Strong Turnout At ASTD
Attendance at the ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) annual convention is nothing short of ‘very strong’ which could signal that corporate America is once again investing in training. From what I saw, the seminars were fully attended and traffic in the Expo Hall was bustling with trainers in search of solutions.
As you would expect, the major industry players were all there. But since I’m most interested in classroom response systems (aka student response systems) I found the mix of these vendors to be rather interesting.
It’s not too long ago that Fleetwood was pretty much the only audience response vendor at the annual ASTD show. This year though other vendors included: eInstruction, Option Technologies, Turning Technologies, and Qwizdom (listed alphabetically).
I was fortunate enough to be in a position to eavesdrop on more than just a few conversations between trainers and response system salespeople. The common theme seemed to be that most trainers had very specific questions about how each vendor’s system fit with the way that the trainer needs to work.
Many had advanced questions regarding reporting methodologies, data import facilities, export capabilities, and tools for freeing the instructor from the keyboard. Most important, the days of explaining what a student response system is seem to be gone. . . finally.
Another observation is that hands down, trainers want PowerPoint plug-ins for driving these hardware systems and have little interest in standalone software applications. The exception is with advanced, or power users. These instructors are not at all shy about tackling technology. But by and large, the average trainer has had more than his/her share of new technology to digest over recent years.
I did see one new plug in called PowerCom, which is designed for use with Fleetwood’s Reply Worldwide system. It is a stable, easy to use (wizard driven) system with a feature set that is typical for plug-in polling modules. I understand that an ‘education market’ feature pack is in the works and expect that PowerCom will become a top player in the plug-in market.
As you would expect, the major industry players were all there. But since I’m most interested in classroom response systems (aka student response systems) I found the mix of these vendors to be rather interesting.
It’s not too long ago that Fleetwood was pretty much the only audience response vendor at the annual ASTD show. This year though other vendors included: eInstruction, Option Technologies, Turning Technologies, and Qwizdom (listed alphabetically).
I was fortunate enough to be in a position to eavesdrop on more than just a few conversations between trainers and response system salespeople. The common theme seemed to be that most trainers had very specific questions about how each vendor’s system fit with the way that the trainer needs to work.
Many had advanced questions regarding reporting methodologies, data import facilities, export capabilities, and tools for freeing the instructor from the keyboard. Most important, the days of explaining what a student response system is seem to be gone. . . finally.
Another observation is that hands down, trainers want PowerPoint plug-ins for driving these hardware systems and have little interest in standalone software applications. The exception is with advanced, or power users. These instructors are not at all shy about tackling technology. But by and large, the average trainer has had more than his/her share of new technology to digest over recent years.
I did see one new plug in called PowerCom, which is designed for use with Fleetwood’s Reply Worldwide system. It is a stable, easy to use (wizard driven) system with a feature set that is typical for plug-in polling modules. I understand that an ‘education market’ feature pack is in the works and expect that PowerCom will become a top player in the plug-in market.
