Groupware Facilitation

Pat Esslinger specializes in facilitating technology-enabled meetings, where each participant in the room is provided with a laptop computer on a self-contained portable network. One-at-a-time oral comments and facilitator's flip charts are largely replaced by simultaneous keyed-in comments and electronic big screen displays.

This computer-aided facilitation

• lets participants collaborate with each other or work alone, submitting ideas anonymously, and then share ideas with the entire group.
• accelerates and improves brainstorming and organizing ideas, leaving more time for members to discuss, develop, and assess the ideas.
• provides structure for evaluating ideas systematically, allowing participants to rate alternatives against a list of criteria and/or to allocate resources among the alternatives.
• instantly analyzes the evaluations statistically and displays the results graphically.
• creates a real-time permanent record of all input.