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SingTel, Singapore's largest mobile network operator, hosted the SingTel i.luminate event in September 2008 showcasing the latest in business communications innovations, and bringing together leaders in business and communications.
The event drew over 1,000 invited attendees from Singapore and around the world, and featured speakers from industry and academia, product launches from several mobile device manufacturers and hands-on demonstrations of a range of the latest business communications technologies.
SingTel chose this event to deploy nexmedia's Message Board on its mobile network. An electronic collaboration and communications platform, Message Board invites audience participation by encouraging attendees to send SMS messages containing questions, comments or opinions. Messages appear on a fully configurable electronic board projected on a screen for others to consider and perhaps respond to. Message Board was integrated with SingTel's mobile network, allowing SMS to be received from any worldwide mobile network with roaming in place with SingTel.
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For the SingTel i.luminate event, the Message Board display was configured to blend seamlessly with SingTel's branding and event theme, and the moderator console was used for the keynote sessions, with SingTel staff members moderating the questions in real-time as they arrived from the audience, handpicking the ones most suitable and relevant for posting to the public board. Messages selected for posting appeared as large virtual yellow sticky notes, visible to not only the panel members but the entire audience as well.
Several hundred questions were submitted during the keynote session, with over 80% approved for public posting by the moderator. Topics ranged from the rise of instant messaging against email, Singapore's role as an innovation testbed, and the plans for global banking brands to provide mobile transaction capabilities.
Individual breakout sessions was provided with their own individual session-specific Message Boards without moderation, allowing audience members to post questions and comments directly to the board in real-time.
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For a large event such as SingTel i.luminate with attendees from a wide range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds, allowing the submission of questions and comments via Message Board and SMS encouraged a much higher level of participation than via traditional microphone based question-and-answer sessions. As questions were submitted via SMS, there was no need for attendees to muster the confidence to speak in front of a large audience, questions could be received without interrupting the ongoing presentations and panel discussions, and questions could be submitted semi-anonymously, as only a portion of the sender's mobile number was displayed with the question. The level of audience participation was significantly raised and the course of the discussions and presentations could be tweaked to meet the real-time feedback from the audience.
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