5 Holiday Season Event Ideas
EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION, TIPS & TRICKS
As winter reaches out, American event organizers are heading into the final stretch before the holiday season kicks in. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and even Kwanzaa are festive musts. And very much like in the fashion industry, holiday trends sweep the events world every year. Our friends at BizBash have done an overview of these very trends so none of your attendees could possibly accuse you of hosting an unfashionable event.
Go All Out On The Food
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While catering is always of paramount importance, this is doubly true during the holidays. The popularity of cooking shows, coupled with the mating call of ovens left untouched over the summer, have made guests increasingly demanding about the spreads they are served.
Presentation, Presentation, Presentation
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As appreciated as formal sit-down dinners are during the year, the holiday period calls for a touch of pizzazz. Having chefs front and center concocting treats in front of guests, having waiters decked out to match a number of food themes or laying out a wide range of self-service stations are just a few ideas that will resonate particularly well.
Events in the Office
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The recession bit deep for many events companies as well as their clients. Budgets for lavish venues were scaled back but this also led to a rise in ingenious and affordable solutions. While holding a conference in a company s office would once have been frowned upon, an entire new sub-section of the event organizing world has sprung up to to offer to just that.
Full Bars, not Open Bars
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We understand the dismay of going to an open bar at an event and finding they only have Gordon s Gin. As such, as discerning customers know what they want, the time of the fully-stocked bar has returned. The popularity of shows such as Boardwalk Empire have also made Prohibition-era themes a hot favorite for this holiday season.
Teambuilding, YAY
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While every professional conference organizer can have a Pavlovian reaction triggered by the mention of certain teambuilding memories, there is no denying the return to form of this old favorite. This becomes especially true around the holidays. Are you strapped for ideas. Fear not: you can check out Decibel Management s suggestions for teambuilding activities here.
Sesame Street at the White House: How Decibel Got Involved
COMPANY NEWS, LIVE EVENTS
In mid-June, the creators of Sesame Street began a new campaign Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration seeking to help young children whose parents are in prison. The campaign aims to reach out to the 2.7 million American kids who have one or both parents in jail, especially those under the age of 8. Sesame Street is teaming up with the White House s Office of Public Engagement to help children better understand this separation and aid parents in talking about incarceration with their young ones.
The makers of the hit children s show are launching a new range of Muppet videos and exercises dealing specifically with this difficult issue. On June 12, the jolly figures of Cookie Monster and Abby Cadabby, as well as Alex and Murray were at the EEOB and White House to help roll out the campaign alongside administration officials.
Decibel Management was deeply honored to be a part of this event with Sesame Street and the White House. It was great to know that all the children who will benefit from the program will see Sesame Street characters and White House officials in the best possible light and from their most flattering angle. Although with such good-looking stars, doing so was child s play. Decibel handled the monitor mix and the video for the puppeteers, as well as general event management for the lead up to the event.
Five Events that Went Terribly, Terribly Wrong
LIVE EVENTS
Sometimes, everything just goes to straight down the drain. All that planning. All that preparation. All those terrible ideas
2005: Giant Snapple-pop Flood
You kids are probably too young to remember this, but way back in 2005, Snapple attempted to break a world record by creating the world s biggest ice-pop. They strapped the massive popsicle onto the back of a trailer and hauled it into the middle of Union Square. On the first day of summer. Surprise! It melted, and the fire department was called to clean up the ocean of kiwi-strawberry runoff. Oopsies.
1992: Guns n Roses Concert Riot
Doesn t matter how many times you test the sound equipment: we re all slaves to the vagaries of celebrity whim. In 1992, a Montreal concert featuring Metallica and Guns n Roses went south in a series of unfortunate incidents that culminated in thousands of dollars worth of property damage. First, Metallica s James Hetfield was severely burned by a pyrotechnic misfire during his performance. The next headliner, Guns n Roses, took their sweet time getting on stage, but once they did, they performed a paltry 50-minutes before deciding they d had enough. The audience, understandably annoyed, trashed the stadium and spilled out into the street, forcing the city to call up over 300 riot police. Nice.
1989: Marchioness Disaster
The Marchioness was out on a pleasure cruise carrying 131 guests attending the 26th birthday party of Antonio de Vasconcellos, which had been arranged by his friend Johnathan Phang. Around 2am, the Marchioness was suddenly struck by the 262-foot long Bowbelle, who drove the smaller craft underwater in a staggering 30 seconds. Out of 131 guests, only 80 survived the collision.
2011: Indiana State Fair Stage Collapse
This stage collapse, which happened during a Sugarland performance at the Indiana State Fair, looks like a sad case of mis-communications and under-reporting:
Throughout the day and evening of the concert, the National Weather Service issued notices and warnings predicting strong thunderstorms. Messages about the forecasts were relayed to various State Fair personnel via an automated text-messaging system.
At 8:00 p.m., Cindy Hoye, Executive Director for the Indiana State Fair Commission, held a meeting to discuss what effect the weather forecast would have on the 8:45 p.m. start time for the Sugarland show. Members of the meeting were told that the storm was forecast to arrive at 9:15 p.m., 30 minutes after the concert was to begin. Hoye wanted to delay the show until the weather had passed.
An official took this message to Sugarland s managers, who said they preferred to go on with the show as scheduled and only stop if weather conditions worsened. The managers only knew about the rain, not the lightning, wind, and hail that were expected. They decided to start the show just 5 minutes late (8:50 p.m.) to allow the band time to warm up.
2010: India s Commonwealth Games
Called the worst-planned international sporting event ever by Business Insider, India s Commonwealth Games suffered from an incredible roster of mishaps and problems, including corruption allegations, serious stadium construction delays, flooding, Dengue Fever outbreaks, poor security, water supply issues, tourist shootings and ta da a bridge collapse.
LED Inspiration: Innovative, Clever and Beautiful Event Lighting Ideas
EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION
Decibel did a little review on the 2014 Country Music Awards a few months ago, drawing attention to the LED video wall behind Dierks Bentley during his performance of Drunk on a Plane . We said it and we meant it: get ready to see a lot more LED-everything, and particularly LED wall backdrops, in 2015 and beyond. We dug up some videos showing some interesting, experimental or just plain pretty approaches to LED walls get ready to get inspired.
Po-motion Interactive Projections
Ripley Window Display in Peru from PO-MO Inc. on Vimeo.
The folks at Po-motion have created software allowing event producers to create custom interactive projections. The video above shows a window display in Peru with an shattered rippling effect that engages when someone walks by, but you could just as easily project games, smoke, and other neatness on your surface. The possibilities for engagement and staging are endless.
Notevarp Design VJ
Oslo Trend 2014 LED Wall from Audun Notevarp on Vimeo.
Created by Notevarp for the Oslo Trend 2014 Digital Fashion Festival, this ultra-modern, monotone line-art video graphic reel is a great backdrop for a high-fashion event.
Pavegen
Pavegen Video Compilation II from Pavegen Systems Ltd. on Vimeo.
Pavegen is a floor tile that converts the weight of your footsteps into electricity. The video s a bit long, 18 minutes, but worth the watch if you re interested in cutting-edge ways to power spaces at your next event (sound cuts in at around 1:00). As the latter portions of the video shows, while Pavegen has plenty of practical uses, it can be integrated in ways that take it beyond the realm of practicality and into the realm of art. And the best news for event managers? It takes about an hour to install on a raised-floor system, meaning it can plausibly be hooked up and broken down quickly. Skip to 8:00 to see a few awesome event-ready applications.
GTEK S Series Flexible LED Panels
GTEK S Series Flexible Panel from Telematics Canada on Vimeo.
From Telematics, a GTEK manufacturer and distributor: GTEK recognized an inherent limitation in all flexible LED panels in the market. Pixels that begin a set distance from each other on a flat panel will spread apart to a greater distance when the panel is reconfigured to curved shape. To solve this issue, GTEK Engineers created a unique method to keep those pixels evenly spaced
Holiday Event Production: 5 of the Best Christmas Rentals for Large-Scale Events
EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION, TIPS & TRICKS
December is upon us, and with it, the yearly infusion of last-minute holiday parties, winter fairs, holiday concerts, and all things Christmas. It s pretty easy to track down decor and extras for small-scale get-togethers, but the must-haves for commercial-level shindigs are a whole nother deal. Here are Decibel s tips on where to get the best holiday rentals for your end-of-year events.
Carolers a la Dickens
It ain t no Christmas without Christmas carols. If you happen to be in the New York or Tri-State area, you can call on one of the longest-standing Dickensian carol performance groups, who show up in full period-appropriate costume and Christmas the heck the out of everything with their fa-la-las. Their clients include Macy s, Bloomingdales, the Waldorf-Astoria and other seasonal heavy hitters, plus they get invited to the White House like, every year, so you know they re super legit. If they re all booked up or you re not near New York, check out The Christmas Carolers, a nation-wide caroler-booking agency.
Snowflake Backdrops
Need to add a Christmas vibe to your indoor or outdoor stage? Atomic Design, one of America s best stage design companies (and naturally, a Decibel vendor), brings the winter spirit with their Yeti Flake backdrop, a modular holiday special solution that can be assembled into panels, columns, or superwalls. Add backlighting for Christmas win! Not sure what to ask for? Call us we ll help you sort it.
Fake Snow / Winterland Environments
When you need a LOT of snow like, industrial-grade Christmas-in-July style snow you call Snowmaking by STURM. Snowmaking by Sturm sports an impressive portfolio of projects that includes work on major motion pictures, commercials and town-center events, so you know they got the chops to pull off just about any idea. They do clean-up free simulated falling snow, massive snow-fields, ramps and winter environments for marketing campaigns.
Rent-a-Santa
The big guy himself has his hands full this time of year, and event producers have to rely on temporary stand-in Santas to help spread all that joy around. The biggest Santa-for-hire agency in the US is actually a popular sub-service of the temping website Gigmasters. They offer Santas for just about every location in the US, and their website includes a great search feature where you can find the perfect Santa for your sleigh.
Ginormous Trees & other City-Center Decor
Epic department store trees, commercial properties covered in twinkling lights, giant plastic ornaments hanging from four-story ceilings yup, you will be needing a specialist. The Christmas Decorators have a lot (no really, a lot look at their portfolio) of experience decking the halls of restaurants, hotel lobbies and town square.
You Are Here: Pretty Wayfinding Maps
EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION
Did you know there s a whole field of study about how to help people get around? It s called Wayfinding . There are agencies that specialize in it, and it seems like one of those fields that you ve never heard of but when you think about it, of course it exists and of course it s necessary. How do people find their way around buildings and interior commercial spaces? Malls? Subways and airports? What do they need to know to get where they re going? When and where should signage be placed? The several times that we ve organized the National Book Festival, attended by over 100,000 people, it was vital that we clearly informed people how to get to the tents they wanted to get to, and we have garnered a special appreciation for nice You Are Here maps.
With Wayfinding, design must first give way to clarity. Something can be clear and ugly, but it must be clear. Obviously, the best projects are both beautiful and clear. Check out this collection of a few of the pretty and thought-provoking wayfinding projects from Behance:
Skyrim Riften Map, Chelsea Butts
Bless the gaming community and their endless enthusiasm. This exceptionally clear top-down 2d map was made of a fictional district from the video game, Skyrim.
Subic Map, Jo Malinis and Raxenne Maniquiz
Another lovely 2D creation, and a bit more complex than the first example, this area map was created for the 2014 Ad Summit.
Reynolds Performing Arts Center, Robert Eugene Sidwell
This one is lovely because its so adult. Designed in a slight perspective and using a lovely soft palette against a computer-generated-level-design feel.
Norwegian School of Creative Studies Wayfinding System, 4 Collaborators
An interesting approach to the use of 3D renderings that draw a realistic sense of space in the viewer s mind.
Suburban Map, Anna Giulia Spagnulo
Ooh! Look at the great illustration on this one. This map walks a great line between beauty and clarity, without falling back on Swiss design.
Festival Map, Estel Martinez
A faux-3D illustrated map concept, showing each unique festival space individually. Larger-than-life extruded objects focus the eye on the important bits.
How to Choose the Right DJ for Your Event
TIPS & TRICKS
Not all DJs are created equal, and there are considerations above and beyond which version of the Macarena is gonna get dropped. Here are a few tips to help you hone in on the perfect DJ for your event.
For the love of all things holy, ask to listen to their demo
Most professional DJs, from Bat Mitzva beat-droppers to Goatee McSunglassesAtNight have a demo mix that showcases their skills. Listening to a DJ s demo is like checking out an artist s portfolio: it s one of the few ways you can get a real sense of what you re about to get yourself into. So if you do no other due diligence, do this. Unless you ve personally seen the DJ perform, no demo should be a dealbreaker.
There is such a thing as a DJ CV
Professional DJs often specialize, not only within a specific music genre but often within a specific type of venue or event. Some of them just do product launch parties. Some of them only lay down rock tracks at quiet little bars. A DJ CV should include a brief bio and a bit of history, so you ll get a clear idea of specialization, personality and past experience.
Ask for references
A DJ can have the chops and the right sound, but that hardly matters if they turn out to be a total flake with a coke habit. Call some past employers to lay those concerns to rest.
Ask to see a sample set list
What you re looking for here is appropriateness. A good DJ is intuitive about the perfect way to set a mood they re fluid and imaginative. A bad DJ will try to shoehorn your event attendees into his space. If the songs that they suggest don t seem to match the environment you want to achieve, you may need to ask the DJ to re-calibrate their understanding of your event s goals.
Ask what kind of equipment they expect you to have
Some DJs will rock up with just a computer loaded up with some mix software. Others will have a 20-channel mixer that needs to be incorporated into your existing sound system. Make sure their standard rigging will work with your set-up, and that you have the table-space available to accommodate their gear.
Image Sources: DJ by Montecruz Foto, Featured Image by Aurora Mixer
10 Ghoulish Halloween Catering Ideas
EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION
Halloween is a holiday sadly saddled with misconceptions. Often dismissed as being exclusively for children, it is also ridiculed for being a corporate holiday . Well, what s wrong with that? Can corporate events not also enjoy a touch of the spooky? We think so.
While the vast majority of Halloween decorations or event themes are aimed at younger generations, catering is one area where a touch of ingenuity can be warmly-received around Halloween. While allowing professional corporate event organizers to maintain the vibe they want for an event, the dishes below will provide a dose of levity and a break from the catering norm, pleasing to both the eye and the palate.
Provide these ideas to your catering supplier and see what wonders they can whip up.
White Pumpkin Cheese Ball
Original image | Get the recipe
Brew-Ha-Ha Punch
Original image | Get the recipe
Goblin Dip With Bone Cracker
Original image | Get the recipe
Monster Meatball Sandwiches
Original image | Get the recipe
Weiner Worms
Original image | Get the recipe
Jack-O -Lantern Cheeseburger Pie
Original image | Get the recipe
Mummy Dogs
Get the recipe
Original image | Get the recipe
Chocolate Ghost Cakes
Original image | Get the recipe
Stuffed Pumpkin with Cranberry-Raisin Bread Pudding
Original image | Get the recipe
Southern-Style Caramel Apples
How to talk about Lines: Introduction to Queuing Theory for Event Planners
EVENT INDUSTRY
Waiting sucks. I can t think of a single human being that enjoys a good long wait. Waiting is the womb of all bad things: irritability, customer complaints, bad PR, sometimes even riots. Happily, the world is full of good-guy scientists using teh mathz to make sure your attendees are queuing for the shortest possible times. There s a whole field of study about it, and it s called Queueing Theory . The tools are there. Just reach out and take them.
Queuing theory applications
The applications for queuing theory are numerous, and extend well beyond the ticket-purchasing sphere. To quote from queuing theory researcher Myron Hlynka, Queueing theory is useful in telecommunications, traffic control, determining the sequence of computer operations, predicting computer performance, health services (eg. control of hospital bed assignments), airport traffic, airline ticket sales, the mining industry, layout of manufacturing systems. It is even useful in determining when to remove a goalie in a hockey game.
But in terms of straight-up ticket windows or event registration lines, the goal of well-applied queueing theory is to determine how you can acheive the shortest possible wait time for attendees at the lowest possible resource cost to you or your event. In other words: How many ticket windows need to be open at the same time to keep wait times to an acceptable minimum?
It s a Numbers Thing
Look, queuing theory is, at its root, a mathematician s field of study. It s all about algorithms defining how many customers are arriving, how quickly they re arriving, how long it takes them to get served and leave. It factors in how regularly people are arriving, delays at each step of the process, and what kind of delays those are. Nobody over here at Decibel is a mathematician, and we imagine most event producers aren t either, and we can t teach you how to do algebra here, but we can tell you the right words to use when describing issues with lines, and different ways to think about your line setups.
But if you re a numbers persona and you re looking to take a deep dive into the calculus that drives these computations, you ll want this: Basic Queuing Theory, by Dr. Janos Sztrik.
The Basic Equation: Little s Law
I may have lied a little: we are going to talk about math, but just for a short and painless second. Queuing theory is based on an equation called Little s Law, which helps us sort out the average number of customers waiting in any line. In smart-numbers-people speak, that looks like this:
N = T
N = The number of people waiting.
(Lambda) = The average rate at which people arrive
T = The average service time
In other words, there will be more people waiting in the line if people are arriving quickly and the service time is slow. There will be less people waiting if people are arriving slowly and service time is fast. Duh, right?
When T is less than , the queue is working.
Factors in line speed: Service Systems
Let s say that you ve got four ticket windows open. How are the lines organized? Is there one long line, and when someone reaches the front of it, they are directed to the first open window, who provides them total service? If so, this is called Parallel Queues :
Or does each ticket window have its own distinct line? If so, that s called Single Queues :
Or, do customers get serviced at several different windows, each window handling one part of the process, assembly-line style? For example, you pay at window 1, take a picture at window 2, and receive your registration badge at window 3? This is called Service Facilities in Series :
Service Disciplines
But how, exactly, do people get served once they do reach the front of the line? The order in which people are served can influence the speed at which the line moves. Here are some of the most commonly discussed service disciplines that apply to events:
- First-Come-First-Served (FCFS): This system, under which customers are served in the order of their arrival, is probably the easiest to understand. A checkout line at the grocery store, for example.
- Last-Come-First-Served (LCFS): You can think of this system like an elevator; the last people to get in are the first people to get out.
- Shortest Processing Time first (SPT): You might think of this as the 10 Items or Less line in a supermarket whichever customer is perceived to have the easiest task to process would go to the front of the queue
- Loudest-Voice-First-Served (LVFS): Get rid of the guy making the most trouble first.
- Service in Random Order (SIRO): Someone gets chosen out of the crowd at random. (Sounds like mayhem to us)
- And more besides
Kendall s Notation
So how do we talk about all this? Math guys use a form of shorthand called Kendall s Notation to talk about what kind of line they re dealing with. The notation format five, like this: A/B/C/D/E.
- Position A: represents how people are arriving. Is their arrival in the line random (random numbers of people come at random times, sometimes one person, sometimes groups)? Or is it controlled or timed (one person always arrives every two minutes)? If so, we write D in this spot. Is it totally undefined? Write G.
- Position B: represents service time distribution. In other words, how long does it take to serve a customer once they reach the front of the line? Is this undetermined (could take five minutes, ten minutes, or an hour)? If so, we write M in this spot. Is it fixed (it always takes exactly 3 minutes to process someone through the line)? If so, we write D in this spot. Is it totally undefined? Write G.
- Position C: Number of service windows that are open at one time.
- Position D: How many waiting spots are available. If there s only room in the line 120 people (including people being served at the window), then this number is 120.
- Position E: Which service discipline is being followed (First Come First Serve, maybe?)
The guys over at Stack Exchange help us out with a few examples:
M/G/1
DASD performance is modeled most accurately as an M/G/1 queue. M means that customers, or requests for disk access, behave according to a Poisson process. This is referred to as a stochastic, or Markov process, thus the use of M . The rate at which the disk drive is able to meet these requests for service is unknown. Since job service times can have an arbitrary distribution, this is designated by G for general . Finally, if there is only one disk-drive, c = 1.
M/M/c
Let s consider another example, where customers arrive randomly, with exponentially distributed service times. There are multiple servers. This would be described as an M/M/c queue.
This is the typical situation at Walmart, during the night shift (with few cashiers on duty), or at a bank with tellers, or when making a phone call for customer support. Customers arrive randomly (M). The time required to check out their groceries or answer their question is also random (M) e.g. when grocery queues don t have a 10 items or less configuration for some checkers. Meanwhile, there are a fixed number of cashiers or telephone support staff on duty, we ll say five. This would be an M/M/5 queue.
Interesting, huh
So what does that mean for you? It means there *are* ways to keep wait times down, and to predict how event registrations are best arranged. It means that it s not a bad idea to hire an expert to look into your lines and double-check that your arrival, registration and intake processes are optimized if you re dealing with large-scale events.
Yet Another Beautiful Conference Branding Roundup for 2015
EVENT COLLATERAL
We ve said it before, and we ll say it again: great conference branding and collateral is more than just something nice to look at . It inspires trust and pride in your conference, gives the event a bit of gravitas, encourages attendees to share their participation, and if done well over a series of events, maintains event continuity (Ted Talks is a great example of continuity in event branding). We ve recently come across another five examples of event branding done right, and it s inspired another post, cuz hey, can we really ever get enough pretty, inspiring things?
SPP Conference
Look at that modernism go. This gorgeous collateral set for the S/P/P (sztuka / polityka / pieni?dze Art / Politics / Money) Conference, designed in collaboration with four creatives, is highlighter-inspired with both structured solids and hand-drawn elements in neon yellow, as if selections were being made and circled on the fly.
Brooklyn Beta 2014
Because Brooklyn Beta is an event for creatives, the two core designers developed a brand based around a black and white line art mural that was colored in and added to by over 800 attendees during the conference. Elements from the mural, which was inspired by 60 s pop art, were added to all event collateral, including the website and mobile app.
Tallinn Music Week 2014
Starting with the idea that new, undiscovered music is like some rare animal, the design is built around a tropical plant visual, created by young painter Eleriin Ello. Somewhat unexpected pink colour and distinctive typography complete the identity, which was applied to a wide range of materials. We re digging the fashion-jungle theme.
Natur Conference 2015
Another monotone-and-neon brand created by San Fransisco-based Claudia Sofia Llaguno. The full set of designs includes large-scale print collateral, website concept, shirts, and more.
Brand New Conference 2014
Ooh, meta: a branded conference about branding. Skillfully made by UnderConsideration out of Austin, who says, Because we are always obsessing about 1984 the year, not the dystopian novel one day our thoughts led us to the origins of the Mac, the venerable tool that allows most of us to make a living. This led to thinking about Susan Kare and her original family of fonts for the deliciously low resolution interface of the original Mac Operating System. Short of a dozen bitmap fonts, all were named after the world s greatest cities: New York, Athens, San Francisco, Monaco, among others. And, yes, Chicago [where the conference was based].