TurningPoint AnyWhere Case Study

Hypnotist Paul Ramsay

BACKGROUND

After working as a residence hall director for the University of New Hampshire, Paul Ramsay developed an interest in hypnotism. Ramsay ran a co-ed building and was in charge of creating healthy, alternative entertainment for his residents. Every year, he would bring in a local hypnotist as part of his social programming efforts. After a few years of watching the hypnotist in action with his residents, Ramsay decided that he wanted to try it for himself.

Following a few training sessions with the hypnotist, Ramsay discovered that he was skilled at the trade. When he was younger, he always had a desire to be an entertainer but wanted to help people in some capacity. With hypnotism, he could accomplish both through not only stage shows, but also private sessions to provide coaching on quitting bad habits, overcoming fears or motivating individuals. After formal training with a certified instructor in Massachusetts, Ramsay left his university position and took steps to fund his own business.

THE CHALLENGE

Ramsay jumped into his new found profession with both feet, and found success with college audiences. He was soon picked up by an agency, averaging 35 shows a year in addition to his private counseling sessions. However, he knew that he had the potential to do more business, so he discussed what he could do to improve his number of bookings with his agency.

His agent agreed that he was a good performer and had a solid price point, but he wasn't doing anything to differentiate himself in the already overly-saturated college market. During the discussion, his agent suggested that he make his program more interactive. For the next nine months, Ramsay started handing out quarter sheets of paper during his shows to ask his audience what they would like to see on stage. He would then collect the forms, tally the results and build the shows based on the collected results.

"Using the forms was working, but it was kind of cumbersome," said Ramsay. "I was getting positive feedback, but no one was really raving about it. When one of my former coworkers at the University of New Hampshire told me that I should be using voting keypads instead, it was a light bulb moment for me. I thought, 'Why didn't I think of that?'"

THE SOLUTION

Upon the recommendation of his colleague, Ramsay decided to investigate response systems for voting purposes during his show. He was first introduced to Turning Technologies by his former coworker, but also reviewed a few other companies to ensure he had done his homework. When he finally saw the demo and spoke to a Turning representative, he knew that the TurningPoint AnyWhere response system was the right tool for his needs.

Ramsay received a set of RF ResponseCards and tried out the system during a presentation at the Annual Convention for the National Guild of Hypnotists. The largest professional organization for hypnotists in the world, the convention is held every August in Massachusetts. During his session, Ramsay started out with an opinion poll. His audience was so enamored with the devices that they continually asked him where they could get a set of their own. After seeing the reaction from an audience of primarily middle-aged small business owners, knew he would get an even greater reaction from his college audiences.

Ramsay unveiled his newly renovated show shortly after, asking a series of questions that would direct the course of the show. Students are asked to select what they would like the hypnotized participants to act out. Answers can range from "drill sergeant" to "wrestler" to "opera singer." The participants believe they are being challenged to prove that they are the best of their profession, and perform as such on stage. Since he typically sees 70 - 100 students each show, he has to pass out ResponseCard keypads to a portion of the audience, which ends up only adding to the participation.

"Not only do the students who get to use the keypads love it, the students who aren't using the keypads are literally yelling at the ones who do because they want to be involved. Many of them are shouting, 'Come on, pick A!' And often, the choices toggle between two answers right up until the last second. I never thought about it actually adding to the drama and theatricality of the show. The people who hire me are always impressed with how much the students get into the voting," he said.

CONCLUSION

Ramsay continues to use TurningPoint AnyWhere in his shows across the country. Since his implementation of the system, his bookings have gone up approximately 20%, with a total of 50 shows this year. The small size of the keypads allows Ramsay to travel to his many venues without worry - one of the main reasons why he opted for Turning's solutions over other competitors. As a single performer, his space becomes very limited when carrying supplies, and the lunchbox size carrying case fits perfectly with his other supplies, including a video camera, laptop and additional product to sell.

In addition to the small size of the equipment, the radio frequency technology ensures that all participant responses are captured, even if the audience fills a large conference hall. Compared to the infrared technology that he originally tested with other companies, Ramsay was confident in Turning's hardware. The TurningPoint AnyWhere software also provided Ramsay the flexibility he was looking for, giving him a "nice, translucent window that I display on top of my Keynote presentation. It looks really nice when we project it up on screen and provides a toolbar that I can move around and access quickly."

However, the key feature that keeps Ramsay using the technology is the interactivity it provides during his show. "It gave me the audience participation without affecting the speed or the flow of my show at all. Doing surveys with paper forms, I had to collect the forms, take the time to read the forms and pick out the answers. Now with the technology, it's so fast that not only do I get to see it, it adds that element with the graph where the audience literally 'oohs' and 'aahs.' The participants get really excited. It adds this dynamic level of audience participation and at the same time it makes my job easier because it is happening in real-time."

Ramsay is a strong advocate of Turning products and not only continues to use it during his hypnotism shows, but also plans on integrating it into other speaking engagements including motivational and seminar lectures. He intends on polling his audience and using the answers to direct the course of his talk. According to Ramsay, "I have gotten more out of the TurningPoint AnyWhere system than I ever expected. I plan on using it for a long time."

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