As we reported last week, NAPA has launched an innovative online voting tool to pick the best ideas for session topics at next year’s 401(k) Summit, utilizing the same technology used by Frito-Lay earlier this year to choose “America’s favorite” potato chip.
The voting process is fun and rapid-fire, but the concept and technology behind it are sophisticated and cutting-edge. Think of it as crowdsourcing made easy — thanks to an algorithm developed by a team at the Department of Sociology at Princeton that sorts and ranks the ideas.
Here’s how it works:
• The online tool presents two session ideas. You pick your favorite — or add your own idea for others to vote on.
• The process is then repeated, with two more ideas to choose from and another opportunity to suggest a better one. Every time you suggest an idea, it’s added to the pool of ideas that others vote on.
• You can vote as often has you'd like, and see which topics are in the lead.
Beware: Voting can be addictive.
After a little more than a week’s worth of voting — totaling nearly 500 votes — the ideas in the lead include:
• how to evaluate and compare recordkeepers' value propositions
• the ins and outs of nonqualified deferred comp plans
• complementing a qualified plan offering
• marketing strategies; brand building
• top tech tools for the retirement plan advisor
• how to compete in an advisor search
Look for the voting box in the right column of any page on NAPA Net; on a mobile device, just scroll down to find the box. The poll will run until sometime in July; we’ll keep you apprised of the leading ideas.
