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How To Plan An Event Without Visiting The Venue – #EventIcons Episode 161

On today’s #EventIcons, we’re taking a closer look at how to plan an event without visiting the venue using AR and VR in events. During a very recent episode of the Event Tech Podcast, Will Curran and Brandt Krueger already tackled a similar topic. However, it’s never quite enough! When considering all the unbelievable potential of AR and VR in events, endless (Endless? Get it?) possibilities for discussion are out there. And this week, we’ll jump on the topic of venues, and what AR and VR can mean in this context.

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The advancements we’re witnessing in technology are staggering. And while the event industry might be a little slow in adopting some trends, attention should be paid to how our lives as event planners can change. One of the amazing possibilities of AR and VR is paying virtual visits to potential venues while simulating experiences. The concept alone is mesmerizing, and the number of resources that can be saved is more than appealing.

Not convinced yet? Well, then it’s time to join our hosts, Brandt Krueger, and Lindsay Martin-Bilbrey, for today’s episode of #Eventicons. They welcome special guest and icon, Sandy Hammer. Sandy has over 20 years of experience in the international events industry. She created AllSeated to revolutionize and digitize the event planning process. Additionally, with experience in the publishing, art, and high tech industries, Sandy previously founded conferenceART, a company that produces corporate conferences, seminars, forums and brokerage events around the world for customers such as Orange Global, Telefonica, and O2 UK, as well as many start-ups in Israel and the UK.

So, take a seat and listen as they discuss AR and VR in events, and more precisely, planning an event without visiting the venue. Let’s go!

Are you looking to create a more engaging event? Click here to download our free event planning checklist.

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We want to help keep you up-to-date with the latest and greatest!

Below, in our Epic Resources section, we link the awesome insider favorites that were mentioned in this episode! You WANT to check these out! What has been your favorite episode so far? Comment below and let us know!

You’re watching this recording of our event industry podcast episode here on our blog, but wouldn’t you rather watch live, ask your own questions, and participate in person? Subscribe now to watch live! (We’ll remind you of upcoming episodes.) We would love for you to join us LIVE and bring your questions for our icons.

How To Subscribe:

Click here to watch the show live and get email notifications of new episodes.

Subscribe via iTunes: Video & Audio or Audio Only

Click here to subscribe via RSS (non-iTunes feed): Video & Audio or Audio Only

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Follow our iconic guest on Twitter:

Sandy Hammer of AllSeated (@AllSeatedcom)

Lindsay Martin-Bilbrey of Pathable (@lindsaythecmp)

Brandt Krueger of Event Technology Consulting (@BrandtKrueger)

Check out the epic resources mentioned in this episode:

Slack

Trello

How to Use AR and VR at Events

The All-Inclusive Guide to Virtual Reality at Events

What’s your take on AR and VR in events? Have you tried virtually visiting a venue? Let us know about your thoughts and experiences in the comment section below!

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from Endless Events https://helloendless.com/plan-an-event-without-visiting-the-venue/

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Crowd Mics: Turning Phones Into Mics For Events

Another Monday, another Event Tech Podcast, today we are telling the story of Crowd Mics for events! Everyone can relate to the annoyances of sound during a live event. Whether it’s the speaker, the audience, or the AV company, these little glitches affect everyone. Ultimately, they affect the success of an otherwise awesome event, and no one wants that.

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How often have you asked yourself: “Wouldn’t it be awesome if I could just turn my phone into a mic?”. Well, you’ve probably wondered about this in several situations of your life. But with events, in particular, imagine just how much this small tweak could be a game changer. No more mic runners for anyone! If an attendee wants to ask a question, he could just turn his phone into a wireless microphone. Almost sounds like magic, right? Well, it’s not – it’s actually Crowd Mics for events!

Back in 2013, two brothers conceived this idea. The following year, the product was launched, and our host Brandt Krueger got to sit down with them for the first time. And today, five years later, Brandt and Will Curran welcome brothers Tim and Sean Halladay. For this week’s Event Tech Podcast, the four reminisce about the rollercoaster past, what’s new in the present, and what the future might bring. Amp up your speakers, because this week is all about the journey of Crowd Mics for events!

Subscribe to the Event Tech Podcast here and never miss a beat!

Click here to download the full audio transcription.

Crowd Mics For Events: The Beginning

Everything Starts With An Idea!

Tim and Sean’s lives took a very interesting turn. None of them was quite on the track to become an entrepreneur – Sean was actually in nursing school. But once an idea hits, you have to embrace it!

“Tim and I were actually sitting at a meeting together and we couldn’t hear what somebody was saying just a couple seats from us”, Sean recalls. “I leaned over and I said, “Man, Tim, what if there was some way you could turn your phone into a microphone? Like, I don’t know how. I don’t know what the technology,” I had no clue, “But what if you could just pull out your phone out of your pocket, talk into it, and everybody hear you over the sound system?” And he was like, “Wow, I don’t know.”

From then on, the rest was history. The two embarked on a journey to introduce the product to the world. In 2014, they had their first product launch, and the event industry went crazy!

All This Buzz For What?

“Twitter kind of just exploded and every event person that I knew was like, “Have you seen this thing? Oh, my God. You can just talk into your phone and it solves the whole issue”, says Brandt. The buzz got them $1 million in investment. All the way from Arizona, the two made their way to Salesforce’s event, Dream Force.

They got up on stage. “Hey, what’s up, everybody? I’m Tim Holladay from Crowd Mics”, Tim began. “So, we want you to download an app. Everybody’s gotta download this app. We’re gonna be giving a gift card away whoever download’s the app first.” And so, people started downloading and we’d start to get them on board, and we’re using all of this footage to capture so we could show investors and we could show other event planners and that we could show people it works. There were 200 people in a room, they were talking into their phone, and you could hear it and it could work”, recalls Sean.

What Now?

They got their product out into the world, with proven value. The first couple of events were free, and the issue of pricing eventually came up. “I mean, this is a product that did not exist on the planet. So, we’re pricing this thing and having a hard time. Is this an event app? Which has a kind of a pricing model. Is this a microphone? Which has a pricing model. Yes, do both. And so, we finally kinda settled in on a per event cut fee and just started charging and people started paying. And we just started running events”, says Tim.

The Challenges

Starting your own company seems like all fun and games, right? Actually, it’s more like hustle and…more hustle. There are more barriers than finish lines, and brothers Tim and Sean know all about it.

Educating

“Like, you gotta realize this is a brand new product that we’re taking to market. So, a lot of time it was educating why it’s important to have audience interaction and why it’s important to be able to capture that audio for recordings and why it’s important to let people express themselves and that’s why they came here. And so, a lot of it was educating and trying to get people to understand why we thought and why it was important in the market”, says Sean.

Validation

Tim compliments Sean’s point of view with the issue of market value: “From both event planner and technical side of things, this is a new product you have never seen before, you have 200 executives from your company that has hired you to pull off an incredible event, you’ve got everything dialed in, you’ve been working on this for a year, and then you bring in these two brothers with some sketchy-looking tech that sounds awesome, but is sketch.”

“I mean, you can see how that would be a little bit like, “Ah,” and in a lot of ways, it was. Meaning, there are a couple of technical X factors that were always a challenge for us to overcome. And so, we had to kinda take everything on a case by case basis in the early days.”

Another Event App?

Will touches upon the matter of people having to download yet another app. How can this issue be tackled?

“It’s kind of like how bad do you want it to work? How bad do you want the tech? How bad do you wanna use it? And in some cases, they say, “Not that bad. Not bad enough to do that. So, can we use your texting? Can we use your polling?” And we would lead them that way, and we did a number of events where all they used was our text feature, all they used was the polling feature, and that was fine”, explains Tim.

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The Next Big Leap

“If I were to look back at one of the biggest challenges that we had with Crowd Mics was that we probably pushed too far too fast, right? Too many markets, too many opportunities, too many just big wide eyes, and didn’t focus as much as we could have. We did the best we could with what we had, but that kind of wanting to explore other markets really spread us very thin quickly, and we ended up into a situation where we were not profitable”, recalls Tim.

What to do in such a situation? “So, the options are either raise more money, figure out how to charge more and get more revenue coming in, or just shut her down. I mean, we literally got to that decision point”, Tim continues.

The Decision

Sean remembers that period quite well, and what it came down to: “To give it a shot, we cut back and I just made the hard decision to go and find something else to do to give the startup life, to give it a chance to go. So, yeah, that was a tough decision and sucked to fire yourself from your own company that you founded and dreamt of, but it was the reality to make it work and to give it a chance. Which now, in hindsight, was the best decision that we made, but it was a tough one in the moment, for sure.”

Tim was the one who stayed. “Sean connected with a friend of his, Shaun McBride, known as Shonduras on the interwebs, and started to do some work up in Utah. So, Sean uproots his family, his little kids, little twins, and literally on a cold December night, moves to Utah. And I’m left here with our developer to keep Crowd Mics moving”.

The Biamp Connection

“So, Biamp, for those that don’t know, they’re a really, a kind of audiovisual provider, a manufacturer based in Beaverton, Oregon up near Portland”, Tim explains.

“They saw us at Info Com, thought it was cool, kept in touch a little bit, and then one day, Sean’s long gone in Utah, I’m keeping things kind of buzzing along, and they came along and said, “Man, this is really interesting. We like what we see. Are you interested in selling Crowd Mics?” Out of nowhere. Completely out of the blue. And the timing, guys, was just-it was the right timing. It was the right timing, it was the right situation. I would either have to raise more capital or figure out a different way and when they came along, it was the right thing to do”, he recalls.

They officially announced it a month ago, but the transaction actually took place in 2018. Ever since, the two brothers have been up to other exciting projects.

Fast Forward To Today

“We work with some of the biggest talent from Peter McKinnon to Tanner Fox to the Ace Family, Chris Ramsay. So, some huge talent on YouTube and Instagram where we go out and work with brands, both to just get paid promotion, basically, to spread the word on what they’re doing”, says Sean.

Tim is still up to some Crowd Mic business: “Biamp, when they bought Crowd Mics, the idea was to do something with it, but at the time, they just saw the opportunity to grab it, but really hadn’t had a formulated plan on what to do with it. So, they grabbed it and kind of sat on it for a little bit. I shouldn’t say sat on it, but they just didn’t really actively pursue doing much with it. So, I kind of just did some consulting work with them and with some other people doing some consulting with a couple local companies, and just recently, they said, “You know what, Tim? We’re gonna launch this sucker. Let’s just-let’s do it. We’d love to have you involved. Let’s launch Crowd Mics. Let’s re-launch Crowd Mics.”

He’s also aiming for some higher flights: “So, right now, I’m doing consulting work with Biamp and I thought, “Man, I’m just such a nerd. What could I do to exploit my nerdiness?” So, I’m a speaker. I’m a future speaker. You go to timholladay.com, I’m just now starting, just getting warmed up where I will do keynote and breakout session type speaking all about looking 5 to 15 years into the future and understanding how, as corporations, as organizations, and just as people, how we can best watch out for the pitfalls and then take advantage of incredible opportunities in the future”.

Some Good Advice

What could these ingenious brothers have to offer in terms of advice to future entrepreneurs?

On Sean’s part, it’s all about who you surround yourself with: “You’ve gotta surround yourself and find people that are genuine and will give you real feedback and thoughts and input. And make the connection when they say they can make the connection and introduce you to people that are gonna benefit and help you”.

Tim’s an advocate for the “you only live once philosophy” – knowing very well what that might mean: “Now that you’ve got yourself surrounded by good people, is just to freaking go for it. Like, really. Life is just way too short to not just do it. Meaning, what I found is all of us truly do have just this 24 hour-it’s super cliché, but we literally all have the same amount of time, and it does require giving up some things. You might need to back off on the Insta kind of trolling, you might need to back off on that latest Netflix series, you might need to make some hard decisions, you might need to put some cash in, you might need to sell your house and rent”, he says.

Conclusion

Overall, it comes down to hard work. “Those who hustle, those who grind, those who can just work, they’re gonna be able to make money. Might as well just do what you wanna do, even if it ends up bombing in a flaming ball of fire, it is worth the journey. Because the next one won’t bomb as bad, and then the third might hit, and then the fourth will change your life”.

So, that was a brief overview of this amazing journey with Crowd Mics for events. Let us know what you think about the technology, and of Tim and Sean’s incredible story, in the comment section below!

Resources:

Crowd Mics

TH: Tim Holladay

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from Endless Events https://helloendless.com/crowd-mics-live-events/

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dylan38sanders · 5 years

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Contemporary Accompaniments, Or Why Do You Hate Pianists

Amanda Flynn talks about her work as a vocal Coach for Be More Chill on Broadway. … Read More Contemporary Accompaniments, Or Why Do You Hate Pianists from blog https://contemporarymusicaltheatre.wordpress.com/2019/04/18/contemporary-accompaniments-or-why-do-you-hate-pianists/

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dylan38sanders · 5 years

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How A Long Day Can Turn Into An Expensive Bill – Whiteboard Wednesday

Hiring an AV company for your event isn’t all fun and games, especially when AV labor comes into the equation. Truth is when you’re going through the process of finding an AV company, labor isn’t something that pops into mind. Well, at least not immediately. Sure, you know you’ll need all that equipment, and screens, and speakers, the works! But have you considered these things need to be operated by someone?

That’s the thing with AV labor. When you’re hiring, you’re not just hiring for equipment, you’re hiring for talent! And if you fail on carefully planning your event, the bill for the labor involved can easily turn into a huge expense. Today’s White Wednesday will tackle how a long day can turn into an expensive bill. Join Will Curran as he walks you through the best tips on how to schedule your event so that the AV labor doesn’t turn out to be more than you signed up for!

Are you planning an event? Check out our free Event Planning Checklist and be on your way to planning your best event yet!

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Video Transcription – How A Long Day Can Turn Into An Expensive Bill

What’s going on, Endless fans? Will Curran from Endless Events back here again for another Whiteboard Wednesday, and today we’re talking about how a long day can turn into an expensive bill, especially an expensive AV labor bill. We really wanted to talk about this, because there’s a couple of rules that we get clarification and a lot of questions, and you know what? Figured it could use its own video as well.

All About AV Labor & Scheduling

We want to talk about when it comes to labor, is everything usually revolves around a day. A day is about 10 hours of work. A half day, half of that: five hours of work. Obviously, this depends on company to company. Sometimes you’ll hear a full day being eight hours, sometimes it’ll be four hours. When I talk about some of these rules, these are the ways that Endless has it set up. Every company’s going to be totally different in how it charges and how it follows these rules. But what we’ve found across the entire world, is that most companies follow these rules pretty straightforwardly, and usually when it comes down to it, the best companies usually all have about the same rules because they want to protect their employees in the same way.

Something to keep in mind as you go through this: these are just a couple of rules when you’re planning out your event and planning out your schedule. So keep in mind when you’re planning out your schedule in where you put breaks and things like that; this can majorly affect the AV company across the entire board.

The Beginning – Keep It Simple

The way to keep in mind as you’re thinking about it, is actually let’s plan on having this day start about eight, or about seven a.m., actually. Instead of eight a.m., we’ll have it start around seven a.m. The reason why is just to keep this really simple with numbers. After about five hours, you end up at about noon when it comes down to it.

Break Talk

The reason why I have it set up this way starting at seven a.m. and ending about noon for lunch is that after about five hours of work, most AV labor and most technicians and engineers are going to need a break. There’s sometimes a little smaller breaks, 15 minutes break, placed inside there for them to go grab their coffee, but usually what’s called … We’ll call it the lunch break … is that after about five hours, they’re going to need a lunch break or a meal break.

What If This Is In The Middle Of My Event?

This is why you want to set up your schedule to match this as best possible. When it comes down to it, after five hours you’re going to need a break. The break has to happen in either of two ways. First is that there’s called a walk away break, or what we’ll say is a one hour walk away lunch. This means for a solid hour, they need the ability to leave site, go grab lunch, relax, do whatever they want to do for that hour. You can’t dictate where they go. They can’t tell them to work on schedules. They have to be able to get a clean breakaway for an hour.

My best recommendation is to try scheduling a one hour break in the middle for them to get food, take a break, essentially.

The other option is a lot of companies will also do what’s called a 30-minute lunch provided break. So what this means is that they get 30 minutes to break. However, food has to be provided for them. So basically the idea is that you’re saving some time, that extra 30 minutes. Instead of them having to go find food, get their lunch, set up, whatever it is, it’s only 30 minutes.

But in this case, I’m going to do this being an hour break. Again, it gives the ability for you to extend into work a little bit later in the day which we’ll get to in just a little bit.

So again, two options when it comes to these meal breaks: one hour walk away, or a 30 minute provided lunch. Everybody with me so far? After five hours, give them that break.

More Break Talk (& Food!)

Then let’s say they come back, and they’re ready to get work done again. Well, then you get another five hours’ worth of work before you’re going to need another meal break. So again, after every five hours, feed ’em. Pretty simple, right? We want to feed people; we all have to eat at some point.

After about five hours, boom! You’re going to want to do another break as well. However, to illustrate this in the best way possible, I’m going to show you what happens a lot of times. Let’s say the general session starts at eight a.m., but seven a.m. is … From eight a.m. is a rehearsal, then you have a general session all day long and then let’s say we give ’em a lunch break because our general session’s not going to be in action during that time. Then we go back to doing general sessions. And it’s like a long day; we have a lot of meetings. But we then are going to have a late night gala dinner. There’s a party, whatever it may be. So we’re going to need ’em to stay past six p.m., which again is five hours after this.

OT, OT…

Well, then not only in addition to needing another meal break, but you also run into what is usually the dreaded overtime. And everyone wants to avoid this as much as possible, so this is how we’re going to recommend that you avoid this. For our company, we do it that after 10 hours, anything from 10 hours to 12 hours basically in that next section, is what’s called overtime. Overtime is one and a half times rate. Let’s say this normal person’s working for $50 an hour. Well at this point, when they’re working for these two hours from six p.m. to eight p.m., it’s in overtime, so they’re getting paid $75 an hour. You can see how this can get really expensive very, very fast.

How Endless Does AV Labor

At our company, we do it after 12 hours of straight work. Anything 12 hours, 13 hours, 14 hours…God forbid it goes any longer … it goes into what’s called double time. And this is the progression, right? You get the kind of happy work, and people like to say, “Why wouldn’t people want this? They just want overtime.” To be honest, if you talk to most engineers, they do not want to go to overtime and double time, because this means it’s a really long day of work. It means they’re … really, it’s getting into late nights. You’re talking about working till nine p.m., 10 p.m., oh my gosh, after they’ve been here since seven a.m. No one really wants to work double time.

You’ll Be Able To Tell

So you’re going from this kind of happy work, happy work … Well, then things start to get a little fuzzy when you get to this over time, and the warning signs should be blinking. At this point, if you don’t have this scheduled, and this is starting to happen, hopefully, your AV company will warn you and say, “Hey, just so you know, we’re about to go into overtime. We don’t want to do that.” They’ll hopefully warn you, but absolutely the thing you want to avoid is double time. That is just the worst, and that can be extremely dangerous because you’re then paying double the rate. You’ve gone from paying $50 an hour to paying $100 an hour. You can see how this can start to increase your bills and everything like that.

Schedule it Right!

When you’re planning out your schedule, you want to make sure that you’re giving these breaks along the way, but also that you don’t plan for these really long days. To be honest, just try to always plan around the engineer working for 10 hours total, with a one hour break. So, from 11 a.m. to six p.m., just be done. That’s a pretty simple way to avoid it.

However, some cases, we either have a long gala dinner or let’s say, for example, you need them to stay late for rehearsals, that’s when it makes sense … just plan for it when it comes. Again, all these rules kind of slightly differ between companies. So make sure that you’re talking to your AV company about what these rules are before you sign the quote, and that you understand them, because in the case you do have to take it as an emergency, avoid it. Right?

Beware Of The Short Turnaround

Another labor rule we get a lot of questions about is that what happens if let’s say, for example, you did all of this, and then you pushed and worked until let’s say 11 p.m. This double time went to 11 p.m., and you’re working till 11 p.m. Well, then you want to avoid something called a tight turnaround. And what this has to do, is let’s fast forward and whooop! Go to tomorrow. Let’s say this was the first day, but the next day, you have an early morning breakfast with the CEO, that starts at six a.m., so you need all the engineers there at five a.m. Short turnaround is what happens whenever the engineers have to finish one, a work session or work shift, and in less than eight hours between when they end work and when they start work, it’s called a short turnaround.

What To Do?

What this means is always when you’re planning your schedule, plan for when the engineers finish their work, you have at least eight hours between when they start their next shift. The reason why you want to avoid this is when you get into the eternal horrible day of flames and extremely high costs. The reason why is anything that happens then that next day can lead to pretty much double time all day long. Again, these rules slightly depend on the company, but what I’ve seen is that the next day it starts, they immediately start on overtime.

The Overtime Rollercoaster Of AV Labor

What that means is anything that day is going to be already in overtime. If you end up doing this again, where you go into overtime, it’s overtime of overtime. So you’re going 1.5 costs, times 1.5 costs. Then God forbid, you go to the double time, and it’s 1.5 costs times two times costs. You can see how this day could be extremely expensive. And the most common way that we see this happen is when you have a long gala dinner, and then you have to be out of the venue and everything has to be torn down the next morning, early morning, because you have to be out by noon, for example. You want to manufacture your schedule so then that way again, you cause a nice big eight-hour break between the two days.

Up And Running!

What’s nice, is that I find with most AV companies, if, for example, the guys end at 11 p.m., and then the next day would obviously be seven a.m. would be the start time. They don’t factor in things like driving, but that’s something to keep in mind with your AV engineers; a lot of them are not going to be at the hotel right across the street. Sometimes they’ll be … for example, having to drive an hour to go get home. Obviously, that’s the engineer’s choice in where they live and things like that, but that’s something to keep in mind. We want everyone to get a full eight hours of sleep, but if you keep in mind factoring drive time and everything like that, it can lead to really horrible times where you’re driving for an hour to get home. You only sleep for five hours because you have to be up in the morning and then be there on time.

Avoidance

Some ways that I’ve seen avoiding short turnarounds, and some more forgiveness around it, is that if you know you have to do a short turnaround for some reason, providing hotels on site, so then that way, hey yeah, you’re going to be in short turnaround, but maybe we can avoid the short turnaround since we’re providing on-site to eliminate drive time and travel time and everything like that. We’ve seen that help as well.

The Recap On AV Labor

Again, just to recap, five-hour chunks. Make sure you get meal breaks. Make sure … Otherwise, you’re going to get into meal break. There are some penalties related to meal breaks, which are related sometimes to overtime where if you don’t give a meal break, things can be forced into overtime earlier, that sort of stuff. But after 10 hours, avoid overtime. After 12 hours-ish, avoid the double time and then make sure you give a nice eight-hour break in between your different days and shifts because then you can get into this horrible day of flames, which I’ll call short turnaround all day.

Conclusion

I hope you found this helpful. If you did, I would love for you to subscribe down below. If you really loved it, give it a thumbs up. However, if you didn’t like it, give us a thumbs down. And down in the comments, let us know how we can make this event better. Also, we want to hear from you: what sort of topics do you want us to cover? Leave a comment down below and let us know what sort of topics you want us to cover, what sort of scenarios you’ve seen.

The prompt that I have for you today is what’s an example of an event where you had one of these rules broken, and how did it affect your event? Did you have any clever ways for ways that you avoided it? Do you have any tips for other planners for how you schedule out your schedules to avoid things like meal break penalties and overtime and everything like that? What’s your take no AV labor in general? We’d love to hear it down in the comments below!

That’s going to do it for this week’s Whiteboard Wednesday. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in, and we can’t wait to see you next week. I’ll catch you later, Endless fans!

Resources:

The Epic Guide To Event AV Labor

What Do All The AV Labor Positions Do – Whiteboard Wednesday

Learn About Event Safety and Cybersecurity, Event Labor Costing, and More

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from Endless Events https://helloendless.com/av-labor/

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dylan38sanders · 5 years

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How to Use Podcasts & Events as Marketing Tools – #EventIcons Episode 160

Another Tuesday, another #EventIcons – and it’s time to talk about podcasts and events! So, you’ve heard of a play within a play, but when was the last time you heard about a podcast within a podcast? Okay, perhaps the Shakespearean element doesn’t quite fit here. However, today’s episode of our podcast is, indeed, about podcasts. More specifically, podcasts and events.

It seems like every way you turn, someone has their own podcast going on. But there’s still quite a gap in the industry when it comes to bringing podcasts and events together. Why is this the case, considering there’s so much this form of content can give companies? Today, Brandt Krueger and Alex Plaxen sit down with our icons to explore this further.

Join our awesome hosts, and our very special guests, on this week’s #EventIcons. Featuring Blake Althen of Human Factor, seasoned composer, and director, bringing a contemporary, artistic and world vibe to his film, television, and video compositions. Aside from music and broadcast mixing, Human Factor specializes Podcasting for member-based organizations. Joining us is also Doug Sandler, founder, and CEO of TurnKey Podcast Productions. Additionally, Doug has created a system for using podcasts as a marketing tool to monetize their show. Lastly, Mike McAllen, award-winning Bee Keeper, and Executive Director of the California Podcast Association. Mike   works with Podcasting 4 Associations, and for podcast services for UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

So, buckle up and get ready – it’s time to tackle podcasts and events!

Are you looking to create a more engaging event? Click here to download our free event planning checklist.

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Blake Althen of Human Factor

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Check out the epic resources mentioned in this episode:

EP. 277: ALEX PLAXEN, THE YES MAN OF HITTING GOALS, THE WOW MAN OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Zoom Handheld Recorder

Shure SM7 Microphones

Dropbox

iIsotope RX7

Hubspot & Gmail Integration

Auphonic

What’s your take on podcasts and events? Let us know in the comment section below!

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from Endless Events https://helloendless.com/podcasts-and-events/

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dylan38sanders · 5 years

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AV Pricing Part II – Save Money On Event AV The Live Audit!

If you tuned in last week, you know Event Tech Podcast dived deep into the waters of how to save money on AV. Will Curran and Brandt Krueger sat down to share their tips on how this matter, so you can learn how to get the best value for your money. However, that was only part one of the” how to save money on AV extravaganza”!

Today’s episode brings a brand new voice and a brand new concept. Will and Curran are joined by Andrew Latimer, Design Engineer, and Endless Events’ AV Einstein. Last episode, Event Tech touched a little bit upon the how’s of negotiation. At Endless, we know that you can never know too much about how to save money on AV. Because of this, today, Will and Andrew will do a full live AV audit with a quote provided by Brandt.

You can learn what you should look for and what questions you should ask, while our hosts dissect AV proposals. Grab a pen and paper, and be ready to take notes on how to save money on AV!

Subscribe to the Event Tech Podcast here and never miss a beat!

Click here to download the full audio transcription.

First Things First

As Will puts it, don’t jump straight to the bottom or to the last page! Obviously, having to read through what seems like thousands of pages isn’t fun. Especially when you hardly have any idea of what most of the things are supposed to mean.

But you need to go over the quote carefully, so you can know if you’re getting exactly what you need! Just because the final number matches the budget, you don’t get a free skipping pass. Make sure what is listed is what you need. Is there anything that should be there but you can’t find? Or the opposite – does it just seem like too much? Read through the quote carefully. If need be, bring a “guy” with you, someone who knows how to dissect it properly. This a major step on how to save money on AV!

Labor

Labor fees are probably the hardest to keep up with. Not everyone calculates it the same, and there’s a couple of things you should take into account. As we hear in the video, for example, this quote breaks labor down in ST, OT, and DT. Looking at this for the first time might just sound like a whole lot of “what?!”. In reality, the abbreviations stand for standard time, overtime and double time, and each one will have its own hours and pricing.

Besides that, it’s important you see what kind of labor you have. Is there a cameraman in every room? Is it really necessary? What about engineers? Those are expensive, do we honestly need five of them? Little details as these make all the difference when the bottom line is to save money on AV, while getting the best you need for your event.

What’s Up With The Equipment Prices?

Yet another pretty valid reason you should read everything from top to bottom is the equipment cost. First of all, Will lays it down: “Usually, just so everyone knows the standard practice is 10%, whatever the cost to buy, maybe a little higher if it’s going to break more often, like a projector or something like that”. That’s more than fair!

However, as it just so happens during the episode, AV companies can seriously overcharge you if attention isn’t paid. In this particular case, once Andrews goes through it, something seems a bit off. “I see just everything on here, there’s not a single thing that’s being charged less than a quarter of what it would cost to buy, most of it’s half to actually above purchase price”, he says. So, a good bet for you as a non-techie is to a quick search online. Do the prices add up? Or is it just way overpriced?

“I think we talk a lot about how a lot of times we see quotes or explanations where they’re just throwing out terms to confuse people, trying to list everything possible, with no explanation. And that’s how you know that there’s a bait and switch going on”, says Andrew.

Watch Out For The Overkill

Bottom line is, you want to deliver the best event possible to your attendees, without completely blowing up your budget. When you’re going through the equipment list and the associated costs, ask yourself what they mean. More precisely, what they mean for your event. Are the speakers perhaps a little too powerful for the size of the room? Will the attendees leave your event overwhelmed by the sound? Does the equipment listed match the exact layout and needs of your venue?

All in all, just make sure what you’re getting is what you need. Beware of overkill! The AV company might try to sell you on the idea of top-notch equipment that you don’t need, simply because they’ll be paid a lot more. Don’t sacrifice the success of your event by slacking off on this, and lose money in the process.

Make Way For The Expendables

You know when you’re at the grocery store and keep throwing $1 dollar items in your cart? And you convince yourself you’ll pay $10 tops? But then bam!, the lady at the register racks up a $150 dollar bill. Well, this is something that can also happen in our scenario. As Brandt says, “it’s important to have those expendables on your bid, because that’s when you’re comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges. Those are those little things that sneak up on you, where it’s like, “Oh, yeah, that wasn’t on the bid, but it then winds up on your master bill. So making sure that you do have the supplies on there is huge”.

Conclusions

As Brandt puts it, “you don’t have to be an AV expert to start dipping your toe into and not just flipping to those big last round numbers. Starting to do five minutes of googling on this and five minutes of googling on that and asking questions. I know you emphasize that all the time, just being able to ask questions.”

Sit down with your AV company and have an actual conversation, do your research, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. It’s the only sure way to save money on AV, while getting exactly what you need!

Resources:

Event Leadership Institute Courses

How to Win at Negotiating AV Prices for Events

Welcome to the AV Audit

Tackling Commoditization In The Event Industry – #EventIcons Episode 157

11 Reasons You Need an Initial Consult for Event AV – Whiteboard Wednesday

How Do In-House AV Commissions Work? – Whiteboard Wednesday

Can I Negotiate Venue AV Charges? – Whiteboard Wednesdays

How Much Does Event AV Cost – Whiteboard Wednesdays

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from Endless Events https://helloendless.com/save-money-on-event-av-2/

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dylan38sanders · 5 years

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The 15 Biggest Event AV Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

AV can make or break your event. Great AV and your event will run seamlessly. AV should enhance your event vision and help you achieve your goals. On the other hand, event AV mistakes can leave your guests wishing they never came and can make your event the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons. A bad AV mistake like projectors that stop working during your keynote bringing the presentation to a halt, will make attendees immediately regret coming.

Managing the many moving parts in an event can often be stressful and certain components can be neglected or forgotten. Specifically, your AV and event production are some of the most crucial factors for success at your event. But AV can seem overwhelming if you aren’t familiar with the terms. Fortunately, we’re here to help you. Below are the top event AV Mistakes we see at events and how you can avoid them. Some of these event AV mistakes will cause a minor annoyance, others can completely ruin your event, check out the list below to make sure you avoid these pitfalls at your next event. Planning an event? Watch our free webinar How To Avoid An Event AV Disaster.

#15. Hiring Your AV Company Too Late

Your AV company should be one of the first vendors you hire. In fact, you should ideally hire your AV company before you even sign your venue contract. If you hire them before the venue they can be your advocate in finding the best location for your event. A good AV company will help you determine if the venue fits your needs and vision. They will also help negotiate out any unnecessary venue fees. This will save a lot of hassle and help your budget.

#14. Can I just use in-house AV?

Before you sign your life away with an in-house provider, compare costs, features, and services with an out-of-house provider. And compare more than one company! Many in-house providers are convenient but can be more costly and often times the benefits of using in-house AV do not outweigh the negatives. Out-of-house providers may be more affordable. They also might be capable of providing custom services specifically for your event. Independent AV companies work for you, not the venue so they will always have your best interest at heart.

#13. AV Mistake: Not Understanding Your AV Quote

AV quotes can seem like another language. If you aren’t familiar with AV terms you may not really understand what you are getting. Often, if it’s within your budget you assume it’s OK and just sign the quote. This is a big mistake!

Ask your AV company to do a quote walk-through were they walk you through your quote line-by-line and explain everything in layman’s terms. If you don’t understand what something means ask! In your AV quote walkthrough, you will have the opportunity to ask hard questions and ensure you have the equipment you need and not anything you don’t! Knowledge is power when it comes to AV, download our free AV Quote Guide and arm yourself with everything you need to know going into the AV quoting process. This will empower you to make the best decisions for your event!

#12. Not factoring the “rigging points”

Rigging is a big part of events, chances are if anything is suspended from the cieling you need rigging points. A rigging point is a place within the venue that is approved to hang equipment from. First, work with your AV company to establish what parts of your event will need to be hung. Determine how many points will be required for each hanging item. Pay extra attention to heavier hanging items and ensure they have enough support. Second, locate where the rigging points are within the event. Pre-plan where each item will be hung to avoid additional costs and check with your venue before you sign the contract whether or not rigging points and included in the cost. If they are not included you can try to negotiate this fee out before signing.

#11. Skimping on Audio

Everybody at your event will notice bad audio. Bad audio will have your guests tuning out at an alarming rate. When you are planning your event consider the audio experience from the very front row, the middle and all the way in the back. If your room is exceptionally large the back row might need “delayed” speakers to provide additional sound. It’s also important to consider what your sound system is being used for and to let your AV company know. For example, if you have a surprise musical performance taking place let your AV company know so they can suggest the best speakers possible for the experience. If you don’t let your AV company know the performance will likely fall flat.

#10. Neglecting Your AV Team

Your AV team should be partners! They are on your side and want to make your event the best it possibly can be. Instead of viewing the AV team as a strictly behind the scenes element, make sure they feel included. Talk to the staff and call them by their names! Allow time for breaks, provide them lunch if you can. The simplest way to show appreciation is to let them know when a job is well done! A little bit of attention will go a long way and your AV team will be willing to go the extra mile should any changes in schedule occur, or disaster strikes because they will feel like a team member. Your problems will become their problems and they will go above and beyond to help you solve them.

#9. Not Understanding Event WiFi

This is a newer event AV mistake we are seeing. Venues are now charging for WiFi or sometimes waiving fees when you hire their In-House AV. We’ve seen venue WiFi costs grow astronomically. It can seem like a huge relief to have that fee waived but all that glitters isn’t gold. Always check on the details “free WiFi” because free WiFi that sucks can ruin your event.

In order to understand what you really need for your event check out our event bandwidth calculator. You need to see how fast the WiFi is, how many people it can support, if it’s a dedicated source, how to properly secure it and so much more! If the venue WiFi doesn’t fit your needs you can always negotiate to use a 3rd-Party Supplier who will be able to tailor the WiFi to exactly what you need for your event.

#8. Not considering the number of audio inputs

Most sound mixing boards have a limited number of inputs available. This could spell disaster if you end up needing more inputs for your microphones than the sound mixing board has. To avoid this mistake, count every audio input that your event will require (including back-ups!) before your event. We recommend adding a couple extra for additional security. Once you know how many audio inputs you will have, make sure your sound mixer board is compatible. You may need to supply an additional sound mixer board if you have too many inputs.

#7. Not considering the number of visual inputs

Similar to audio inputs count every visual input that your event will require. You may need multiple video switchers depending on the number of inputs you have. Again, it won’t hurt to account for a few extra last minute inputs.

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#6. Forgetting To Communicate Event Changes

This mistake can create a huge blow to your budget! If you fail to communicate changes in your event whether it’s the schedule, event location or something else this can lead to surprise costs for event labor, equipment and more. To avoid common this AV mistake, when anything changes at your event let your AV company know right away and ask for an updated quote. This will allow you to see the effect your changes have on the overall budget and you will not be hit with any fees or surprises later on.

#5. Assuming everyone is ready

The worst thing you can do is assume every vendor and event staff are ready for your event. Always communicate with every person involved. Two weeks before the event, have a meeting with everyone and discuss the expectations and what is required before, during, and after the event. This way everyone will be on the same page and aware of their own responsibilities in addition to each other’s roles. It might even be helpful to create a document that states each person’s role and send it out to the team. One week before the event, reach out to each individual and ensure they are fully prepared, repeat any mission-critical information again at this time. Two days before the event, remind each individual of their responsibilities and when they are required to be at the event. This may seem redundant but is extremely crucial for a successful event. Clear communication and understanding will go a long way to prevent any hiccups.

#4. Incorrect formats for presentations

This is probably the most common AV mistake and it’s a big one! Imagine, your presenter arrives for the most anticipated keynote of the conference with their presentation in the wrong format. They’ve created a presentation in the outdated aspect ratio, standard screen (4:3) but you’ve designed a stage with a cutting edge triple wide-screen, now their presentation doesn’t even fill up ⅓ of the space and the audience can’t even read it! This is a huge fail! And it’s not the only way formatting can go wrong, we’ve also see presenters bring in presentations created on Apple’s Keynote only to find out the conference is running PC’s for presentations leaving their creation unable to even be opened. While these situations make for major disasters, they are entirely avoidable with some communication far before the big event!

During the quote process talk to your AV company about what type of formats and aspect ratios your presenters should create content in. Relay that information to speakers immediately and have them begin creating their content within the required parameters. This way everyone will be informed and well prepared to make the best presentation possible.

As an extra precaution, schedule a rehearsal with your AV company. This allows time to test all projectors, presentations, and screens prior to the event. Make sure they know you want a rehearsal ahead of time so they can accurately quote labor for your event. Taking these steps will ensure everything is correct or allow for fixes before the presentation, avoiding this common AV mistake!

#3. Assuming Set-up and Tear-Down Will be Quick!

It’s commonly assumed that your event can be set-up and tore-down quickly. In most cases, it’s not that simple. You want everything to be set-up safely and accurately to avoid any disasters during your event, so allow time for it to be done right. Be sure to incorporate travel time, parking, unloading, organization, plug-in, and set-up for each vendor.

It is not uncommon to need more than one day to set-up and tear-down an event, always talk to your AV company about how long they need. It’s also critical to ask your venue when your vendors are allowed to set-up and tear-down, check to see when the loading dock is available for use, and freight elevators. Ask if it’s possible to set-up the day before your event, but don’t assume it is the venue may have another event going on that day. When you get all the info relay that back to your AV company. Tight turn arounds in set-up or tear-down times could lead to overtime labor charges so the sooner you know what time everything can take place, let your AV company know.

#2. Trying to cut costs with AV

AV is typically one of the most expensive components of an event. AV executed poorly can also ruin your event and vision. If you have a budget you need to stick to let your AV company know what that number is, but don’t stop there! Also let the AV company know your events visions and goals, this way your AV company can help make decisions on where to try to save costs based on your needs.

If you see an item in your quote that seems expensive and you aren’t sure why ask about it! It may be a crucial item, or it might be something you can switch out. See what the difference would be if you change your equipment to a lower model. Maybe you have a $2000 projector on your quote and you could go down to a lower lumen projector to save. You may save money but maybe you will have a worse event experience and people won’t be able to see your presentations. On the other hand, maybe you believe something is needed for your event but you could accomplish the same effect with another less expensive alternative.

Trying to cut costs of AV without understanding the overall effect that cut has on your event is a major event AV mistake! If you have a great AV team they will guide you through this process. They can suggest what you can cut back without it affecting your overall vision.

#1. Skipping Equipment Backups

Ever been to an event where the projectors go down and everything comes to a screeching halt until the presentation comes back up? Don’t let this happen to you! Always have equipment backups at your event. Technology can stop working no matter how new it is or well it was set up. Anything crucial to your event needs to have a backup in place and ready to go should equipment fail. Always make sure your AV company has a backup mission critical items like projectors, computers, and microphones. Also, make sure your speakers have backups of their presentations. Make sure these items are on hand at your event, not in a truck or a warehouse down the street, you want them out and ready to work immediately should any problems occur!

Conclusion

Ultimately, the key to avoiding these common event AV mistakes comes down to organization and clear communication. If you follow the list of how to avoid the top AV mistakes in event planning, your event will be one step closer to a perfect event!

Still want to know more? Download the top 20 AV mistakes below!

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Editor’s Note: This was originally published on August 6, 2015 and has been completely revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

from Endless Events https://helloendless.com/how-to-avoid-the-top-av-mistakes-in-event-planning/

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dylan38sanders · 5 years

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Front VS Rear Projection For Events – Whiteboard Wednesday

Today’s Whiteboard Wednesday episode is all about projection for events! When organizing an event, chances are, you’ll need a projection of some sort. There are videos, there are presentions, there’s all that good stuff that provide your attendees with more and better content, and your event with extra juice to squeeze.

Tackling projection for events is important so you know what’s you’re looking for. The better acquainted you are with everything it entails, the better communication you’ll have with your AV company. And of course, better communication means a more successful event. So hop on board and join Will Curran, as he guides you through the differences between front and rear projection for events!

Are you planning an event? Check out our free Event Planning Checklist and be on your way to planning your best event yet!

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Video Transcription – Front VS Rear Projection For Events

Hey, how’s it going Endless fans? It’s Whiteboard Wednesday and ding ding ding! Today we’re talking about the difference between front versus rear projection.

Obviously, when it comes to events, projection is a big part of it. There are some slight differences between front and rear projection and you might have stumbled upon it as you’re planning your event.

Talk Projection To Me

So whenever you’re looking at your AV quote, you might be able to see a front projection versus rear projection. You might also see something like F/R on the quote, meaning that the projection screen comes with front projection and also rear projection surface that can be exchanged on the screen. This is very common so then that way if there’s a change needed at the event it can be done.

However, always be sure to confirm whether you’re doing front or rear projection with your AV company beforehand. The last thing you want to do is it turns out the layout’s all wrong, you were thinking rear projection, they were thinking front projection, and everything’s all wrong and ruined. Don’t want that to happen so we’re going to talk a little bit about the differences between the two so you can understand it. As always, as I seem to say every time with one of these videos, communicate with you AV company and let them know the difference of what you’re wanting and what you’re planning when it comes to your layout.

Take It To The Front

So let’s start with front projection. This is kind of the typical, everyone knows about it when it comes to a projection screen. Sometimes you also don’t have a choice when it comes to a projector and you might only have front projection available. This is very common with those roll-up screens that pop up very very quickly. They come in eight foot, ten-foot sizes, they’re only in front projection. The reason why is because behind it there’s a pole, obviously, you wouldn’t be able to rear project because there would be a pole in the screen.

Front projection, the benefits of this is that it’s an opaque surface. What this means is that we’re actually projecting from the front, there’s no need for it to be translucent in any sort of way so we want to make sure it looks as good as possible and reflects as much light as possible so it’s a nice bright white screen, 100% opaque. Usually, the back of the surface as well is a dark gray.

All Of The Lights

One interesting thing to keep in mind is that because you are doing a front projection screen and all the light is getting absorbed from the front, you sometimes don’t need as bright of a projector. Again, this is very very minute differences, but front projection screens are slightly brighter than a rear projection screen.

When you are doing a rear projection screen, you are projecting through a slightly translucent surface. What that means is some of the light gets lost when it’s passing through. Think of a tinted window on a car. Not all the light goes through it, and it gets slightly dimmed as it’s going through. So whereas with a front projection screen, 100% of it gets absorbed by the opaque white surface. This might mean that you actually get a little bit brighter of a signal. Very very minute, it’s not going to make a world of a difference. For example, if you have a 3000-lumen projector it’s not going to all the sudden look like a 10000-lumen projector, but it might look a little bit brighter.

Let’s See About Layouts…

What’s interesting though is it’s very important to understand how front projection affects the layout of your room and where your audience sits. Obviously, the projection’s in front, hence the word front projection, and it’s projecting directly on the screen. What this might mean is there are two different ways that you can have the projector placed.

For example, you can have it on a small little cart, or you can also have it rigged up into the ceiling. Most common and most cost effective obviously is have it on the ground so you’re not paying rigging fees and trusts and all that sort of stuff, but you can also hang it from the ceiling as well. However, if you are placing it on the ground with an AV cart, then if you have people sitting in front of it they could block the screen. This is really important to know because if you are, for example, have a very tight room you might not have the ability to put chairs in front of it. It also means as well if it’s on the ground, it’s going to be right in the midst of all the craziness.

So be careful that when you are deciding where this goes that you have a clear line of sight to the projection screen. A good rule of thumb is just to clear out the space between the screen and the projector and kind of make a nice little box. Obviously, it’s a little bit of a triangle but you want to give a little bit of space around the projector as well so no one bumps into it.

Better For Spacing

However, it also kind of saves you some space as well. So while it can be blocked, you can technically push those screens now all the way to the back wall. Then that way fill in chairs as close as possible, whereas when we get to rear projection, because the screen has to be further out and behind it, it means that you might lose a little bit of floor space. It means you might have to cut some chairs, all that sort of stuff.

So we’re talking about where it has to be. You want to make sure that you’re getting a nice clean shot of it. Obviously, if you’re looking to avoid people’s shadows of their heads walking in front of it, or chairs being in the way, you can always mount the screen up in the ceiling doing rigging but again that introduces additional costs. That’s up to you as the planner.

Now Bring It To The Back (Rear)

Let’s look at rear projection. We are actually projecting from behind the screen. Usually, we call this the back of the house. What’s great about projecting from behind is that it creates just a little bit of a backstage area. This is sometimes really important, and again, how front projection can bring down a downside is that sometimes an AV company needs that backstage area.

Maybe to prep speakers, it could be where the video guys are staying, controlling everything. It also could be an area where they need to store all the empty cases as well. So having rear projection allows you to be able to create that backstage area, and might be necessary.

So if you’re for example doing front projection and pushing it all the way against the wall, it’s important to ask, ” well where are we going to store all the empty cases as well?” Again, like we said, it’s projecting through a translucent surface, which slightly dims the screen but it basically will come through the screen and then the audience can look at it and it looks really good. Hopefully, you have a great projector as well, that’s all dependent on that.

What’s Good, What’s Different

What’s great about this is whereas in front projection if you want to get it where it’s above and clearing people’s heads and everything like that you have to rig it. If it’s on the ground you’re going to run into some issues, with rear projection, the AV company doesn’t have to rig the projector. As long as you’re not putting your screen massively high, you can actually put all the stacks and cases on top of each other, do a simple ground supported truss system. Sometimes even just put it on top of an AV cart and it allows you to put that screen behind there as well. This way you don’t have to worry about people walking in front of it, tripping on cables, plugging in playing their cat videos, all that sort of stuff.

So again, kind of creates a nicer look. In my opinion, I believe this is a cleaner look to an event as well. Whenever you can I always prefer rear projection. The reason why you get that backstage space, I think it looks a lot cleaner, it allows people to walk in front of the projection screens. Plus, as long as you’re using a good enough projector, it shouldn’t worry about dimming the screen as much but we do want to make sure that you know that it does slightly dim the screen and that you do want to make sure that you’re going to need a slightly brighter projector technically.

The Throw Distance

So obviously front or rear projection, the size doesn’t matter, it’s the exact same. The question becomes, when you are doing it, you want to make sure that you are choosing the type of lensing to do this. The way that you do this is understanding throw distance. That’s where this secret is in the throw distance.

Throw distance is the space between your projector and your screen. This is all calculated based on what type of lens you’re using, what type of projector, all these things like that. Your AV company should be able to tell you this number pretty quickly.

They do make what’s called, short throw lenses. It takes a long throw and makes it shorter. So especially when doing rear projection, we end up doing short throw lenses for it. However, sometimes when you’re doing front projection if the room’s small enough, we might use a long throw lens so we can put the projector in the back of the room so we can avoid it being too close and cutting seats and things like that.

This is all possible with the AV company but the thing to keep in mind is again, just always knowing what the distance is and planning, I recommend planning for rear projection to have that space.

Get Padding!

Calculate what your throw distance space is and then what I highly recommend is add a little bit of padding as well, and what I mean by padding is, for example, you need 15 feet to throw the projector, that’s usually from the front of the projector to the screen itself. That doesn’t include the back of the projector. If you want people to be able to walk behind that projector, if for example, you need additional space to run around, whatever you want to do, always include a little bit of extra space.

For example, if your AV company is requesting 15 feet, it might be wise to at least add three or four extra feet. The reason why I recommend it is just so people can walk behind it. Especially if your projector’s going to be a little bit lower, you want the ability for someone to walk behind it versus in front of it, again, avoiding casting shadows like you do with front projection, even in rear.

Conclusion

What a mouthful of projection screens. This fight has kind of come to an end, but only you can decide who the winner is, whether it’s front or rear. You’ll have to do that yourself but I hope this was really really helpful.

If you have any other examples of what you think when you’re choosing front or rear projection for events, leave them down in the comments below, we’d love to hear it!

If you love Whiteboard Wednesday and this was super helpful, click that subscribe button, ding that little bell so you get notified every Wednesday when we post new content!

Resources:

Projection Calculator

How Your Event Layout Affects Your Event AV

https://js.hscta.net/cta/current.js hbspt.cta.load(430132, ‘f5d4b0f9-3c68-485b-bc07-c33652f8011a’, {});

from Endless Events https://helloendless.com/projection-for-events/

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Global Meetings Industry Day: Growing Our Industry Forward, a Leadership Perspective – #EventIcons Episode 159

A couple of weeks ago, #EventIcons was all about Meetings Mean Business, the coalition behind Global Meetings Industry Day. As one of the most important days of the year for the event business, GMID joins professionals from across six continents and over forty countries in events all over the world. In fact, the purpose of the Global Meetings Industry Day is for everyone involved to celebrate the tremendous worth and economic impact of the industry.

Ahead of this remarkable date, Lindsay Martin-Bilbrey sits down with two very special guests for this week’s #EventIcons. First, we welcome Tracey Smith, a longtime meeting planner who now leads the world’s largest association of senior-level meeting & event planners, SPIN. Joining them is Cathy Breden, an executive VP and COO of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE) In addition to this, she currently serves as the CEO for the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) whose primary purpose is to promote the growth, awareness, and value of exhibitions and other face-to-face marketing events by producing and delivering research-based knowledge tools.

Sit tight and get listening, as the three discuss Global Meetings Industry Day, its genesis, its future, its meaning, and how the event industry will change moving forward. What are the businesses’ biggest challenges from here on, and how can GMID help? Press play and find out!

Are you looking to create a more engaging event? Click here to download our free event planning checklist.

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We want to help keep you up-to-date with the latest and greatest!

How To Subscribe:

Click here to watch the show live and get email notifications of new episodes.

Subscribe via iTunes: Video & Audio or Audio Only

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Follow our iconic guest on Twitter:

Tacey Smith of SPIN (@tracey_smith)

Cathy Breden of IAEE (@cbreden)

Lindsay Martin-Bilbrey of Pathable (@lindsaythecmp)

Check out the epic resources mentioned in this episode:

Jeremy Gutsche

Shelly Palmer

The Wall Street Journal: The Daily Shot

StoryBranding: Creating Stand-Out Brands Through the Power of Story

Bedtime Stories App

Meetings Mean Business – GMID

#GMID19

#MeetingsMeanBusiness

What’s your take on Global Meetings Industry Day? Let us know in the comment section below!

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from Endless Events https://helloendless.com/global-meetings-industry-day/

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How to Get Hired for New Musicals

Working on a new musical demands a precise set of skills. Here’s what you need to work on to be ready.… Read More How to Get Hired for New Musicals from blog https://contemporarymusicaltheatre.wordpress.com/2019/04/09/how-to-get-hired-for-new-musicals/

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AV Pricing Part I: How To Save Money On AV Bills For Your Events

One of the most common questions related to organizing events is “How can I save money on AV?”. This is obviously a no-brainer, considering AV is one of the most expensive parts of an event. Here at Endless, we’re fully aware of this! As an AV company, we’ve spent our fair share of time providing information on the matter of AV pricing.

There’s always something new to add, especially when trying to understand all the little things involved. Why is AV priced the way it is? How can you save money on AV? How can you be sure you get the right equipment? Overall, how can the process be as smooth as possible for the client and vendor alike?

If any of these questions have been buzzing on your mind lately, you’ve come to the right place. On this week’s Event Tech Podcast, Will Curran and Brandt Krueger walk you through all you need to know to save money on AV. Join them for the hottest tips on AV Pricing!

Make sure you tune in next week for Part II of AV Pricing when Will and Brandt will be joined by Andrew Latimer, Design Engineer, and Endless Events’ AV Einstein, for a live AV audit. Subscribe to the Event Tech Podcast here and never miss a beat!

https://www.podbean.com/media/player/uya35-ac717d?from=yiiadmin&download=1&version=1

Click here to download the full audio transcription.

Education Is Key

Much like everything in life, the more educated you are on a matter, the better you’ll do. AV isn’t an exception! Take it from Chief Event Einstein himself, Will Curran – “for me, one of the number one best tips as far as how to save money is to start to get educated”. Let’s get to it!

Closing The Gap

“There’s definitely a gap between the vendor knowledge and the client knowledge”, says Will. This gap will inevitably translate into bad business making. Take the car analogy, for instance – “when you go in to buy a car, if you have no idea what you’re gonna be talking about, you tend to feel like you’re always being ripped off. But if you understand what you’re doing, you tend to know who’s ripping you off and who’s not ripping you off and you have a little bit better knowledge, and I think that’s the thing ultimately to, not only just saving the money on that side of things, but it’s also about the comfortability and the smoothness of the process”.

Anyone Can Do It – Including You!

It can seem scary or just plain uninteresting to get the gist of Av and what it entails. “I think we hear this all the time where someone is like, “Well, I’m just not a techie. I just can’t learn this stuff. I’m just not capable. I’m not a techie type of person”, says Brandt. Sounds familiar? Well, there’s always a way around it!

“For me, it’s kind of like learning a different language. You never hear someone say, “I’m not French so I could never learn French,” you know? It’s one of those things where there is a language and it just takes a little time and you don’t have to become fluent overnight. You can learn the basics”. For AV, it’s exactly the same principle!

There’s No Shame In Asking For Help

Where would any of us be without a little help from someone who knows what they’re doing and talking about? “Don’t be afraid to also get a guy, right? Find your guy who’s gonna be your techie person”, is one of Will’s pieces of advice.

There’s even a class you can take or offer someone at the Event Leadership Institute. “It’s the people that just want to learn more about it and just kind of add that to their toolbox. Not necessarily want to do it for a living but just be able to learn that language a little bit”, says Brandt. He’ll even throw you a discount code if you reach out to him!

Sit Down With AV Companies

Ask Them For The Walkthrough

“Basically always ask for what’s called a quote walkthrough. It might sound like it’s gonna take a lot of time (…) but ask your AV company to sit down with you on a screen share or in person and walk you through every single line item of the quote”, says Will. “If they can explain it in easy terms as they walk you through it, you will understand what’s on their quote but also as well you’ll start to learn mode names”.

Get Those Competitive Bids

“There are an awful lot of planners out there that still just get the quote from the in-house and go with it”, says Brandt. “For me, that’s kind of my next biggest thing is making sure that you get at least one more competitive bid, preferably more than that”.

“I’m happy to lose business when someone’s providing great quality equipment, the exact same labor staffing schedule and they beat me on price. I’m happy because it means they figured out how to do this more efficiently than me and I deserve to lose the business because I need to figure out how to do my business better”, Will adds.

Make Sure You’re Getting What You Need

Don’t just copy and paste material from previous years. “One of the things that I always do when I’m working with a new client is (…) I remove any references to specific equipment, any references to specific types of speakers or projectors or things like that”, says Brandt.

“If you get locked into cutting and pasting of equipment, the AV company is gonna try their best to provide that or something very similar to it and I would much rather get their initial take on, “Okay, we’ve got a room this big with this number of people in it. It’s a general session. What do you think we should have for sound?” That kind of thing rather than locking into specific types of gear”, he adds.

What Else To Look At?

Stakeholder Expectations

“We come in here, we want to obviously have a better stage than last year, a newer design, things like that. But we all have those stakeholders who see something crazy and say, “I want that,” but they have no idea what the cost is associated with it”, says Will.

“The biggest way that you can save money in that situation is to not say yes immediately and to involve those stakeholders in the conversation with the AV company”, he adds. “I have clients who could save so much money if they just manage the expectation of the stakeholders and we have conversations with them together”.

Pay Attention To Overtime

“What we find a lot of times is that this stuff doesn’t get shared and this expectation of, “Yeah, you’re probably gonna need a little bit of buffer time” doesn’t get shared so, therefore, it gets added in at the end for that extra invoice and it’s boom, it’s a huge overtime bill”, Will warns. ” The more accurate your schedule is from day one, the more accurate your final bill is gonna be”.

Dive Into The Regulations

Remember your AV teams doesn’t consist of mere robots, but actual human beings! “Sometimes they’re labor laws, but labor rules and understanding your company’s AV rules is really important. We had to do it as far as we had to start putting it in our contract because even though this stuff is pretty common across AV companies, people would always be shocked”, says Will.

Be Creative!

Another great tip by will is a bit towards getting creative – “when it comes to saving money on AV has to do with thinking of unique ways to implement technology and scenic design and things like that”.

“I think that your AV company should challenge you and that’s I think a little mini bonus tip as well. They should challenge you and challenge the idea of are you gonna utilize it?”, he continues. “Have a conversation about being open to ideas about changing and have your AV company challenge you but also at the same time as well, have that conversation about saving money from the get-go”.

The Power Of Negotiation

“It used to be like I said, everything was kind of negotiable and more and more often planners that do know better do know that, hey, we want to get rid of this clause that says that we have to use the in house AV. More and more venues are starting to say no, and it’s getting harder and harder to find venues that are willing to play ball”, says Will.

“It’s totally the way it’s gonna be and that’s the way I think things might shape out in the future, and that’s where, too, talk to your AV company too”.

Conclusion

Knowing how to save money on AV can also save you a fair share of headaches. Today, Will and Brandt shared some basic, and some unique tips on how to get the best value for money on your AV equipment. Did you find it helpful? What are your personal tips to save money on AV? Share your story with us in the comments below!

Resources:

Event Leadership Institute Courses

How to Win at Negotiating AV Prices for Events

Welcome to the AV Audit

Tackling Commoditization In The Event Industry – #EventIcons Episode 157

11 Reasons You Need an Initial Consult for Event AV – Whiteboard Wednesday

How Do In-House AV Commissions Work? – Whiteboard Wednesday

Can I Negotiate Venue AV Charges? – Whiteboard Wednesdays

How Much Does Event AV Cost – Whiteboard Wednesdays

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from Endless Events https://helloendless.com/save-money-on-av/

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Do I Need Haze For My Event? – Whiteboard Wednesday

In today’s episode, we’re tackling haze for events. As an event planner, you’re always wondering how to make the experience better for attendees. Obviously, there are tons of things to take into consideration! It’s easy to let a couple of details slide by you, and you might not ever contemplate certain aspects until it’s showtime. And by then, it might just be too late.

How to use haze at events is a question that pops up frequently. However, how much thought do you actually put into it? Do you even know where to start? Well, worry no more! On this week’s Whiteboard Wednesday, Will Curran answers all of your questions about haze at events. Join him as he walks you through what it is, why you should use it, and the best ways to go about it! https://fast.wistia.com/embed/medias/pnf851fvab.jsonphttps://fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js

Video Transcription – Do I Need Haze For My Event?

What’s going on, Endless fans? It’s Whiteboard Wednesday. We’re dropping some more knowledge bombs, and today we’re talking about the most common question to get around lighting is do I need haze at my event? The question is usually, yes, you want haze, but we’ll talk about what that involves and why you want it really, really briefly.

What Is Haze?

If you don’t know what haze is, it’s basically a very thin particulate of fog, but it’s not the same thing as fog. If you’ve ever been to your Halloween party where the DJ pumps on the fog and this big plume of smoke come out and it’s super-thick, that is not haze. Haze is actually so thin that you can barely even tell it’s there most of the time. It’s just there to make the lights look better, which I’ll explain kind of how that works.

Essentially, the way it works is as a very thin, essentially mist, I will call it, in the air, of this haze. What it allows is that when light passes through it, it bounces off of all these little particulates of vapor and basically creates the look of the beam of light. Have you ever been out on a foggy day and you’ve ever seen headlights and how you can see the beams of headlights? Same concept when it comes to haze.

Should I Use Haze In Events?

How can we recreate that effect and why do I want it for my events? Well, let’s talk about it. Well, when you have haze for your event, particularly it’s good when you have what is called moving headlights. These are the lights that spin in 360 degrees, probably seen them at a club or concert, a lot of them have a very nice, cool tight beam so then, in that way, when you add haze to them, you can get this nice little beam of light.

Now, you probably think to yourself, “Yeah, that’s really cool, but why isn’t the moving headlight cool on its own?” Well, if you do no haze, these beams of light disappear, and you don’t actually see anything between the light and where it projects. Instead, let’s say, for example, if this is projecting a circle gobo before it would show this nice big fat beam of light, but now, it’s only going to show a circle gobo. No beam of light. It’s just going to show where the gobo is.

This is totally fine, but to be honest, not really worth the money. You spend all this money on nice lights, if you’re going to have moving headlights, you might as well do haze. So, again, my recommendation, no haze, you get just this gobo, whereas, when you get haze, you get this nice, cool beam of light. It allows you to fill the air and, to be honest, adds a lot of energy to an event as well.

What Should I Know About Using Haze In Events?

First thing is there are two different types of haze. You have oil-based haze and water-based haze. The difference is that oil-based haze tends to stay in the air a little bit longer than water-based haze. It can actually stay out a little bit further, it usually gives you a bit more bang for your buck, but it has this oily texture to it. It leaves kind of I’ll call it an oil spill around the haze machine, the hazer, whereas, water-based haze doesn’t stay in the air as long. However, there are some good machines that do last a long time, which your AV company should recommend to you, but it is more friendly to venues. It doesn’t leave any sort of residue, it doesn’t hang in the air, it can’t get on carpet or anything like that. It’s a lot cleaner.

With that being said, most venues are going to require you use water-based haze, so if you are asking to do haze for the event, just make sure the AV company is bringing water-based haze. Almost everyone has a water-based hazer for their event. So something to keep in mind, oil versus water, usually you want to stick with water. That’s the best way. If you’re doing an outdoor festival, though, and the sky is the limit and you need to stay in the air as long as possible, you can do oil-based all day long.

What About Venue Restrictions?

First thing they’re going to have to do is because you are putting particulate in the air, is that they can trigger fire alarms, specifically, the sprinkler system, the smoke detectors. It can basically make you think that it’s smoking inside the room and the last thing we want to do is cause a fire alarm to come up and the fire department shows up. What a venue will do is actually forcibly turn off a fire alarm. You might be thinking to yourself, “Well, that could be dangerous, right, what if there’s an actual fire?” It’s a great point.

Well, that’s why a lot of venues will require you to bring down a fire watch. This is when they’ll contact the local fire marshal, and they’ll actually have a fire representative come be onsite for your event. This is basically someone who helps monitor to make sure there’s no fire. If there is, it can be handled all right. To be honest, I’m not a firefighter, so I don’t know exactly what they do, but it’s something to keep in mind if you’re going to use haze.

So, What Does This Mean For Costs?

It’s not just the cost of the haze machine, which can be real cheap. It can be $100, $200 to rent, but the cost comes in with bringing this fire watch down. They can charge somewhere $50 an hour, $100 an hour, $200 an hour, just to be there with, keep in mind, sometimes minimum calls as well. They might require you that they be there for five hours, for example. So keep in mind that you might have to bring a fire watch to replace basically turning off the fire alarm system.

Well, what that also means as well in some cases as well is that they also have to submit a permit and get approved as well. So the thing to keep in mind is not only you have a financial responsibility or financial commitment, but also a little bit of a time commitment as well. You can’t make this decision a week out for an event a lot of the time because these permits sometimes take a couple of weeks to get done.

That’s why it’s important to make sure that you submit your permits early on and that you talk to your venue early on about doing haze, even before your contractor AV company even know if you’re going to do haze or no haze. Because the best thing that you can do is always say, “Nope, at last minute, we don’t need the permit, we don’t need the fire watch because, guess what, we’re not going to do haze.” But if you are going to do it, you don’t want to be caught behind the times.

Conclusion

That’s it. Basically, do I need to use haze for my event? It’s obviously up to you and what you’re looking for. Obviously, there’s lots of videos on YouTube that show the difference between haze and no haze, feel free to google those. But the big thing is it makes your lights just look better. The answer is up to you in whether you want to have it, whether these are the headaches that you kind of want to deal with and the things that you want to execute. Sometimes it can be pretty easy. Or if it’s worth it to make your lights look a lot better.

We would love to hear your story and examples about how your event looked a lot better with haze, or maybe an example of how you got around using haze for an event. Let us know in the comments below!

Don’t forget to hit subscribe and the bell icon so you can get notified every single Wednesday when we post Whiteboard Wednesday videos!

Resources:

Beware! AV Fees and Infrastructure Costs You Absolutely Need To Know

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from Endless Events https://helloendless.com/haze-at-events/

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Transparency In The Event Industry – #EventIcons Episode 158

Transparency in the event industry isn’t talked about nearly as much as it should. The issue of transparency is paramount in any business. How else are we expected to generate and cultivate meaningful relationships with clients and vendors alike? This is only possible once we build these relationships based on trust, honesty, and – you guess it – transparency. In a long-term perspective, transparency in the event industry ensures we thrive.

On today’s awesome episode of #EventIcons, we are joined by Event Tech Podcast and Endless Events’ Agent Provocateur and Event Tech Podcast co-host, Brandt Krueger. Together with Will Curran and Brandt, we welcome Jaclyn Bernstein, an acknowledged leader in NYC’s hospitality industry, sitting on the Board of NYC & Company / Convention and Visitors Bureau. Among many other honors, Jaclyn won the Spotlight ‘Event Planner of The Year’ and ‘Samaritan Service’ Awards.

The three discuss what transparency in the event industry means. Join Will, Brandt, and Jaclyn as they delve into the best means to reach this transparency, who is creating it, and who it should be directed towards.

Are you looking to create a more engaging event? Click here to download our free event planning checklist.

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How To Subscribe:

Click here to watch the show live and get email notifications of new episodes.

Subscribe via iTunes: Video & Audio or Audio Only

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Follow our iconic guest on Twitter:

Brandt Krueger of Endless Events (@BrandtKrueger)

Jaclyn Bernstein of Empire Force Events (@JaclynBernstein)

Will Curran of Endless Events (@ItsWillCurran)

Check out the epic resources mentioned in this episode:

Sh*t Event Planners Say, #EventIcons

CHULUX Coffee Maker Machine

Bizbash

What do you think about the issue of transparency in the event industry? Let us know in the comment section below!

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from Endless Events https://helloendless.com/transparency-in-the-event-industry/

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Interview: Amanda Flynn

Amanda Flynn talks about her work as a vocal Coach for Be More Chill on Broadway. … Read More Interview: Amanda Flynn from blog https://contemporarymusicaltheatre.wordpress.com/2019/04/02/interview-amanda-flynn/

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Exploring Augmented Reality And Virtual Reality In Events

As the world changes and technologies expand, we are faced with the chance to harness things like AR and VR in events for our advantage. More specifically, we learn the full power of these technologies and how much they can do for our industry.

While AR and VR in events have been around for a while, the concepts can still be quite baffling. More than that, it becomes a challenge to learn exactly how they can be leveraged in a successful way. With trial and error, and a considerable dose of headaches, it’s possible to turn AR and VR into serious allies.

In today’s episode of Event Tech Podcast, Will Curran and Brandt Krueger discuss all things AR and VR related to events. What are the controversies associated with the technologies? How have they been implemented successfully, or not so much? What were the reasons for this? What does the future hold? Join them as they travel through the unexplored world of AR and VR in the event industry! And to make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe to the Event Tech Podcast here.

https://www.podbean.com/media/player/dizgb-ac12bd?from=yiiadmin&download=1&version=1 Click here for the full audio transcription.

What Is What?

AR and VR are super exciting. So exciting that, in the midst of all the excitement, it’s easy to get lost and feel confused. First things first, it’s important to know how to distinguish AR from VR, mostly because they represent different things.

Augmented Reality

Will puts forward some neat definitions, presenting AR as “augmented reality, the idea that you’re taking an existing world, and you’re augmenting and changing it in some way. Common examples of this is when you hold up your phone, it uses your camera to overlay and drop items in reality. Like for example, I’m looking at glasses. If I use my selfie camera, show it at my face and it overlays glasses over my face. It takes the reality which is me not having glasses and puts glasses on me. Or if you’ve ever used Google’s phone camera app, it allows you to drag and drop Star Wars characters into reality, and then boom, you have a Stormtrooper standing in your living room. Super cool, augmented reality”.

Virtual Reality

The realm of virtual reality is slightly different. Will explains that “virtual reality is more closed off. It really doesn’t take into account the rest of the world. It creates a brand new world in a way. There are some times where virtual reality can mix with augmented reality. For example, you can be in a world, a black box, and all of a sudden it’s taking the world around you. But really, virtual reality technically is you’re in a closed loop system, and you’re putting on a headset, and it’s going black, and then boom, this new reality that gets mixed in with you, and you’re in a blank box.”

What Does This Mean?

In their essence, AR and VR are different. While we do witness a tendency for both to converge, the main point of divergence comes down to the exciting ways AR can bring a glow up to our work lives. As Will puts it, “whereas VR very much I think is stuck in entertainment land right now (…) augmented reality, everyone’s going, ‘Well how can we use this for work, and making things safer, and guided instructions?’”.

AR & VR: How Do They Fit Into Events?

Skepticism Is Real

It’s common to see resistance inside of the industry in regards to AR and VR. “Some of the more purists in the industry really take home that face to face part of events, and wouldn’t want to have anything to do with this type of technology because it takes away from that. I think that’s a legitimate point. It’s a legitimate skepticism of, let’s look at our event whether it makes sense to incorporate some of this technology. But I think one of the things that we need to do to move past this idea that VR and AR is just a gimmick, it’s just something that’s in the corner, like a photo booth or something like that”, says Brandt.

Threat Or Plus?

While the skepticism that comes with implementing AR and VR is common because “we make money off the physical experience”, this doesn’t mean the downfall of events. On the contrary, these technologies are simply the next step into elevating the event experience for everyone involved. As Brandt puts it, “it’s the idea that you can have a group experience with this technology, but you still can blend in all of the other aspects of your event” as opposed to “this is going to cannibalize and take away from (…) events.”

Purely Virtual

On the topic of AR and VR, as professionals, it’s also important to think about the future and what it might bring. Brandt suggests that “there’s going to be some new types of events that are totally virtual”. And while that’s one hundred percent true, it’s also a fact that they won’t “replace in-person events”.

All in all, “it’s gonna open up some new avenues, just like social media opened up new avenues, and opened up new ways of meeting people”.

What Is Coming Is Better Than What’s Gone

Technology that involves things like AR and VR “has come leaps and bounds in just the last few years, and that’s going to just continue to accelerate because they’re starting to see investment”. This means amazing things are gonna start popping up, that have immense potential for the event industry.

One of the coolest things that have been going around includes physical sensation and touch. Brandt really drives the point home on this one – “now we start to get into an interesting realm where you don’t have to touch the nasty kiosk that’s been touched by 100 people before, and you got to immediately go sanitize your hand”.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a skeptical or a die-hard fan, there’s no denying AR and VR have come to stay, and are sure to leave their mark on the event industry.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you have previous experience implementing AR and VR into events? Do you think they will completely reshape the industry as we know it? Let us know in the comments below!

Resources:

2018 Event Industry Trends – #EventIcons Episode 92

Stadia – Google’s Game Changer?

Watch Google’s Stadia Event In 5 Minutes

CES – The Global Stage for Innovation – CES 2020

The All-Inclusive Guide to Virtual Reality at Events

AllSeated

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from Endless Events https://helloendless.com/augmented-reality-and-virtual-reality-in-events/

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dylan38sanders · 5 years

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The Best Video Format For Events – Whiteboard Wednesday

How often do you wonder what’s the best video format for events? What may strike as a very simple matter, actually has quite a bit of juice to be squeezed! Choosing the best video format for events can get quite confusing, and here at Endless Events, we’ve kept our ears and eyes wide open. It’s a very common question, and it’s more than time it gets a valid answer! Join Will Curran for a brand new Whiteboard Wednesday, where he walks us through the sneaky issue of the best video format for events. https://fast.wistia.com/embed/medias/2v2oyn6qi4.jsonphttps://fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js

Video Transcription – The Best Video Format For Events

What’s up Endless Fans? Will Curran, and it’s Whiteboard Wednesday. And today we’re talking about, what’s the best video format for events? And so when we’re talking about this, we’re related to the video format for what’s going to be projected at your events. We get this as one of the most common questions we get. And in fact, shout out to the community, you guys in the comments who helped us actually answer this question and want to know more about this. So today, we’re going to be answering that age-old question, what’s the best video format?

Back In The Day…

So let’s jump right in. So, when it comes to your video format. We’re obviously talking mainly about like screen format, as well. And you know, what sort of file size you’re going to be looking at. So, whether it’s a dot mp4, or what resolution 4K versus HD. Not as important here, as well. Just mainly the aspect ratio that we’re talking about. Whenever you talk about the ratio, we’re talking about the sizing of everything. So, back in the day, if you guys remember those CRT TVs that we used to have with the big tubes in the background, and basically anybody younger than me is pretty much like, “What’s that?”. We remember that the aspect ratio for those screens was what’s known as four by three. It looked a little bit more square, basically a square sized screen. We’re all used to that, right? That’s where our content was. But as you’ve noticed, over the years our TVs have shifted. They’ve become more widescreen, as well. Well, that’s a different type of aspect ratio, and we’re going to talk about that.

The Modern Times Aspect Ratio

The important thing for you to know, though. If anyone ever designs a PowerPoint, or a video, and make it four by three, that’s a big sad-face right there. We do not want to have that, you do not want four by three content. That is old school. That’s like running dial-up, oh my gosh. We do not want four by three content anymore. In fact, most rental house AV companies don’t even carry four by three screens anymore, so therefore it ends up being more expensive for you to do it that way. Instead, what you want to be using is 16 by 9, this widescreen on here that we have on here. Very, very common whenever you’re doing your screens. So make sure when you’re telling your presenters, never use four by three, always 16 by 9. What usually a little bit less tech-savvy are using four by three, almost everyone knows to use 16 by 9 now. Good to go.

Pick And Choose

So that’s the kind of the basics stuff, right? When it comes to knowing which one not to use, and which one to use. When it comes to it. And we’re talking about very simple projection screens. For example, they make screens that are … lots of screens that are 16 by 9 now. And they still make some four by three screens. But when we start going beyond that, and you’re like, “Man, we do the two screens on either side. And we’re ready for the next thing. The thing that’s going to make our audience super engaged the entire time.” A lot of people love to get into the custom formatted screens. Things like, for example, a three by one aspect ratio screen. For every three feet, you go this way, you’re going one foot down this way, for example. So this might be something like a 30 foot by 10-foot screen, or something like a 60 by 20-foot screen, for example. Just a lot of different options when it comes to that. We even see things like 40 foot by 10-foot screens, 50 foot by 10-foot screens. I mean, pretty much you can take any size and decide what you want it to look like.

Don’t Waste Space

But, you also see unique things for example, instead of doing your screens horizontally, doing 16 by 9, you might be doing something like 9 by 16. Or you might do, you know, a five foot by 20 foot sized screen. All these custom options. Obviously when it comes to these sort of things, you’re getting kind of into projector blending, a little bit of light projection mapping stuff when it comes to this. So that’s just something to be aware of. But, before you go out there and say, yep this is what I want, I saw it as a conference, we have to have it at our event. You need to be aware of what comes with that. Because when a four by three, 16 by 9, it’s really easy, right? You make a PowerPoint, PowerPoint has a template for it, and boom, you can figure out that way. You might be thinking to yourself, “Well yeah, we’ll just do a three by one aspect ratio screen. And we’ll just tell our presenters to make their PowerPoints in that aspect ratio.” Well, it doesn’t always work that way. One thing that ends up happening, is the presenter’s usually don’t because it’s a weird aspect ratio, so something doesn’t quite fit in. So then the next thing that kind of happens is, our clients say, “Yeah, we want this, we’re going to pay for it, we sign off on it.” And we say, “Okay cool. What are you doing for content?” And they say, “Well we just have a bunch of presentation in 16 by 9.” So what ends up happening, is you take that 16 by 9 screen, and you put it in the middle. Look at all this wasted space over here on the right hand side. Like, you just … why have all this screen and pay for all this extra money, for example to use multiple projectors, to make this look good, and everything like that. When you’re just going to waste this space. Well then usually we hear, well why don’t we put, you know, our logo on either side, right? Yeah, still okay. Why not just do it with a banner or a Gobo, or something like that. Why you going to spend that money to do it? Speaker 1: So, what I wanted to recommend to you guys, is as we start to do this, is to … some unique options that you can do when you’re doing these custom contents, and how to do it the right way. And how to bring unique items into it. So, let’s start talking about the ultra widescreen, to start off with. Some common examples of what we see in and that works really well. Especially if you’re forced into this. For example, you’re using a keynote speaker, they don’t want to make custom content for this sized screen, they just plan to having 16 by 9. Well the best thing you can do at that point, is take a 16 by 9 presentation, and place it off to the side. And put something else right next to it, another 16 by 9 screen, you know. Add some borders, and designs, and things like that. You know, maybe some sponsor logos at the bottom. Maybe your logo at the top right. That sort of stuff.

Know You’re Options And Switch It Up

However, what’s cool is that, not only can you show presentation in this kind of screen within a screen, a picture in picture. But you can show something else over, as well, as I was talking about. So what this number two might be is, for example, it could be a camera angle. So like, for example, what we usually like to see is, usually we put … when we do these triple wide screens, we put another screen on either side, that does cameras. This is just content. But let’s say, for example, you’re doing a cooking event, which we’ve done before. And what we did is we put, you know, the PowerPoint over here and then they’re doing demonstrations, so we put a constant top-down view right next to them, which is really cool. Again, utilizing this screen, and when you’re able to switch. Or for example, you could put one camera on this one, second camera on this one. Pretty cool, again like, picture and pictures options available to you when you’re doing these screen formats. However, one thing that I’ve seen that would also be really successful is you have the PowerPoint over here, and then you put an audience engagement software over here on the right hand side. For example, it could be something like a text to screen software, or a Q&A software, or a polling software. You could put that over here so as they’re showing their PowerPoint, the question and answers, and polls are pulling up here on the second screen the entire time. Pretty cool, right? So then that you are maximizing the space, you get to add a little bit of theme-ing around it, really, really good. Really, really cool. But again, nothing really groundbreaking with that, because to be honest, you could do the two screen option just by getting two 16 by 9 screens. And putting them side by side. And you don’t have that option. So, the best way to take advantage of this is by utilizing the weird aspect ratio. So, for example, asking your presenters to create a three by one aspect ratio screen, for example, that fills up the entire screen. You can show more pictures, you can make the ticks bigger, you can do a lot of really cool options with it. But designing all of your content from the ground up, so it fills up that screen. That’s the best way to take advantage of that weird aspect ratio.

Get The Content To Match

So that means also, you need to film and create video content that matches that, as well. So resemble, you if you have an intro video for your conference, I highly recommend don’t just film it in normal 16 by 9, have them film it at, you know, super high resolution, for example, 4K. And then have them crop it in to make it this three by one aspect ratio. It would allow you to utilize this screen and make it look so much better and you’re going to be so much happier with the results. And your actually taking advantage of this screen.

Vertical Screens

Well, you might be thinking to yourself, well that’s cool, I’ve seen that before but you talked a little bit about these vertical screens. This is a new trend that we’re starting to see with a lot of events, especially music festivals. So something you can always do as well, is also take it and do a bunch of vertical screens as well. Again, you’re going to have to create custom content for that. Don’t just think about how you can smash the 16 by 9 content into that screen and not utilize it. But one cool thing that I want to give you guys as an idea, was actually that I’ve seen a lot with these verticals, is to utilize these for camera to screen. Or what we call IMAG, or image magnification. So what we do, is instead of doing that normal shot or the presenter, you know, head to toe with all his kind of wasted space on either side. They can do a, you know, head to toe shot of them, and do a nice vertical and it almost looks like their walking right next to the stage as the cameras following them. So consider using vertical side screens for your camera magnification. Which is pretty darn cool and looks pretty awesome.

Conclusion

So that’s how you think about video formats. Again, avoid four by three, at all costs, that’s ancient technology. At least be using 16 by 9, but if you’re starting to think of unique ways and you have a little bit of AV budget, and you’re looking at these unique three by one aspect ratio screens, five by one, you know, ten by one, whatever it may be. Maybe you’re looking at wrapping the entire room with video. Think about how you can use it beyond just the typical 16 by 9 imprinted it onto the screen. Think about how you can really utilize every single inch of this presentation space to really captivate audiences. So, that’s it. That’s video formats all in a quick video for a Whiteboard Wednesday. Thank you again for all of you who leave in the comments ideas for shows that we can do. Keep that coming all day long. I would love to hear from you guys. Have you seen any cool video formats at events that you’ll love to do, or had any cool implementation of this? Comment down below with what you’ve seen when it comes to cool video formats. We love to hear from you. And as always, if you have topic ideas, put them down below, and we’ll love to answer your questions, as well. So that does it for Whiteboard Wednesday. Before you leave, make sure to hit that subscribe button, check off that bell, as well, so you get notified every time we post a Whiteboard Wednesday video. And we’ll see you next week on Whiteboard Wednesday.

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