Decibel Online Event Registration
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Over the past few months, we have been hard at work on our new custom online registration system, and wanted to share a quick behind the scenes photo of our IA process flow. For the past few years, we have been using our current online registration system for a number of clients and it has absolutely served us well on some very unique and intense registration scenarios. As we began to build a new site for one of our clients, we decided it was time to also build a more functional and user friendly system. We decided for the new version it was time to start from the ground up. This involved intensive planning with our design and development team, as well as heavy IA work and prototyping.
IA (Information Architecture) has been a major focus for the new registration system. Our goal is to make a very intricate and complex system as user friendly and simple as possible. The more time we spend planning and developing the IA, the easier it will be to navigate an intensely complex registration function. We have also included a very unique and inventive process for buying a companion ticket to the process. This may just be the best feature that we are including.
Once we complete the development and testing and it is ready for launch, we will post additional information with more in-depth details. We are looking forward to using this for our upcoming events in 2012. Stay tuned for more info!
National Book Festival Team
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We just want to share a few photos of the great team we had onsite for the National Book Festival. We couldn t pull off an event of this size without a stellar team.
National Book Festival Power and Rigging Day
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Today we started both signage rigging and power for the 2011 National Book Festival. The day started with rain that moved through, but luckily didn t slow the crews down too much.
As you can see from the photos, this is where we start to see the signage and branding come to life. We will continue the power and AC basics as well as the signage throughout the week.
Multi Axis Camera Jib
EVERYTHING ELSE, TIPS & TRICKS
So it may be a foregone conclusion, but it seems that some of the event work we do at Decibel does follow us home. Check out the multi-axis camera jib after the jump
As you can see below, Asher developed his own hybrid of the typical camera jib by including a bucket for the mini-fig camera operator using a fire truck ladder, camera, and custom stage.
Royal Wedding
EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS, TIPS & TRICKS
There are thousands of pieces that go into an event this size, and from the coverage, it certainly looked as if they nailed them all. Instead of focusing on the overall event, there was one piece that really did stand out in my mind, the floral, and more specifically, the trees inside the Abbey.
According to Professional Florist, Shane Connolly designed the arrangements from flowers to the trees throughout Westminster Abbey. Instead of a lavish design with out-of season arrangements, the flowers were all seasonal and British.
The article from Professional Florist below gives the detail.
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, eschewed ostentatious out-of-season flowers in favour of a simple bouquet made mainly of lily of the valley for her wedding to Prince William.
The seasonal British flowers, designed by florist Shane Connolly, were a nod to the less than lavish wedding that the couple said they hoped to plan. Although a reported 50,000 spent decorating Westminster Abbey with field maple and hornbeam trees suggested the couple didn t have things all their own way.
All the trees and flowers were selected by the Middletons and arranged by Shane Connolly s team. Each choice came with a reference to the language of flowers. Lily of the valley is associated with trustworthyness. Maple suggests humility and hornbeams are linked to resilience.
Shane Connolly s web site bears the By Royal Appointment to HRH The Prince of Wales crest, and promotes the florist as constantly striving to delight its clients.
Physiological Branding
TIPS & TRICKS
In the event world, experience is King. Over the last few years there has been a concentrated focus in the industry to move toward a full brand experience, rather than simply hosting a event or gathering for a target audience. Full immersion, sensory activation and user experience are considered when planning and executing events.
With that in mind, this is a fantastic behind the scenes look at a BMW advertisement and screening. Here, they are taking an advertisement and have gone beyond the experiential aspect. They have included a physiological effect called an afterimage. Towards the end of the ad, they flash a projection of the letters BMW and ask the audience to close their eyes. The image will float in front of you when you close your eyes.
Look for more and more companies and clients moving toward tactics that elicit a physiological response. And look for some to begin to push the line. In reading the comments for the video and other blogs, some people already think this goes too far for an advertisement. I personally can t wait to see where this trend goes.
How it s Done: Afterimages
In the video above they don t include the flash, so I have included a quick example below from a University of Toledo Web site. Stare at the dot over the eye in AFTERiMAGE in the diagram below for 10-20 seconds. Then shift your vision over to the black dot on the plain gray part of the diagram. You should see a negative version of the square and word. It doesn t show up instantaneously, but emerges after a second or so. More detail on this and other examples can be found here.
How to Watch a DVD in the Front Lounge
TIPS & TRICKS
This great insight to life on the road comes from our friends at This Gig Sucks. It is a very accurate description of every mobile coach I have ever been on.
How to watch a DVD in the front Lounge:
- Rummage through sofa cushions for all 4 remotes.
- Complain there is no satellite signal.
- Ask driver to pull bus forward 5 feet.
- Ask driver to release hold button for Dish roaming.
- Discuss whether signal is blocked by building next to the bus. Hint aloud that other bus parking might be available.
- Realize the Dish is not turned on. Turn it on.
- Do you need the Dish on to watch a DVD? Discuss.
- Only after disk owner gives a brief story about the disks provenance and expresses incredulity that everyone present hasn t already seen this great movie which the owner has seen many times but likes so much he doesn t mind watching again, insert disk into DVD.
- Randomly punch through input options on the receiver. Hearing nothing, turn volume up to 75.
- Resume hitting buttons until DVD soundtrack is heard without picture, extremely loudly. Adjust volume quickly, while others complain bitterly about your stupidity.
- Try to change TV channel with remote that is NOT PROGRAMMED FOR THIS FEATURE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO PROGRAM THIS FEATURE NOW? [escape]. Search for another remote.
- Get sidetracked when you stumble into the color/brightness/hue/contrast menu, and since you are there anyway, make a few totally unnecessary changes in picture quality.
- Realize you are hearing the Wii menu music, not the DVD. Resume punching through receiver options, only faster this time.
- Have any other crew guy shoulder you aside and punch through the exact same buttons hoping for a different result, while all other lounge occupants have a lively discussion about possible problems and shout redundant and unhelpful suggestions at the guy currently messing with receiver.
- Have Driver explain receiver must be set to AUX 2, TV to channel 53 using the black remote, and speakers to B , with SAT/CBL button out, and Dish off. Also, do not use the microwave with the DVD player on.
- Driver remembers that front lounge DVD player has no audio output, but the one in back works, and he has been meaning to fix that on the next day off
- a) Give up in disgust. Resume watching the Weather Channel. b) Unless you have been drinking. In that case, at least two people begin removing electronic components from media center for rewiring. Everyone else go to back lounge to watch Weather Channel or the DVD, because no one will be watching, or listening, to anything at all in the front lounge until after the next day off.
TEDx Amsterdam and Mobile Event Apps of the Future
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Although first appearing on the scene only recently, event apps are quickly becoming a staple of large event management today. Given how cavernous some conference centers can seem, or the immense scale that industry events can take on, having a helping hand on a smartphone can help attendees integrate with the event and interact with each other in a more meaningful (and creative!) way.
Recent and super awesome example of this? The TEDx Amsterdam application designed by Frog Digital (kudos!). If you re planning on having an application developed for your event, we ve got a few ideas for you:
Keep it Simple!
All good apps are clean easy-to-use and don t overdo the features. Figure out the five most useful features your attendees may need, then hone that list down to three and build that.
Choose the Right Developer
You ve got an event to plan, and not a lot of extra time to devote to app production oversight and debugging. Getting an experienced application developer will set you on the right track from the get-go. (No idea where to start? Check out theymakeapps.com or call us.)
Provide Instructions
If you re going to make a mobile event application available, be sure to provide instructions on how it s intended to be used. You might do this via seminar or info packet.
Ideas: Personal Touches
Especially at larger events, the goals and agendas of each attendee will be vastly different. You might consider adding a scheduling function to your event app design to allow customized itineraries.
GPS Function
If your event is multi-locational or big, consider make your app GPS compatible as an alternative to you are here paper mapping. People will get lost in a closet, if you let them. So don t let them. GPS will only work in a big space, though as of today s technology, it s accurate to about 500 feet, so if you re working within a small space it won t do you much good. In that case, a get directions function could substitute.
Daily Alerts
Dedicated apps may be a nice alternative to SMS updates for attendees. Personally, we think SMS can get a bit annoying, as it s hard for the receiver to filter incoming messages by relevance. Business and political executives are already bombarded by texts and emails, they don t need an additional communications backlog. But if you build a messaging system into your app, event data can be accessed and processed in context, turning an annoying interruption into a relevant reminder.
Holding Press Conferences: 5 Ways to Impress the Press
EVENT INDUSTRY, TIPS & TRICKS
Press conferences are a dime a dozen these days, and any client can put a banner up, call a couple of local rags and plug an event. But this is a critical moment of the event management process, when the people with the power to come into contact with your big plans, and yet even long-time pros overlook or fumble the details. Check out these tips from Decibel to create a press conference that helps the press help you:
Lose the attitude You ve been working hard and for the last few months, this event has become your whole world. But just because you care doesn t mean the press will you ll still have to sell your idea. Be humble, and let your genuine excitement about your upcoming event shine through.
Background matters Great. Another photo of five suits sitting at an IKEA table in front of a white wall, or worse yet, a wrinkled vinyl backdrop. You don t have to go all glitzy, but eye-catching visuals are more interesting to look at (and subsequently, to photograph), so they can do half your legwork for you before the press asks the first question.
Yawn! The Beijing 2008 Olympics Wushu (Martial Arts) announcement
Nice stage set-up by the Daily Mirror
Pick your pinch hitter The person behind your new product launch or initiative may not be the best person to present it. Better to brief an engaging speaker, expert, or insider (ideally someone with a touch of charisma and a sense of humor) on something they may not be familiar with than watch an executive send journalists to the land of nod.
Patience, patience The media doesn t owe you any favors, they will probe, they will pry, they will find the angle you don t want. Meet negativity with positivity and keep control of the discussion. This is especially true in political event management where controlling the story is paramount.
Make it easy early Sending out a press release too late, like a day before the event, is a nail in your coffin as it catches journalists off-guard. Get the key info out there several days in advance, follow up with phone calls to the main outlets and dangle the opportunity of exclusive access to get them on board. The press are busy people, so make sure the materials you provide include quotes, a high-res photo or two, and a bullet-pointed list of the key points for a quick and easy read.
NFC Integration for Mobile Tours and Event Environments
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One of the best parts of the event production and management world is getting to see cutting edge and new, emerging technologies. This is especially true when companies get together and produce a field ready unit that can be rolled into our current event mix.
As it happens, we had a great afternoon with the team from GEMATouch and Telepathic Graphics show us what they are working on in the NFC world. GEMATouch has developed a NFC circuit enclosed in a fully brandable and printable card.
This has great potential for our mobile tour clients and brands as they are looking to find new ways of engaging their audience. It also has multiple applications for meetings, conferences and events. The programming and usage also tracks real time analytics.
Function:
Once we determine what we want the end product to be, the system is programmed, and the card printed. This can be a coupon strategy, content delivery, gaming, or any other mobile activation that the client requires. The card is branded with multiple touch points and placed in the activation area. From here, the attendee activation is simple,
1. A guest places their NFC enabled phone near the interactive print
2. Then they touch the desired areas of the print
3. Content is delivered instantly to the phone (no apps, cameras, QR readers or texting needed)
Example:
One of the great and simple examples of execution is deploying these readers for a cocktail function or gala setting. In these types of events, we usually see long lines at the bar throughout the evening. We can reduce and potentially eliminate these lines by utilizing this solution.
To begin, we program the chip to select up to 5 different beverages (e.g. White Wine, Red Wine, 2 Beer selections and the specialty cocktail). At each cocktail table or low round, we place a NFC enabled phone and printed reader. As guests finish their drinks, they can use the system to order additional beverages. An iPad or other computer is set up to receive the order and the server assembles the drink order and takes it directly to their table.
There are a host of other uses, but this one easily demonstrates the idea. For a quick look at the interaction, check out the video below.