You are here: SMART Meeting Pro 4.1 Help > About > About SMART Meeting Pro software > Brainstorming sessions

Brainstorming sessions

During brainstorming sessions, you and your co-workers develop ideas using charts, tables, mind maps and other visual tools.

Solutions for common business needs

You can use your SMART interactive product and SMART Meeting Pro software to enrich your brainstorming sessions. Specifically, these SMART products offer solutions for the following business needs:

Business need	Solution	More information
You want to capture your notes in an electronic format.	Use the SMART interactive product’s pens and eraser to write, draw and erase digital ink in SMART Meeting Pro software’s Whiteboard mode. You can then save your notes in a Whiteboard (.fcw) file or export them to a PDF or PowerPoint® file.	Writing in, drawing in and erasing digital ink Saving files
You want to write notes by hand but later convert them to typed text.	Use Whiteboard mode’s handwriting recognition feature to convert handwritten notes to typed text.	Converting handwriting to typed text in SMART Meeting Pro software
You want to capture more notes than can fit in a single screen.	Use the Unbound Workspace, where pages have no defined boundaries, and the page area can be larger than the viewable area. Navigate your notes in Unbound Workspace using gestures, bookmarks and the radar view.	Displaying pages in Unbound Workspace
You want to write notes on the desktop or in other applications.	Using SMART Ink, write notes on the desktop or in other applications. You can subsequently take screen captures of these notes and include them in the Whiteboard file.	Using SMART Ink Using the Screen Capture toolbar
You’re having difficulty starting your brainstorming session and could benefit from templates.	The Business Gallery contains brainstorming session templates as well as other boilerplate content. You can browse this content or search for keywords. You can also contribute your own content to the Business Gallery. This is a simple but effective way to assist co‑workers with their brainstorming sessions.	Sharing content using the Business Gallery

Tips

Here are some tips for a successful brainstorming session:

Invite a diverse group of participants to your brainstorming session to solicit as broad a range of opinions and ideas as possible.
Before beginning the session, state the objective and write it on your SMART interactive product.
Encourage all participants to contribute ideas, no matter how unique or unusual those ideas might be. In addition, invite participants to build on the ideas of other participants.
Write notes on your SMART interactive product as ideas come up during the session. Don’t organize notes during the brainstorming session. You can do this later, either at the end of the brainstorming session or afterward on your computer using SMART Meeting Pro PE software.
Use tools such as mind maps to visualize the flow of the brainstorming session.
If participants have SMART Meeting Pro PE software on their computers, you can distribute the notes in a Whiteboard (.fcw) file. Otherwise, you can export the notes to a PDF or PowerPoint file to distribute to the group.

For additional brainstorming session tips, search the web.

SMART Meeting Pro 4.1

Windows operating systems

Brainstorming sessions

Solutions for common business needs

Tips