November 17, 2004 - Following four major hurricanes in the state of Florida over a period of nine weeks, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) asked Option Technologies to help provide technology for town hall meetings to better understand the needs of citizens in the devastated areas.

A series of three meetings, using OptionFinder® software and hardware, were conducted in different locations in Southwest Florida during November 2004. "FEMA’s goal prior to the meetings was to conduct a needs assessment for each county and develop long-term recovery plans for discussion with the public," according to Steve Brigham, COO of AmericaSpeaks, one of the organizers of the events.

The meetings conducted in Charlotte, Desoto and Hardee counties, included approximately 400 local residents at each location. Participants received copies of the recovery plans along with a handheld wireless OptionFinder® keypad. The system allowed attendees to provide input by responding to live polling questions presented on-screen. Facilitators at each table, helped organize the feedback process and group discussion.

"The polling keypads created highly interactive and engaging meetings, even with these large groups of people," said Brigham. "One of the great things about this technology is you can pose a wide range of critical questions and still have the ability to ask new questions on the fly, based on the responses. For instance, we asked what people wanted in downtown Arcadia. We were able to quickly theme their responses to create a new question asking for their highest priorities for downtown from among their nine suggested options."

"One of the great things about interactive town hall meetings," according to Mark Fite, President of Option Technologies, "is that it allows everyone to have a voice. Usually at public meetings, government officials and a handful of citizens will dominate the discussion." "By using a response system, everyone in the room has an equal opportunity to provide their opinion. It’s tremendously powerful," indicated Fite.

Visit Option Technologies Interactive online at www.OptionTechnologies.com