Talk Direct a big success at Sight Tech
On Wednesday 17th of February we were invited to take part in an event held in Leeds called site tech.
The event was organised by action for the blind to help the visually impaired community to receive advice and support with equipment that could improve day to day living. Our part was to demonstrate how a digital device such as a smart phone or tablet could be adapted so the user would find it much easier to use and navigate. We have taken part in events like this before but never on this scale. As you can imagine I was very excited about the event and was looking forward to showcasing just what we could offer. I headed to the day event with 2 of our gurus Sam Butterworth and Liam Tipton. Neither of them had ever attended such an event before and both were excited about seeing if their knowledge was up to the standard needed to help people in a difficult situation.
As soon as the event opened plenty of people worked their way over to our stand and started asking for our technical advice. Some of the visually impaired people we spoke to already had a mobile phone but had no idea about using a smart phone. Many of them thought that a phone which has no buttons to press would not be so easy to use and had never even entertained the idea of trying to use one.
Sam and Liam soon started explaining and demonstrating just how easy these phones are to use and how with a little patience can make a difference. After showing people the basic functions we then started to show how a few Apps can help even more. One gentleman we spoke to really struggled to read his Bible and often got really frustrated whilst trying to do so. Sam immediately downloaded a magnifying app for him on his iPhone and demonstrated how easy it was to operate. This was fantastic and the gentleman was so happy and he couldn't thank Sam enough and walked away very happy. The sad thing for me was that he had been using an iPhone for quite some time but didn't know that the magnifier was there all this time but nobody had ever taken out the time to show him.
Liam was speaking to somebody who had a little vision but needed help with making his phone menu etc larger so he could get more from his phone. Liam, straightaway knew of an app that would help as he had done a little homework leading up to the event. Within minutes Liam had downloaded and app we often use instore called big launcher, which will you know is absolutely perfect for what the guy required. Again this was very well-received and in no time at all the gentleman was using his phone way better than before. A Lady approach me after seeing this and told me she worked for Leeds city council and was really impressed in what she had just seen. When I explained about my role and the service we can offer she is going to invite me to a team meeting to explain to social services just what we can do for their clients. As you can imagine this is very exciting news.
On the day we helped several more people like the stories above and for me the whole day was a huge success. Action for the blind were really impressed with the work we did on the day and couldn't be any more grateful. Both Sam and Liam were excellent on the day and were really humbled with all thanks they received from the many people they helped.
To say this was the first time they had ever worked out of Store they were fantastic. These events are absolutely key for sending footfall into our stores and we have several others already planned over the coming months. I only hope that other events are as big a success as this one was.
