I frequently get asked how to better engage participants during Adobe Connect presentations. My answer is always –EMOTICONS 🙂 – icons participants can click on to express emotions that appear next to their names in the attendee list. These emoticons can express laughter or applause, ask the host to speak louder or slow down, or show raised hands. They’re a great way for presenters to engage an audience during a live meeting.
The emoticon “Raise Hand” feature is a way for participants to ask for microphone rights during a VoIP meeting. If a host acknowledges an attendee’s raised hand by “accepting” it, that allows the participant voice rights.
A great product legacy story is when I first began hosting web meetings in Adobe Connect—and before the emoticons were part of the product—participants used to “clap” by typing “………” in the chat pod. Today, we’ve made expressing emotions during a meeting much more fun, I think.
If you haven’t, give emoticons a try in your next meeting. And let us know what emoticons you’d like to see in Adobe Connect next.
-Amy Brooks, Adobe Connect Event Producer