TurningPoint and ResponseWare Case Study

Hidalgo County, Texas

BACKGROUND

Hidalgo County in Texas is one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States. With a population estimated over 700,000, the county boasts large, flourishing cities like McAllen and developing institutions like The University of Texas-Pan America. Due to the swelling community, local officials wanted to ensure that economic development was headed in the right direction.

Godinez Communications is a marketing and public relations firm that works closely with the public sector. Clients often include city government, county government, school districts, economic development corporations and chambers of commerce. Founder Brian Godinez has been an integral part in major strategic initiatives within the community, involving cities like Brownsville and McAllen. When Hidalgo County began conversations regarding the direction of its economy, Godinez sat on the committee and advised on gathering public input.

THE CHALLENGE

Hidalgo County in association with The University of Texas-Pan American and the office of Hidalgo County Judge Rene Ramirez began discussions regarding a five-year initiative to monitor and guide the development of the community. Specific topics of interest included job creation and economic wealth creation, involving elevating the level of industry in the community to keep quality jobs such as health care positions. Elements such as infrastructure, facilities and education were being debated by the project committee.

During the discussions, it became clear that public involvement was necessary to fully develop a plan. Committee member Godinez had previously used audience response technology in a number of projects, most recently at the McAllen Image Public Workshop. His team implemented TurningPoint audience response at a forum for the rebranding of the city of McAllen. Participants on-site used handheld ResponseCard keypads to respond. Participants off-site used mobile devices or computers and the polling application ResponseWare to vote during a public access TV broadcast and simultaneous webcast. TurningPoint was once again recommended for a similar use.

THE SOLUTION

While TurningPoint had been used by other local entities, the county still had a process for receiving services from vendors and had to obtain several quotes in order to make an informed decision. According to Economic Development Planner Erika Reyna, "We found that TurningPoint had what we needed at a reasonable cost. It was looked on very positively."

The County panel launched the community summit entitled "IGNITE Hidalgo County," in order to gather public opinion. A live meeting was held and gathered 80 community members together to give valuable feedback on questions like "What contributes most to the county's economy?" and "What is the greatest challenge facing the county's economy?" In addition to the 80 participants at the event, off-site contributors could answer questions via the web using ResponseWare. Another 20 participants interacted virtually.

"Hidalgo County is quite large and has a wide rural area that is hard to reach," said Godinez. "We were able to reach such an audience using web-based polling. The reaction was overwhelming positive. The real-time aspect of collecting the data was the main factor in our decision."

Project Manager Michael Uhrbrock said, "We liked it because it adds that element of interactivity to the event. It's great to use cutting edge technology to get feedback right then and there. Before we had used flip charts and wrote everyone's opinions down. In this case, that process would have taken forever. With the response technology, we were able to get a group of people to respond in real-time and get accurate information as well."

CONCLUSION

The results gathered were instantly compiled into detailed reports using the TurningPoint software. Working closely with The University of Texas-Pan American, the collected feedback is being analyzed in order to determine what tasks will be necessary to address the concerns of the community. From the data gathered, the committee will be able to develop an asset map for the county and a comprehensive strategy to promote economic development over the course of the next five years.

Due to its success, Reyna plans on implementing the technology in other, similar meetings. She said, "We didn't want a meeting where we collect the data and everyone walked away and didn't hear about the results for another month or two. People lose interest if you wait too long to show the results. People really feel like they are having an impact when the response technology is being used."

Both Uhrbrock and Reyna agreed that using web-based ResponseWare in conjunction with traditional audience response added a level of outreach to the event. Even though they didn't know what to expect, everything happened instantaneously and without error. According to Reyna, "We were very satisfied."

"One of the advantages was using the technology to allow people to participate that aren't there physically via the Internet or their mobile phone. It expanded the number of people in the planning conference," said Uhrbrock.

The participants were most vocal about the use of the technology, relating that it was "fun" and "like a game" but at the same time were engaged in the conversation. "The audience was estatic," said Godinez. "We were 100% delighted in the process. If we had to hand out a survey where five was the highest rating, we would have received fives across the board! We plan on using it in many related activities."

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