Participant consensus buttons

A voting device that can instantly and continuously give feedback on various opinions in the audience. Participants can, for example, indicate any of the following: agreement or disagreement with the speaker, agreement or disagreement with the proposal under discussion, desire to move onto the next point on the agenda, desire for clarification of the point being made, desire to adjourn the session, desire to break into small group discussion sessions, or similar points. The device given to each participant consists of a set of 6 (or more) switches corresponding to each of the above points. The switches are linked to a counting device such that when 27 participants press the first switch a counter visible to all participants (including the speaker and the chairman) indicates "27". The total for each other point can also be indicated at the same time.[Advantages]

In this way, at a glance, all participants in the meeting session can determine with greater accuracy the sense of the meeting and how it should be continued. This helps to avoid meandering. The great advantage of the device is that it helps to change the pattern of communication. Instead of all communications being mediated by the chairman or speaker, participants are able to indicate to one another their assessment of the meeting in a way which prevents the chairman from manipulating the meeting on the basis of his own interpretation of the desires of participants. The use of such a device introduces much more immediacy into debates since at every moment, in effect, a continuing vote is being made on a number of features of the meeting. (If recorded, as is technically feasible, this would be extremely valuable data for the evaluation of meeting effectiveness).

[Disadvantages]

Can be distracting, misused and misunderstood and most conference speakers and participants are unfamiliar and uncomfortable with such a change in communication patterns.