The Future of Event Production: the Wearable Tech Revolution
EVENT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY
In mid-December 2014, Eventbase Technology introduced the world s first XING EVENTS wearable smartwatch ticket at the LeWeb conference.
According to the release on Event Industry News, Powered by Eventbase and integrated with the XING EVENTS registration system, the official LeWeb mobile app could be paired with an Android Wear smart watch to display a user s credentials. That attendee could then have their watch scanned to access a building, without ever taking their smartphone from their pocket or showing a printed badge.
Image Source: Event Industry News
I don t need to tell you that this is just the beginning in terms of event-ready on-body tech: the wearables well has barely been plumbed, and it s not hard to imagine the potential uses. Jessica Levin, president and chief connector at Seven Degrees Communications who visited the Wearable Tech Expo, had this to say in her Cvent blog post about events and wearable technology: So you might be wondering, how do wearables impact events? Have you ever had that awkward moment where you have to shake hands or give someone a hug with your phone/tablet in your hand? What about trying to eat lunch while holding a phone? How many smartphones are left at the lost and found at you conferences? By physically attaching technology to people, we have more flexibility with how we use them and where we take them.
She posits a few ways that wearables could be used: CEU tracking can be made easier by building it into an app and tracking people s movements; Google Glass or similar tools can display speaker notes or presentation materials; Wearables could serve as microphones, making it easier to communicate verbally in large rooms; Exhibit managers can use them to better track traffic patterns; Mobile apps will be built into watches, etc., making it easier for people to use apps onsite at events.
Could indeed it s already happening.
Google Glass Apps
Image Source: Mikepanhu via Wikipedia
In May of 2014, Bizbash featured an article on five new Google Glass apps for events, which included Sli.do, a a web-based application for speakers and event organizers to easily engage their audience with questions, comments and polls and Refresh, which provides brief background information on people just a few minutes before scheduled meetings .
You know what that means? It means that someday soon, you may need a Google Glass app developer on your digital event team to meet attendee need.
Wearable Smart Wristbands
By now, most people have heard of health and exercise-focused bio bracelets that track heart rate, calories burned and steps taken, and yes, the Nabu Razer does all these things, but it s also primed for the trade show floor. It alerts you to incoming calls and emails without forcing you to dig around for your phone, exchanges contact information automatically when you shake someone s hand, and boasts a whole host of other proximity and social features.
Smart Badges
The Xfocus was developed for trade shows and conferences and is a combination of smart badges, a mobile app and a powerful analytics platform. Most interesting among these features: The xFocus platform uses the latest wireless technologies to provide customers with the information they need depending on their location. Visitors receive location-based information on their smartphone or tablet as soon as they come close to a stand. It also includes indoor navigation and instant heat-mapping. Leads can be generated effectively by sending push notification to the right people at the trade show or conference.
Know something we don t about the future of wearable event tech? Tip us off in the comments.
Oooh, Kudos! Decibel Wins Silver at Event Tech Awards
COMPANY NEWS
Shweet! This just in: Decibel and our partners took home the silver for Best Audience Interaction for the Get Your Billion Back America campaign.
Decibel partnered up with Ketchum Public Relations and M1 Interactive to create an experiential kiosk aimed at educating about potential money lost when personal taxes are done improperly. Event Marketer, who hosts the awards, explains best:
The kiosk, which Lively describes as part-ATM machine and part-video/photo booth, is located within a 20-foot by 20-foot activation at high-traffic locations. Participants take a two-minute quiz on an interactive touch screen, answering multiple-choice questions about the campaign and what they would do with a billion dollars, then the machine spits out $10 bills, which represents their piece of the billion. The kiosk also takes their photo or a video with the cash, which they receive via email. On-site brand ambassadors answer questions about H&R Block and schedule tax preparation appointments.
Here s a little glimpse of the campaign:
Check out the Event Marketer site for all 2014 Event Tech Award winners.
Decibel Management Wrap Up- National Book Festival 2014
UNCATEGORIZED
The 2014 Library of Congress National Book Festival is officially in the books, and a success! With a new venue, earlier date, and a compressed timeline for planning, there were certainly challenges. Working with our great clients at The Library of Congress, as well as stellar vendors all around, the team was able to not only meet the expectations for this year, but according to the attendees, authors, and sponsors, exceed all expectations for the transition to the new venue. Thanks to the Library of Congress, EventEQ, GES Global, Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Politics And Prose, as well as the team at FleishmanHillard.
Decibel Management Wrap Up- National Book Festival 2014 from Decibel Management on Vimeo.
Your A/V Questions Answered: What is Pattern Projection, and What are the Possibilities?
TIPS & TRICKS
At its most basic, pattern projection and mapping is a stage lighting design technique in which a decorative pattern is washed over a large surface area to create a visual effect. In the past few years, stage lighting technology has developed so drastically that s its now capable of lifting cartoon characters out from behind screens and beaming them into real-life.
While your simple projectors might include a couple of gaudy, pre-programmed star or floral patterns in basic rotating laser lights, suitable for a dingy dance floor, more up-market varieties or clever use of mixed-method techniques, can produce stunning effects when handled by experts.
Your standard low-budget version, available for less than a couple hundred bucks, might toss out some basic patterning a la Windows Media Player, 1999:
In stark contrast, here s an example of some of the beautiful abstract patterns you can achieve what happens people who know what they re doing play around in their own studio with with a dual-lens:
These guys created a complete environment using music and pattern projection:
Curious about the future of pattern projection? Look to the East.
Following in their own glorious wait, what? tradition of giant robots and underwear vending machines, a few years ago Japan rocked up to the light-mapping party already packing a double-dose of next-level weirdness. In case you missed the uproar about it at the time, meet Hatsune Miku, an AI rock star with a synthesized voice and a body rendered entirely in 3D holographic light projection. Hitsune Miku s virtual self, backed up by a live band, performed her hit World is Mine to screaming, sold-out crowds:
Wanna play with the technology yourself on a smaller, miniaturized scale? You ll need an iPad, a mosquito screen, a miniprojector, and this video:
Neat, huh?
Image sources: Featured Image by Kevin Dooley
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.