Museums and Audience Response Systems
Event technology is commonly utilised at business events such as corporate expositions, training conferences or fund-raising events, encouraging the sharing of ideas and knowledge. It is also becoming a popular tool in the classroom for lectures and research groups as it increases knowledge retention and student participation. However, the devices used for audience response can also be used in museums to increase interactivity and to do market research.
In a museum, groups of people or individuals can be given keypads when they arrive. They can use these keypads to log data from interactive exhibitions and information points at various locations in the museum. By scanning these information points with their keypads they can then store any information that they find interesting. Additionally, a person may not have had the time to look at every exhibition in detail so may want to save the information for reference later. This information can then be emailed to each person after they leave the museum. In addition to tourists, teachers may wish to use this on school trips for use in the classroom later.
Sending emails is more cost effective for museums than trying to cram all the information into a booklet or DVD and will appeal to the visitor more as they can tailor their museum experience to their own interests. These emails can contain links, pictures, videos etc. from the museum website, encouraging a return visit. This can also be used to encourage visitors to subscribe to online newsletters or ticket offers that the museum may wish to capitalise on.
From a business perspective, the museum can collect the data from the audience response system and analyse the results. They will be able to see which exhibitions are the most popular and those which aren’t doing so well. Also, by encouraging people to input some basic personal data into their keypad they can see which age groups or genders are attracted to what types of exhibition. People can often be reluctant to fill out questionnaires or feedback forms at museums but if they are given the control and novelty of using audience response technology they will be more likely to submit data.
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