Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the 2012 MFSA Mid-Winter Conference (MFSA stands for Mailing and Fulfillment Services Association).

While it is true that channels such as mailing and fulfillment can be labeled as “traditional” when it comes to the world of marketing, the folks that put this conference together embraced technologies new and old!

One of my favorite examples of this has to do with how they gathered feedback from attendees of the conference sessions.

Multiple Response Mechanisms

Typically, attendees of a session at a conference will be given a handout that allows them to rate a speaker and his or hers presentation. Once they’ve filled it out, they can simply hand it in to the conference staff.

At the Mid-Winter Conference, this certainly was done too. However, it was only one option.

Once a session reached completion, a slide was presented on the big screen. It provided attendees with another option to share their feedback.

A gigantic QR Code was presented on the screen. Attendees could simply pull out their smartphone and scan the QR Code.

They were then instantly directed to a mobile website where they could enter their feedback! The Form on the mobile website included a variety of fields, such as:

• Rank the speaker on a scale of 1-5
• Rank the presentation content on a scale of 1-5
• Answer whether the presentation properly covered specific items
• An open-ended box that let people share comments and thoughts

This feedback data was collected and instantly routed to the conference staff.

Final Thoughts

Sure, there were some issues that needed to be worked through as this process was implemented. They needed to answer question such as: How big should the QR Code be so that people can scan it? How will they merge data that was submitted via a phone with data that was submitted via pen and paper?

But in the end, putting in the time and effort to answer those questions meant this: they would be offering an option to their target audience that would make their lives easier! All companies should be seeking to have that be an on-going and major goal.

Thus, I think this is a great example of how companies, associations, etc. can integrate mobile technology into their traditional methods of communication and data collection!