TurningPoint Case Study

Acumen Learning, LLC

BACKGROUND

Acumen Learning, LLC was founded seven years ago by Kevin Cope, an acclaimed trainer that has served as an industry leader for over twenty years. Prior to his entrepreneurial venture, Cope held the title of Executive Vice President and President of International Operations at the renowned training institution FranklinCovey. Now as the President and CEO of Acumen, Cope leads the organization with customized, interactive and actionable solutions that his clients desire.

Since its inception, Acumen has trained tens of thousands of participants in over 20 countries. Working with 11 of the Fortune 50 companies has given Acumen acclaim and credibility within the training industry, and allowed it to grow into the reputable company it is today. Cope has personally trained individuals at such high-level organizations as AT&T, Boeing, Canon, Disney, Medtronic, Verizon and many others.

THE CHALLENGE

As an industry leader, Cope is constantly seeking solutions to remain a pioneer. Armed only with paper surveys known as "smile sheets," Cope would conduct post-event surveys to evaluate sessions. If he wanted to know if review of material during sessions was necessary, he would simply ask a question out loud and visually gauge the reaction of the participants. If blank stares followed, so would additional instruction.

While Cope desired to ask further questions during training, a show of hands was as far as his technology would allow. In smaller groups, counting hands was manageable, but not very effective. For larger groups of 200 or 300, which his team regularly booked, using the "raise your hand if" method was not feasible. It was not until a relative introduced audience response to Cope that he explored using interactive presentations.

THE SOLUTION

Although Cope had known about the technology during his time as a trainer, he was first exposed to it by a tech-savvy family member. After borrowing the system, the time from trial to sale was relatively short. Cope saw that the system was easy-to-use and fully integrated with PowerPoint. He was instantly convinced that Turning Technologies' audience response would benefit his program.

"The idea of it really speaks for itself," said Cope. "When you think about the ability to get instantaneous feedback from everyone you are teaching or presenting to, it's really a no-brainer in my mind. I was immediately drawn to the concept of asking questions and finding out how audiences respond. What we were doing before didn't come close to what we are doing now."

Cope uses the TurningPoint system to accomplish a number of goals. With the response technology, he is able to keep the audience engaged, test participants for understanding and conduct research simultaneously. The ability to ask questions and immediately see results was a key selling point, and invaluable to the training curriculum.

"The instant feedback is great for our team and the audience to see graphically. The best feature is the ability to see where the class is retention-wise or know their feelings on specific topics - and be able to speak to the results," said Cope.

CONCLUSION

Cope has had such success with TurningPoint that he uses it in each one of his over 500 trainings during the course of a year. He estimates that over 10,000 participants use TurningPoint per year, and the number continues to grow with his business. The impact is felt by his participants, who enjoy using the system and often ask for more questions during training. Once he was exposed to the technology and its effect on attendees, he didn't give it a second thought.

"We've never had a problem, we've never had a glitch and we've never had a reason to look anywhere other than Turning Technologies," said Cope. "The technology has given us credibility, allowed us to remain on the cutting-edge and provided engaging programs for participants. We're very pleased with our experience and love using the system."

For more information about Turning Technologies' audience response systems for your organization, contact us at 866-746-3015.