iPad - Hive Pad

With all these iPads starting to pop up at meetings like mushrooms, maybe it’t time you put them to good use? The iPad becomes an incredible brainstorming device when linked with The Hive. About 6 months ago I experimented with one at a Johnson and Johnson meeting in Singapore. There were over a hundred attendees, we were all connected to the internet and using The Hive to brainstorm ideas about getting around some significant obstacles. I had given my iPad to one member of the China sub-team to use along with the laptop on the table. It worked seamlessly, and it was both fast and easy to use. During the report out, the woman using the iPad stood up, addressed the whole team and gave me one of the great tag lines ever. Holding the iPad in one hand, and the microphone in the other, she said, “Remember 1000 songs in your pocket? Now, I have 100 ideas in my hand! Thank you group for all your suggestions.” She received tremendous applause. We took a break. Afterwards, using the hive we quickly culled down the list to four workable solutions, three of which were deemed highly innovative.

I believe we are seeing a trend here. IPads are the perfect size to to large meeting brainstorming and quality small group work. Using the Hive, we can preload a meeting, and have sub-teams open up collected information, challenges, assignments on their iPads. This will save so much time at the meeting. We can then use this time for deeper dialogue at the meetings. I believe that we will see more and more executives wanting to tap into the real wisdom of their teams. We are getting closer to where inclusion is becoming much more attainable at large meetings. With Hive Pads we will be able to brainstorm, rank ideas, hold discussions, prioritize ideas and achieve valuable insights faster and with greater quality than ever before.