January 27, 2005 - Option Technologies gained worldwide media attention by providing interactive response system technology for a unique “Global Town Hall” meeting during the opening general session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.  The OptionFinder® system allowed more than 700 world leaders to share diverse viewpoints and select the top six “tough issues” on the global agenda.  

During the event, attendees participated in discussions at tables of ten.  Their ideas were collected real time using special software and a network linking all the tables in the room.  The insights from each table were then fed back to the entire group to build on the dialog.  After a comprehensive discussion, participants used OptionFinder® decision support software to rank the issues and identify their top six priorities.  

The six co-chairs for the 2005 forum included Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft; N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman, Infosys Technologies; Lubna S. Olyan, Chief Executive Officer, Olayan Financing Company; Charles Price, CEO, Citigroup, USA; John Thain, CEO, New York Stock Exchange; and Daniel Vasella, CEO, Novartis.  

Carolyn Lukensmeyer, who helped to facilitate the session, indicated that the group took advantage of a “very unique opportunity here in Davos,” not only to identify the key issues , but also to determine “the key challenges within these issues.”  The ranked priorities included:  

• Poverty
• Equitable Globalization
• Climate Change
• Education
• Middle East
• Global Governance

A complete report on the results of the Global Town Hall session and an archived webcast of the session are available at the World Economic Forum website at: http://www.weforum.org/site/homepublic.nsf/Content/Annual+Meeting+2005#2

 The event was coordinated by Neil Mirchandani and the technical team from OptionFinder Europe GmbH, located in Frankfurt, Germany.  OptionFinder Europe is the European Union affiliate of Option Technologies.    

“We used OptionFinder® 5.3 software with advanced OptionFinder® IQ keypads.  The entire system worked very well in a very challenging radio-frequency environment,” said Mirchandani.  “The were many different radio frequency devices operating simultaneously.  This created a great deal of potential interference at the conference location.  The IQ system performed beautifully,” he indicated. 

For more information, contact Katheryne Pelak at 407-872-3333 or kpelak@optiontechnologies.com.

Visit Option Technologies Interactive online at www.OptionTechnologies.com           Visit OptionFinder Europe online at:  www.OptionFinderEurope.com