the training course’s dynamism and playfulness aids knowledge acquisition and allows the learners to become actively involved in their own training.

About this risk management Group
This group was created in 1953. In the 1980s, having consolidated its positions in the constuction sector, it decided to diversify its activities. In this manner, in parallel to the development of consulting missions in organisation and quality management, professional training grew into an activity in its own right. Initially centered on the technical construction skills that had made its reputation, the group’s training offer rapidly expanded to include the various other domains that today figure in its catalogue. The use of modern educational tools such as PowerVote is one of the goals for continual improvement of the Training Department.

Consultancy & Training Company

This Consultancy company regularly uses PowerVote to enliven its training sessions

The experience of an Associate Consultant

A consultancy and training agency specialised in operational management, marketing effectiveness and personnel development, we make regular use of the PowerVote system during our training sessions.
The system allows us to add dynamism to our training sessions and to ensure the trainees’ active participation throughout the day via the continual evaluation of what they have understood and learned of the subjects developed during class.
This also allows the instructors to develop deeper into those subjects meriting further attention, thanks to the immediate, graphic measurement of the participants’ level of understanding, and to move on more rapidly for those subjects that are perfectly understood.
In addition, we have developed, in partnership with PowerVote, a training game for a major insurance company, whose goal is to sustainably modify the marketing practices of its network’s 30,000 employees.
We also reworked and made more dynamic our clients’ existent training courses, to increase their educational effectiveness. Our clients particularly appreciate being able to evaluate the trainees’ evolving knowledge level, from the beginning to the end of the training course, with the individual files indicating the correct and incorrect answers of each participant, for an improved post-training accompaniment.

For our clients, PowerVote is now one more advantage of our company.

Airport Security Company

An Airport security company chose PowerVote for its training programmes dedicated to airport safety

Each year since 2006, 5,000 people are trained thanks to this interactive meeting system based on electronic voting.

The Ministerial Order of 1 September 2003 made training programmes dedicated to airport safety mandatory for all air transport activities. Put in place to prevent acts of malice, these programmes answer several major goals, including: have a general understanding of the various players and their respective roles, be familiar with the safety-measure goals and prohibited items, and master the main regulatory measures applicable.

An innovative educational tool for real-time evaluation

This renowned player in the consulting and training sector, relies on the PowerVote solution to provide its services to the personnel of airlines, airports, freight companies and service firms. Following each session, the participants use the voting keypads to individually answer a series of questions, thereby allowing for a confirmation of their knowledge acquisition. For certified training courses, a minimum score of 12 out of 20 is required for validation.

“Today, all players of the air transport sector are required to implement training programmes for their entire personnel. Faced with this legal obligation, the teaching aids chosen are a decisive factor in meeting the goals set by the ministerial order. By facilitating the understanding of the measures and rigorously confirming the results, PowerVote meets our clients’ needs and expectations,” declares the Director of the company.

Breaking with the traditional paper-based questionnaires, the processing of which is often time-consuming, The Airport Security company chose to acquire the PowerVote solution, which allows it to create interactive, fun presentations, to collect the participants’ votes in real-time, and to immediately and graphically display the results with the help of a video projector.
“The PowerVote system is perfectly suited to the needs of our profession. Easy to use, it not only allows our instructors to visualise the answers in real-time and to save them onto their computer, it also enables them to immediately evaluate the knowledge level of the audience, thereby making them more reactive. These are differentiating factors to which our clients are very sensitive,” adds the director.

Stimulating emulation to optimise knowledge acquisition

The interactivity of the PowerVote system, combined with the playfulness of the voting keypads, has also proved to be a real motivational lever for the trainees. “It is essential for us to be able to capitalise on a solution that is both interactive and intuitive and that allows us to involve the participants by making them more active,” continues the Director of the company.
Another advantage greatly appreciated by them: the possibility for the instructor to punctuate the training sessions, whenever they so desires, with best-score rankings. “With the results being displayed in real-time, we are able, thanks to the voting keypads, to take into consideration the response time of each trainee. As a result, the training sessions become more dynamic, a real emulation arises between participants, and message memorisation is greatly improved,” he concludes.

PowerVote brings a new dimension to multi-location symposiums

PowerVote key in training of 25,000 Mercedes-Benz sales staff and dealers in 2011

L’Oréal

Volkswagen

Groupama

Genzyme

Nycomed

Stihl

GILEAD Sciences

Global Media Health

Ambulance service

National Veterinary School

Dior Travel Retail

Fast Food chain

Risk Management specialist

Consultancy & Training Company

Airport Security Company

Support

News

PowerVote brings a new dimension to multi-location symposiums

PowerVote key in training of 25,000 Mercedes-Benz sales staff and dealers in 2011

L’Oréal

Volkswagen

Groupama

Genzyme

Nycomed

Stihl

GILEAD Sciences

Global Media Health

Ambulance service

National Veterinary School

Dior Travel Retail

Fast Food chain

Risk Management specialist

Consultancy & Training Company

Airport Security Company

Support

News

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