On a personal level, I am very proud of the fact that I have worked my way up from being an intern at the company to being one of the key members of UNISON LLC. You don’t realize it while you are in the thick of it, but looking back on it now, I am proud of the contributions that I have made, the reputation that I have created for myself, and I realize that all of the hard work and long hours has paid off.
 
U:  You’ve traveled the globe for UNISON, what are some of your observations on how people of different countries and cultures react to the UNISON technology?

JB:   People do react differently in a UNISON meeting and culture is one of the reasons. One of the most memorable examples of this was our more recent meetings in Japan. We received only a couple of questions from the attendees during the presentations and we didn’t know why. The ‘Ask a Question’ feature is usually the most used features in a typical meeting setting. We discovered that since the attendees are sitting in a group, it is culturally unacceptable for a single person to type in a question without the group first working on it. 

Another audience trait and perhaps the biggest, regardless of culture, is the audience’s familiarity and comfort level with technology. We have conducted meetings with doctors in many different countries, who naturally are focused on the well-being of their patients, rather than working with computers on a daily basis. This group, in general, is more hesitant to participate in activities and slower to complete them. In contrast, we have conducted meetings with groups of sales representatives that have grown up with technology and use it every day. As a result, we design more complicated activities because the technology is less of an obstacle and the learning curve is almost flat for these techno-savvy attendees.

However, now that we know these different traits, we design UNISON meeting modules that appeal to the comfort level of different groups and cultures. 

 
U:  Share the challenges that you faced when asked to program UNISON in a language other than English and how you arrived at the solutions?

JB:   Programming screens and conducting meetings in a different language is definitely more challenging. The code is the same except for the content that appears on the screen in the foreign language. That is where the challenge lies because every single word, phrase or button text must be translated, checked and double-checked. 

Another challenge is the special characters that exist in other languages. This causes the layout of the content to differ from when it is programmed in English.  Again, we have to check and double-check the screen views with the aid of an interpreter.

The bigger challenge is operating a meeting that is conducted in a foreign language.  As an operator, I don’t understand anything that is being said from the stage or by the audience, or even what the audience is inputting into the UNISON system. Beforehand, I work with the presenters to work out cues to create a seamless presentation. What is a must, though, is the need for an interpreter so that we can plan for the occasional “ad-lib” or “on the fly” change that the clients or presenters may request during the actual meeting. 

U:   What do you have planned for the next generation of UNISON?

JB:  Talking software first, UNISON will soon be a program that will allow non-programmers to put together UNISON content. Up until now, it has taken a UNISON programmer to put together the UNISON content for a meeting. The next step is to give the UNISON operator the ability to create this content. This will allow UNISON to do more meetings and at the same time, give our programmers’ more free time to improve the software.

Further down the road, I see the UNISON` software becoming more encompassing of all of a meeting’s elements, including PowerPoint and video. At the same time, the two screen setup will become very dynamic and more powerful with the increased options of mixing these meeting elements. The interactive UNISON screens will become more graphically enhanced with better effects and 3D animations.

From a hardware standpoint, we are currently working on a new offering which is as of now unnamed. It will be a handheld version of UNISON that allows everyone in a meeting to interact at the individual level, as well as at the group level. This new piece of hardware will run wirelessly and will put meeting information right at the participant’s fingertips. Things such as meeting agendas, speaker bios and videos will be available as well as the usual UNISON exercises, but again, all can be accessed and worked on at the individual level. Using this handheld version in conjunction with the existing UNISON system will make a meeting more interactive and will allow our clients to get much richer, deeper and even more complete data.

Another area where I see UNISON experiencing growth in the future is through the use of UNISON in new markets. When UNISON was first introduced, it was used by financial services clients such as Deloitte and JPMorgan Chase, and has since become the favorite of many of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. We had to adapt the software to the nuances of financial services and pharmaceutical clients to create activities that fit the style and requirements of these industries. Offering UNISON to other industries will expose us to new client needs and in turn, improve our software to fit those needs. What those new markets may be, I am not sure, but education seems like one possibility.

I am definitely excited about the future of UNISON because there is room to grow and improvements that can be made. And making those improvements in the software is what I enjoy doing the most. It is great working with my team during the planning process, striving to realize some very ambitious plans, and then seeing the software in action. Getting to see the entire process from beginning to end is a rewarding experience.