Question Roulette

The Question Roulette software came about after author Gary Benner had been filming these events for some time, and found that they tended to be somewhat boring, with speakers running over time, and questions from the floor turning into speeches of their own, with little question content.

Then he became an organiser, and decided to create some systems to better manage the event.

Firstly, it was decided that all questions would be pre-prepared, curated by the committee, and with input from the community prior to the event. Then the questions were to be entered into a computer program that would automatically select a random set of questions from the pool that the committee had prepared.

To spice things up the software created a “roulette wheel” spin before selecting and displaying the questions to the speaker, and the audience.

The hall setup we use is shown in the right, along with some of the equipment we used for filming and managing the sound.

We found that having a timer displayed to the speaker made it very easy for them to stay on time, as without it that may find themselves in the middle of making an important point when the “bell rings”, and desiring then to complete that point. The on screen timer seems to make it easier for them to stay within time.

We try and make it easy for candidates to answer questions, and so we provide a personal monitor right in front of them with the question text there for the duration, and we encourage that the question is read out by the Question Meister, giving a little time for the candidate to compose their reply. A timer is displayed for the duration, and it changes colour as the time reaches the end, with a bell a few seconds before the end, and a buzzer when their time is up.