Guest Blog from the co founder of virtual audience engagement specialists YouSaidIt.

The great thing about being involved with audience response technology since the late 90’s is that you could see it progress from in venue wired devices that looked like calculators. Yes calculators, we didn’t have mobile phones to compare them with. Nowadays it is to refer to our technology “remember those old Nokia phones? Yes, well we had a device that looked just the same and people were able to press these buttons”

Or the other one when asked what you do is, remember asking the audience in that game show “Who wants be a millionaire?” always also came up every single time. It was novel in its own way but at least people understood what you were on about.

Try now to explain to people that you sell tech that will give everyone a voice in the audience and 1000’s of them can join at the same time and no one cares. It could be anything. Twitter, Facebook poll, Linked-in, Slack and probably a 1000 others. Everything now promises engagement. What does that mean though?

One of Arthur C Clarke’s adages that became Clarks laws refers to - any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Getting a client brief to poll a thousand people in a one go over various locations is not a problem anymore and the ability to do this also has a lower barrier to entry due to the barrage of available engagement tech.

This got me thinking, what is it that we are selling at Vevox? It has always been the same thing, regardless of what tech you are using. You are selling the ability for people to say to themselves – “I thought I was the only one” the moment that results appears on screen in room or remote on a mobile device.

That to me is indistinguishable from magic, I could see it in participants eyes from the very first days people used keypads in conference rooms or class rooms the world over.

I thought I was the only one that didn’t understand what she was on about, I thought I was the only one that didn’t believe the direction we are following within the company is the right one, or it is clear that other people don’t trust management either. Impostor syndrome is a real thing, employees need some positive confirmation from time to time and sharing that anonymous feedback in a team always gives the quiet ones the voice and confidence to move forward.

YouSaidIt are certified Vevox partners supporting African businesses and educational institutions. Book a demo and consultation today, or get started with a FREE account.