At the recent InfoComm 2010 show in Las Vegas, NV, a panel comprised of some of the nation’s most esteemed meeting planners and producers diligently answered questions from their Audiovisual supplier audience. One question that was of most interest to the audience revolved around the matter of price. When asked directly if price was the final determining factor in selecting a vendor, the answer was overwhelmingly, “No!” The panelists repeatedly emphasized that “value” was their primary concern and that they would never choose a supplier simply because they were a lower price. Other factors mentioned were “honesty, quality and trust in the relationship”.
Really? Is that really the truth? Because as a company based on providing one-on-one, artfully crafted service from technicians who have decades of experience doing Academy Award-caliber events, I’m starting to think that’s really just a great sound byte built on wanting to sound good.
How, exactly, do we demonstrate the value of our services? I’m markedly against the idea of letting a client walk away and struggle with their meeting because they choose the lower-priced, big-box competitor who gives away Internet, power or whatever other freebie they decide to offer. I flatly refuse to compete with Wal Mart when I know I can deliver the cool, Michael Graves, Target-esque shopping experience at the same – or very close to the same – price. (Note: we have many, many AV competitors to whom we do not mind losing business as we respect and admire their work. This blog post does NOT pertain to them, we love healthy competition.)
To the planner who chooses a big-box AV supplier because they offered lots of goodies, I ask this: if you wouldn’t trust your hairstyle to the 18 yr old part-time beauty school graduate just because they offer the free highlights with a cut, why would you trust your $100k, signature event to a supplier who will probably never work with you again and has no vested interest in the outcome of your event? (Trust me, they don’t stand to lose a thing if something goes wrong with your event – no docked pay, no reprimand, just oops, try to do better next time.)
I throw a few questions and challenges out to planners and other suppliers. Suppliers (AV or otherwise): How are you managing your client expectations? How do you differentiate “value” from “price”? And is it working or do you think you’re being fed just a lot of fluff?
Planners: Where do you see “value”? Have you had an event go wrong and wished you’d selected the other vendor after all? Do you include some type of weighting to your evaluation process for experience, creativity, reliability or some other factor?
I’d love to see some open and honest dialogue here! Let’s hear it!
If you are looking for more information in the AV industry about sustainability/Green AV, check in with the gals at Project Green AV. Founded by Elizabeth Eames and Gina Sansivero (of Projector Lamp Services, a lamp recycling company), this is a one-stop shop for all things related to Green AV. Nominated for a Green AV Award by Infocomm International, this website has consistently delivered on timely and relevant news.
Here is a sample of their latest newsletter. You can subscribe to it here.
The Junior Seau Foundation moved away from text slides to describe silent auction packages. In this picture, there was a marked increase in bidding excitement when a giant rally car raced across the screens over Warren Moon's head!
Symmetry is overrated. No, I’m not trying to blast the aesthetics of balanced Greek architecture…but I’m tired of walking into events and looking at two 9×12 screens flanking a center stage with a wooden lectern placed square in the middle. Black drape and colored uplights are generally the order of the day, if budget permits. As the meetings and events industry undergoes perhaps the greatest shakedown since Bob Seger sang about it in 1987, close attention is being paid to the quality of the content at meetings, conferences and other educational events. I don’t understand why we shouldn’t do the same for the technology showcasing this content!
But if PowerPoint is guilty of leaving a trail of slain bodies in its path…where is its trusty sidekick, AV? For too long, we’ve been lulled into what some AV companies actually refer to as the “Standard AV package”. I’m sorry, but what the heck does that mean? Oh, yes, I already described it – refer to paragraph one. So, what are the alternatives? Well, I have a few ideas and they tie into everything that my presentation advice heroes suggest:
Budget-friendly advice: Flip that screen on its head. Get creative with your PowerPoint design and design slides that will fit a 12×9 screen…make them vertical and see the limited space for text shakes up some of your creative thinking. You could also use one vertical and one horizontal screen and shift their content back and forth to eliminate any “I couldn’t see the speaker at all” complaints. (For example, use the vertical screen for IMAG [the camera image] and presentation content on horizontal then vice versa as slides change.)
Bigger production? Have some fun with some blended widescreen projection and go for the fun movie theatre effect. You don’t need a massive budget, but it will require a little creativity with content creation. Suffice to say, bullet points do NOT look great on a big widescreen! At our most recent Junior Seau event, using creative video in place of a text-based auction item description engaged the audience’ imagination as they envisioned themselves racing around with the DC Shoes team. (For more on how video can evoke emotion to engage an audience, see this post from Mike McAllen.)
Futuristic ideas and the sky’s the limit? The new Christie Microtiles are exciting new technology for displays. With incredible environmental sensitivity and total flexibility in design, any configuration of the tiles is possible! Or, how about handheld devices where each attendee will have the speaker’s voice, presentation slides and any audio/video right at their fingertips?? It’s closer than you think!
Gorgeous Christie Microtiles can be configured in any shape!
I’ll be posting more on the role of AV in the serial deaths of meeting attendees, but in the meantime, what great ideas have you seen to improve tired designs? What new ideas would you like to see?
For several months now, I have been excited about the potential use of netbooks/tablets within our company and for the events we service.
In anticipation of this transition, I purchased a first generation iPad this week as we are all on Mac’s and use an Apple server. So far, here are a few discoveries:
1. First off, this is not meant to be a substitute for a laptop. It’s more like the notepad that I use when listening to messages, taking part in conference calls or meetings and scribbling down random notes, but now I can insert video clips, photos or record audio notes. My next step is to use some kind of stylus for handwritten notes (but without any of the annoying hieroglyphics of the Palm Graffiti…remember that?); plus I’m a habitual doodler!
2. While presenting a live webcast, I couldn’t access my browser window on my laptop without closing the presentation. So, I opened up the browser on the iPad and was able to monitor the twitter stream for any questions or comments from the audience.
3. I’ve had many questions about which version I bought and why. We selected the non-3G version, 16GB model. A few factors impacted this decision.
First, having wifi seemed to be enough for our use – in most cases we’ll be using them as production binders and will have Internet connections for the automatic document updates. And it is fast as blazes, so that has been a plus.
Next, if we need to check email or calendars, we always have an iPhone in the pocket or holster. The additional $130 and $30/month charge seemed silly. In a pinch, webmail is always available on the browser.
We didn’t think the additional memory would be necessary. My iPhone has 16GB of memory and I have not even come close to the limits.
4. In most cases, it will function as a “safe place” for note taking during meetings, writing, reading business materials, conducting research and other creative composing. I say “safe place” as it will not carry many of the distractions associated with working on my laptop (largely because of the communication features I do not intend to use – haven’t even set up my email account!). Oh, and, the e-reader functionality is fabulous.
All in all, I’m very pleased so far. Btw, he has a name. Meet iPadraig. Stay tuned as we find more uses for him and begin experimenting with future versions on showsite.
Within the events world, we all know we’re facing the greatest challenges of our industry to date. There is no need to reiterate the “shrinking budgets, environmental concerns, blah blah blah” reasons for a decline in the volume of face to face meetings. So, for Marriott to roll out a new “GoThere” (warning: link takes forever to load, grumble grumble) virtual meeting solution in collaboration with AT&T, it’s ingenious, right? Well, yes and no.
First, What Will Work
Reduced costs. At $500/hour for the room usage, even a three hour meeting could save thousands in hard costs for high-level executives who don’t need car service, business-class airfare or hotel (a three hour cross-country meeting could potentially require an overnight stay). I wouldn’t say there was a significant amount of savings in lost productivity as most executives are working via mobile tools during travel.
Access to cool technology. Costing hundreds of thousands of dollars per room, Cisco Telepresence is not something most people can utilize. This could be an opportunity for small businesses and independents to experience the system.
Beautiful quality. Make no mistake, the technology is gorgeous. Close to flawless. Easy to use. Nuff said.
Environmental impact. Obviously the reduced travel equates to reduction in an environmental footprint. Calculations can be made to estimate the reduced impact.
International organizations could reap massive benefits. Planned locations include Shanghai, London, Frankfurt, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong and eight US cities.
The Challenges
Marriott has their work cut out for them. Why?
You have to book multiple rooms on multiple ends to hold the meetings. That’s double the cost…and unless you have quite a few people participating in each meeting, it could be difficult to recoup the expenditure. Plus, realistically, what are the chances that your desired party happens to be in one of the planned 13 cities? That, too, could be tricky.
You have to travel to get to the meeting room. This still means time away from the office. Coupled with #1, if you have to travel a fair distance to get to one of the rooms, this could equate to an even higher expense!
Maybe the name “GO There” wasn’t the wisest choice? Just a reminder that it still requires leaving the office, unlike many in-office web conferencing suites offering decent quality and the same interactivity. I have personally experienced several video conferencing technologies using large-screen monitors and didn’t feel I was lacking much in communication abilities.
Decreasing market share. With the acquisition of LifeSize Communications by Logitech (yes, the mouse company), we will potentially see far more affordable options popping up in offices around the world…with little to no sacrifice in quality. (FYI, this is a company to watch, wow!) Polycom and Juniper’s new collaboration is another potential threat.
They will need to do extensive consumer education in order to show the best use of their technology in place of using widely available, semi-affordable collaborative tools. Assembling a long list of case studies and demonstrations will be mandatory to sell the value. I can think of many reasons to use the rooms, but I don’t see anything listed in any of the verbiage on their site.
Environmental calculations could be difficult. Trying to gain an estimate of the actual reduction in footprint will require manual calculations by…the client? Without automated calculators, this could be a lost metric for organizations needing the data.
Within the list of challenges, I believe there are opportunities to find new markets and new ways to use the technology. It’s going to be a tough road, but obviously Marriott didn’t make this move without serious forethought. And with giants AT&T and Cisco backing them, it’s probably not as massive of a drop of cash anyways. All things being equal, it’s exciting to see Marriott working to innovate and adapt in making videoconferencing a tool available to the public.
As meeting professionals (supplier or planner), where are the opportunities for you? Can you adapt your job duties and expertise to become an expert on this new type of meeting?
A few months ago, Joan Eisenstodt made a great observation on Jeff Hurt‘s blog, Midcourse Corrections, about how difficult it can be to sit through a presentation when the house lights are set so low it’s impossible to take notes, use a laptop, etc. And Jeff was spot-on when he agreed that these days a good projector (and, yes, that is a caveat…a crummy lamp will completely negate what I’m about to say), properly specified for the size of the room and audience should have no problem illuminating the image on the screen even with the house lights at full power.
So, just for fun, at one of my speaking engagements, I requested the AV crew not dim the house lights. With Joan’s comment running through my head, I stood my ground as they repeatedly tried to turn down the house lights. I finally had to throw out the “I am the CEO of an AV Company” line to get them to take me seriously (oh, that’s so frustrating, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog!!).
After all was said and done, Joan was certainly right (gee, go figure haha). See, I had requested of my audience to Tweet, use their phones for live polling and do some interactive group exercises. How could I ask them to do all of this in the dark? And I knew that the front-projected, 6k projector on a 9×12 screen in an intimate 80-person room set would be more than sufficient. Ultimately we had not one complaint that the audience couldn’t read the screen, I was able to clearly see and assess the feedback from my audience and I’m sure everyone had a much easier time tapping away at their little phone keypads thanks to decent lighting! Kudos and Thank You Joan!
So, here are a few considerations when thinking about what is appropriate and how to accomplish your goals when it comes to your lighting:
First of all, check the room lighting when evaluating your site. How flexible are the lighting options? Can you dim one quadrant or one half of the room at a time? If so, maybe inform your attendees that they have some options when it comes to overhead lighting. After all, I’m sure there are some people who feel more comfortable with darker lights overhead. I was appalled at a recent load-in when I discovered a brand-new, extremely high-end property had only two light settings. Yep, good old “on” and “off”
For really large, non-traditional venues or a convention center type of setting, it’s often buzzing mercury lamps or nothing. As pin spots on tables can be an exorbitant cost, see what kind of effects you might achieve with blasting the walls (or preferably pipe & drape) with bright uplights. This creates a nice diffused light, but may not reach the center of the room. Or, if getting a little creative, how about something fun along the lines of table or desk lights? Battery powered LED lights can be durable and extremely long-lasting (hundreds of hours for reuse). Just be sure they are shaded to throw the light on the table – and not people’s faces!
Spend a few minutes with your Technical Director or Project Manager reviewing exactly how you’d like the room lighting to look during each segment of your event. There are certainly times where you’d really rather the audience be enveloped by a low-light setting…it can spark a mood that you’d like to achieve. If your intent is to relax your audience, get them solely focused on the entertainment before them or perhaps create an awards-show type of setting, you’d certainly want a lower house light setting.
Best of luck and don’t be afraid to do what your instinct tells you to. Just try to ignore the patronizing looks of the snooty AV kid (And be sure to read my AVGirl column on planyourmeetings.com for some empowering knowledge.) If you’re not happy with the results, there’s no reason why you can’t make a change mid-stride (or midcourse, eh Jeff?).
At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week in Las Vegas, possibly the hottest topic is the new tablet technology revealed by brands such as Dell, Lenovo and HP, with Apple set to release their tablet later this month (Update: Check out the $499 tablet here!!). Essentially the product is somewhere between a cell phone and a laptop; the current products being revealed range from anything like a sophisticated cell phone to a very small laptop. Affordable price point, touch-screen functionality, extended battery life and the ability to stream in HD are some of the characteristics of this new technology. Toting around a laptop could very well be much like how the general public currently treats their mobile or smart phone.
Sooo…where would this technology fit in at a meeting or event?
Think about the potential for supplying these tablets to attendees (either at low or no-cost). From there you could do the following:
Tablets could be pre-loaded with vendor and sponsor information, educational materials, tradeshow maps, the list goes on.
As hard as it is to obtain sponsorship dollars, consider further that if an attendee taps on certain information (such as a sponsor’s link to information), their preferences could be tracked and valuable tracking data supplied to sponsors for improved ROI.
The environmental implications could be massive for reducing the need for paper at all, and without complicated distribution systems.
Unlike existing technology (ie Kindle) video and multimedia can also be incorporated into these devices.
Attendee goodwill could reach an all-time high!
From a logistical perspective, though, if you thought social media usage was prevalent now, well whoa! Imagine how this might transform the connectivity needs of your audience. Events that don’t offer wifi would most likely be scoffed at…as attendees tap-tap-tap their scorn with angry thumbs (resorting to using their phones due to no Internet connectivity).
What else could a person do with such fun technology??
An archived version of the Project Green AV webinar that aired 11/17 is now available on-demand. You can access it here.
For a copy of the presentation with all links live, please send a message to midori *at* pulsestaging.com You can also view the document on my LinkedIn Slide Share page.
For really large, non-traditional venues or a convention center type of setting, it’s often buzzing mercury lamps or nothing. As pin spots on tables can be an exorbitant cost, see what kind of effects you might achieve with blasting the walls (or preferably pipe & drape) with bright uplights. This creates a nice diffused light, but may not reach the center of the room. Or, if getting a little creative, how about something fun along the lines of table or desk lights? Battery powered LED lights can be durable and extremely long-lasting (hundreds of hours for reuse). Just be sure they are shaded to throw the light on the table – and not people’s faces!
(And be sure to read my AVGirl column on 
