Two-Way PDA, Laptop and Cell Phone Audience Response System

1 . An audience participation system comprising:

a plurality of participant two-way communication devices;

at least one presenter two-way communication device; and

a central server and wireless LAN managing communications between the, participant and presenter devices, wherein the system provides real-time audience participation and real-time generation and display of results.

2 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the participant devices are selected from a group consisting of PDAs, laptops and cellphones.

3 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:

the participant devices comprise means for presenting surveys and questions, obtaining survey results and answers to the questions, and sending the survey results and answers to the presenter device; and

the presenter device comprises means for displaying the survey results and answers in real time.

4 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:

the participant devices comprise means for submitting real-time questions to the presenter device; and

the presenter device comprises means for answering the questions in real time, and means for collecting identification information of the participants and providing answers later.

5 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the participant and presenter devices comprise a dynamic event schedule.

6 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the participant and presenter devices comprise links to documents and media accessible in real time.

7 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 1 , and further comprising means for tracking attendance at the event.

8 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the participant and presenter devices comprise a silent auction feature allowing the participants and presenters to bid on items in real time.

9 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the participant devices comprise an e-commerce application.

10 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the participant devices comprise:

a profile mode of operation, wherein participants login with identification information; and

an anonymous mode of operation, wherein participants participate anonymously.

11 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the presenter device comprises:

a reviewer mode of operation, wherein questions and comments from the participant devices are reviewed before being sent to the presenter device; and

a speaker mode of operation, wherein questions and comments are received and displayed by the presenter device.

12 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 1 , and further comprising means for allowing remote use of the system by participants and presenters not present.

13 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 1 , and further comprising a messaging system for sending messages to participant and presenter devices.

14 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 1 , and further comprising a pre-event website for posting agenda topics and meeting materials.

15 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 1 , and further comprising a post-event website for posting event results and information.

16 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 1 , and further comprising a backup server having synchronized data flow with the central server, wherein the backup and central servers are connected to an uninterruptible power supply.

17 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 16 , wherein the central and backup servers are each connected to a RAID 1 array and an external storage device to ensure redundancy and constant mirror images of both data and application functions and processes.

18 . An audience participation system as claimed in claim 16 , and further comprising primary and secondary wireless routers that are connected to an uninterruptible power supply.

19 . An audience participation system comprising:

a plurality of participant two-way communication devices selected from a group consisting of PDAs, laptops and cellphones, the participant devices comprising:

means for displaying surveys and questions, collecting survey results and answers to the questions from participants, and communicating the survey results and answers; and

means for collecting questions from participants and communicating the collected questions;

at least one presenter two-way communication device comprising:

means for receiving the survey results and answers from the participant devices, and aggregating and displaying the results and answers in real time; and

means for receiving the questions from the participant devices and displaying the questions in real time; and

a central server and wireless LAN managing communications between the participant and presenter devices.

20 . A method for facilitating participation in an event having a plurality of participants and a presenter comprising:

providing participant two-way communication devices that are custom-configured for the event;

providing a presenter two-way communication device that is custom-configured for the event;

sending questions and surveys to the participant devices;

obtaining and sending survey results and answers to the questions from the participant devices to the presenter device in real time;

obtaining and sending questions from the participant devices to the presenter device;

aggregating and displaying the answers and survey results in real time with the presenter device; and

displaying the questions from the participant devices in real time with the presenter device.