TurningPoint® Case Study

Dartmouth AI Conference

BACKGROUND

In July 2006, Dartmouth College celebrated a historical event, the 50th anniversary of artificial intelligence. The conference sponsors knew it would be an important milestone and wanted to plan a spectacular event.

Dartmouth AI conference: The Next 50 Years was the result of this meeting of the minds. The conference allowed leaders in artificial intelligence research to assemble and examine how far AI has progressed in the past half-century and chart AI's research agenda for the future.

During the summer of 1956, computer science pioneers gathered in Hanover, New Hampshire, for the "Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence." Professor John McCarthy, then on the Dartmouth mathematics faculty, coined the term "artificial intelligence" in the title to emphasize the Project's focus on the creation of machines, especially computer programs, to simulate human intelligence. Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester, and Claude Shannon worked with McCarthy to organize the Project. This year, McCarthy and Minsky, as well as Trenchard More, Ray Solomonoff, Oliver Selfridge would return to commemorate the event.

According to conference steering committee member Carey Heckman, also an adjunct professor in philosophy at Dartmouth, the conference had approximately 175 attendees. Thought leaders in the field flew in from around the world, joining individuals that are in the AI research arena from both the scientific and on the philosophical side.

In addition, a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) allowed conference organizers to invite and pay the expenses for 34 rising leaders in the industry. Heckman and other organizers were thrilled to take this opportunity to coordinate an event where the fathers of the industry could, in essence, hand over the baton to the new generation. To learn more about the event, visit http://www.dartmouth.edu/~ai50/homepage.html

Because it was a once-in-a-lifetime event, Carey Heckman chose to implement Turning Technologies' audience response system in his presentations to gather a wide variety of data from a group of people that would not likely ever have the chance again to all be in one room.

CHALLENGE

Carey Heckman had a vision of what he wanted to accomplish. With a very sophisticated, knowledgeable global audience that rarely meets – world-renowned keynoters, Ph.D.s, post-docs, rising stars in the field, and original attendees of the 1956 AI colloquium, he wanted to capitalize on this opportunity. He envisioned a presentation with rich participation and data capturing capabilities that would record and honor this unique gathering.

Heckman was interested in conducting research and revealing attendees' feelings. He knew a conference-end survey would not fulfill his needs, so he researched creative ways to gather this information. He decided that an interactive methodology was the answer and an audience response system would be the ideal solution.

His worries with implementing an audience response system included high costs, technology issues, unnecessary hassles and no direct experience with how it would operate. But he soon discovered that his worries were unnecessary as TurningPoint® became a welcome addition that engaged participants and facilitated data gathering.

SOLUTION

Heckman implemented his knowledge of survey writing to create interactive PowerPoint® slides with questions that dealt with the metaphysical, spiritual level of the event, tapping into attendees' ownership of ideas and the discussion topics.

As an add-on to PowerPoint, TurningPoint seamlessly integrates into Microsoft Office products, nearly eliminating the learning curve for users already knowledgeable in PowerPoint, Excel and Word. TurningPoint software installs as a toolbar within PowerPoint and was easy for Carey to learn how to develop his interactive presentations.

Heckman originally moved quickly through the questions, with the intention to limit tainting opinions by seeing results. But as he continued to close polls and moved on, he began to receive increased amounts of razzing from the audience to see the results! They would usually vote before a break, and attendees were so interested in the results they would often opt not to leave their seats!

Heckman is still in the process of sorting through all of the data and findings from the conference. But he is grateful and relieved that TurningPoint easily allowed him to gather and document such important information.

Its ease of use was critical to the success of the response technology's implementation. Heckman was looking for a solution that was "an aide, not a hurdle." TurningPoint met that expectation.

"It's mind-boggling how easy TurningPoint was to use, and I've been exploding with ideas of how else to implement it in other ways," said Heckman. "It has driven us to have a variety of conversations about other uses."

"It could not have been smoother, was easy to install, easy to use, and was always there," he continued. "Reading a manual and learning tricks weren't necessary for success."

CONCLUSION

Heckman stated that from start to finish, the Turning Technologies staff was incredible helpful and helped him go into the conference with confidence.

"I never once felt the technology limited me, but actually helped me get to where I wanted to go," he concluded. Even in a high-pressure environment, TurningPoint was a tool that alleviated his worries, commemorated the conference, and helped a celebrated significant anniversary with success.

For more information about renting a Turning Technologies' audience response system for your next event, contact us at 866-746-3015.