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PowerComARS
Following these application recommendations can help new users quickly and easily find the right keypads for their needs. These recommendations are based on experience gained from serving hundreds of PowerCom clients.
1. Market Research
Market research is one of PowerCom's areas of specialization, and because of this many keypads work great for research applications. Depending on the complexity and specific demands of your research, the Reply Ativa, Plus, and Mini Plus can all be great options. For simple research requiring audiences to choose from only five options per slide, the Reply Mini is a fantastically intuitive and cost-friendly option. For choosing between more than five answer choices, the mini plus may be the right choice. Finally, for in-depth research of any kind, the Reply Ativa is a sophisticated and highly versatile choice that is sure to meet complex needs.
Researchers evaluating television, films, or commercials also have a perfect choice in the Moment to Moment software service. This software will allow test groups to provide second by second feedback in real-time as they watch videos inserted within PowerPoint slides. Moment-to-moment is compatible with Reply Plus and Ativa keypads, and is specifically designed to be ideal for the research needs of professional television, video, and film producers.
2. Education (Classroom Clickers)
ARS systems are quickly becoming a key tool in cutting-edge classrooms around the world. They can be implemented in a large variety of creative ways limited only by the teacher's imagination. As in any audience response situation, however, the specific needs of the presenter will dictate the ideal keypad choice. As a basic rule, the Mini and Mini Plus will be better for younger students, simpler subject matter, and schools on a tighter budget. The Reply Plus and Ativa will be more suited for higher education, allowing students to submit short answer texts when multiple choice options aren't enough. This chart might be useful for first-time users.
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Level
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Keypad Recommendation
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Notes |
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General Higher Education
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Mini, Mini Plus
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Lanyards highly recommended
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Medical School
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Plus and Ativa
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Law School
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Reply Plus for M2M & SMS
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| K to 12 |
Mini and Mini Plus
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Lanyards highly recommended
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3. CME & Medical Symposiums
PowerCom find that many CME and Medical Symposiums use Audience Response Systems to gain feedback about commonly used practices, best medication or treatment choices, and other "fixed option" questions. Because of this, the Reply Mini and Mini Plus are popular choices for this field. These keypads allow for fast and intuitive feedback, and keep costs and preparation time low.
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Level
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Features |
Notes |
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Mini
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Light weight and mobile for 5 answer choices
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Lanyard is highly recommended
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Mini Plus
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Light weight and mobile for more than 5 answer choices
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Lanyard is highly recommended
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Worldwide
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These Fleetwood flagship keypads are great choices for durability and simple design
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Larger size ensures keypads are easy to keep track of
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4. Seminars / Keynote Speaking Engagements
While the needs of each individual presenter will determine the best keypad for seminars and speaking engagements, we at PowerCom find that the Reply Mini and Mini Plus are the most popular keypads for this particular application field. Simplicity and a fast pace are very important for most presenters in this field, and the Mini and Mini Plus specialize in intuitive, user-friendly, speedy voting results. If presenters need five or less answer choices, the Mini is easy and inexpensive. For more than five answer choices, the Mini Plus is probably your best entry-level solution! [Get a free consultation!]
5. Training Workshops
Training workshops are highly controlled situations requiring more testing than person by person feedback. Because of this, the Reply Mini and Mini Plus are great choices for training workshops. The Reply Mini is the cheapest option for creating slides with up to five choices or ranks which can be immediately voted on (great for pop quizzes!). For more than five answer choices, go for the Mini Plus! [Get a free consultation!]
6. Focus Groups
Focus groups can achieve any level of group feedback with PowerCom. Your keypad choice will be determined by the level of detail you would like to receive from the test group.
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Basic
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The Reply Mini will allow your audience to vote on up to five options per slide. For more than five options, you'll need the Mini Plus. These keypads are great for deciding on favorite options, voting, or registering percentages of approval.
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High Feedback
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If you need more detailed feedback from your focus groups, you may want to consider the Reply Plus for Texting (SMS) or Ativa keypads. Both of these keypads will allow focus groups to text short messages to the presenter. This will allow for the complete functionality of the Mini and Mini Plus, but also enable audiences to create their own nominations, comments, or questions. (The focus group could be asked, for example: "What is your favorite TV show?" Instead of just voting on options, the Reply Plus and Ativa will allow groups to write in their own choices.) For the highest versatility, including Smart Card removable memory and full QWERTY keyboard functionality, the Ativa should be considered. |
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Video Analysis
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If your focus group is going to review videos, commercials, TV shows, or films, you should also consider the PowerCom Moment by Moment software. This software works with the Reply Plus or Ativa, and allows audiences to provide second by second feedback to videos, creating approval graphs which can be played over videos in real-time. |
7. Departmental Meetings - Sales, Marketing, Management
In dealing with sales, marketing, and management clients, PowerCom has found that technical excellence and grace in presentations is very important. Because of this, we often recommend the Reply Ativa or Plus for these clients. These keypads will allow for a higher amount of communication in boardrooms and situations where cooperation is important. By incorporating texting capabilities, the interactive potential of PowerPoint is fully unleashed when using PowerCom with the Ativa and Plus. Keypad holders can make nominations, suggestions, and give in-depth feedback to presenters in real time. Offices with this service installed will find that they've gained a versatile tool that can be used again and again in many different situations. The Ativa will allow for the greatest functionality with touch screen, Smart Card removable memory, and full QWERTY capabilities.
If texting capabilities aren't important for your needs, you should also consider the Mini and Mini Plus. [Get a free consultation!]
8. Shareholder Meetings / Corporate Elections
Our corporate clients use PowerCom every day in a wide variety of situations. They are often interested in versatile and elegant solutions for common office tasks as well as presentations and board room meetings, and because of this they usually prefer the Ativa or Reply Plus. In addition to the standard PowerCom audience response and voting features which are standard with every Reply keypad, our corporate clients are often interested in the following features of these keypads:
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Keypad
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Features |
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Ativa
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1. Smart card for secure and (optionally) anonymous shareholder voting 2. Touch screen color PDA with soft keyboard and QWERTY functionality for user-friendly and fast texting 3. Beautiful and highly detailed screen featuring voting result and confirmation displays 4. The only keypad capable of simultaneously entering multiple fields to be sent to a presenter 5. Extremely versatile options and high functionality |
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Plus
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1. Simple, easy to use, and less expensive than the Ativa
2. 3 line LCD screen display, auto scrolling when entering and displaying message 3. Alphanumeric cell phone style texting |
9. Trade Shows
PowerCom has worked with many trade show clients, and has developed fantastic presentation concepts for trade show clients! See a detailed description of how a trade show using Powercom and the Ativa keypad works by following this link: (see it here)! One of the most important parts of trade shows is obtaining leads, and because of this we highly recommend the Ativa keypad for our clients in this field. To show you why, we've compiled a list of a few characteristics of the best keypads for trade shows:
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Keypad
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Features |
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Ativa
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1. Smart card to automatically save survey info and results for follow up. 2. Self-paced survey functionality perfect for busy crowds 3. User-friendly touch screen Color PDA with soft keyboard; screen features clear vote confirmation and results display 4. QWERTY typing for quick information entry (great for lead tracking) 5. The only keypad capable of entering multiple fields simultaneously |
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Plus
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1. Often ideal for large and/or simple trade show events
2. Simple, easy to use, and less expensive than the Ativa. 3. 3 line LCD screen display, auto scrolling when entering and displaying messages |
