On April 10th, 2019, TEDxCharleston set the stage once again for 13 of the Lowcountry’s best and brightest influencers & innovators to share ideas worth spreading. A live audience of roughly 1,000 congregated in the Charleston Music Hall, and countless others streamed the event online. This year, the staff and volunteers behind TEDxCharleston took additional steps to innovate – joining forces with local technology start-ups Revvi and Vizbii Technologies – to capture and share the impact of ideas on attendees.
During the event, Revvi provided its SMS texting & survey platform to communicate with TEDxCharleston attendees – using smartphones to engage with the live audience and understand their experiences in real-time. Embedded within Revvi’s platform was Vizbii’s patented experience-capture technology, Morphii®.
Long-time TEDxCharleston Organizer/Curator, Edith Howle, connected with Vizbii months ahead of this year’s event – expressing her desire to deepen the audience’s engagement with the ideas they’d hear and capture their impact. Howle wanted to ask: How an idea would move people emotionally; what thoughts an idea would provoke; and, what actions people might take as a result?
The response defied expectations. Revvi recorded 516 opt-ins from TEDxCharleston attendees – more than half of the audience. Subsequently, pairing Revvi’s SMS text capability with Morphii’s propensity to engage resulted in 862 Morphii Reactions. Encouraged to respond whenever an idea impacted them, at least half of those participating provided feedback on three or more ideas. Overall, 39% of respondents endorsed “high investment” actions in response to an idea, be it: changing habits, making a financial impact, getting involved, or becoming a leader.
The results were illuminating, to say the least. This was the first time TEDxCharleston captured information from its audience in real-time.
“In looking at ways to further engage with the TEDxCharleston audience, Morphii technology struck me as a unique tool for capturing and visualizing the audience’s emotional experience with each idea. Not only did the audience respond at rates beyond our expectations, our speakers found the feedback to be constructive, actionable, and affirming.”
Edith Howle
Photograph by Minette Hand
No stranger to the stage, presenter LB Adams was particularly pleased with the feedback she received. Take charge of your words – Out loud not only provoked the most participation, of those who responded, over 75% registered intense levels of excitement, and one-third of those responding indicated they would “change habits” – a high-investment reaction.
“There’s some real stuff to unpack here! As a soft skills trainer and someone who frequently speaks to large groups, I know that I’m constantly asking myself ‘How was that? Did my ideas and delivery resonate with the audience. Were they with me?’ The ability to access real-time, emotion-based feedback, and understand how that relates to individual perspectives is invaluable when honing my message and delivery for the next conversation.”
LB Adams
Photograph by Alice Keeney
David Turner, PhD presented AGE’s might kill you. Do you know what they are? Those who reported Disappointment expressed that feeling with the most intensity (84/100), and might have been articulating an unhealthy affinity for bacon. Overall, though, Worried was the most frequently selected emotional response. For Turner, learning how the audience felt, coupled with 31% of respondents indicating that they would “change habits,” solidified that his message was, in fact, making an impact.
“As a speaker trying to educate about complicated, lifestyle-associated health issues, the Morphii feedback tool and Revvi platform allowed me to gain a greater understanding regarding both the audience’s ability to follow what I was trying to say and if it was actually making an impact on their lives. The results were highly informative, and I am glad to say, highly encouraging. They provide a defined platform with which to improve my future outreach efforts.“
David Turner Ph.D
Photograph by Alice Keeney
Stephanie Boye, presented Porn – A mother’s concern and action. Unsurprisingly, the most frequent emotional response surrounding the topic was Worried; meanwhile, Disgusted was the emotion expressed with the most intensity (90/100). However, the motivations catalyzed by these emotions is of significant interest. More than 13% of respondents selected the highest investment action – to “become a leader.”
“Wow! It is great to see how the audience responded to my talk. I can see that it is a powerful tool especially for event producers and speakers to get a feel for audience engagement and response to what they are seeing/learning/experiencing. I think this is an effective tool to fine tune what I am saying and how it comes across to the audience.”
Stephanie Boye
Photograph by Alice Keeney
Impressed by the outcomes at TEDxCharleston 2019, Howle is looking forward to working with Revvi and Morphii again in 2020. Moreover, she is acting as an ambassador for the tech companies as they pursue other TEDx events and their curators – as well as their parent organization TED. To date, TED has spawned over 30,000 independent TEDx events around the world.
“Our organization received invaluable perspective, and we are looking forward to working with Revvi and Vizbii again next year. I would love to see this platform become a standard feature for TEDx events everywhere. The opportunity to engage with the audience in real-time catalyzed conversations between organizers, speakers, and attendees like never before.“
Edith Howle
At the outset, Vizbii and Revvi realized that this unique forum for experience capture – centered around Technology, Entertainment, and Design – was an optimal fit. We continue to be thrilled by the positive response and the level of engagement that our debut collaboration enabled; and, we want to express collective delight and gratitude for the opportunity to partner with TEDxCharleston to learn and build upon our offerings in support of ideas worth spreading.
Based on the success of TEDxCharleston 2019, Revvi co-founder, Chris Gentry, is pursuing product development for a complete solution called PickEmo. The solution will feature Morphii technology to capture emotion and understand motivations using SMS Text and web-ready capability – in consumer channels, event spaces, and online to provide in-the-moment feedback. Including Morphii within this platform will drive higher engagement, increase efficiency, and generate actionable intelligence. If you’re interested in real-time data to drive consumer experience and analytics, contact us!
Email Morphii at info@morphii.com or visit the PickEmo contact site.
To learn more about the presenters and performances the live audience experienced at TEDxCharleston 2019 visit www.tedxcharlston.org; or, follow this link to Watch the Videos.
