Interactive Conferences

As a doctor, I often attend conferences to update myself on new trends in my field. I have witnessed the lectures in such conferences to be evolving through the years. It has become less stiff and now emphasizes Audience Response. That is a great thing, because a mark of a good lecture is one in which the audience is very participative and not just passively listening. Whereas before Interactive Audience Response consists mainly on the audience asking questions about the subject matter at the end of the lecture, now technology has given us an Audience Response System which is live. Results are posted as soon as it is done.

That is on top on such innovations like the LCD projector. When I was in training, the best we had then was the slide projector. Problem is that we had to finish our presentations ahead of time so that we can have a picture session, after which we bring the slides out for the "making" of the slides. The newer technique is actually cheaper for the one who will lecture since he does not have to shell out additional money to have the slides made.

Truly, technology makes what was supposed to be a mundane stuff into something really worthwhile.