NSBW 2011
COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS
We are back in full swing at the 2011 National Small Business Week events in D.C. Just finished the second day and getting ready for Friday. A few quick photos below.
As promised, below are a couple of images from the event.
Linda McMahon Election Night Press
Linda McMahon Election Night Press
We had a ton of media for election night here in CT. Here you can see Christiane Amanpour doing her live standups throughout the evening.
PHOTO GALLERY?
Glass Packaging Institute 2013 Spring Meeting
COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS
We just wrapped up the Glass Packaging Institute s (GPI) Spring Meeting in Washington, DC.
The meetings last week were held at the Law Offices of Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius. Not only do they have fantastic conference and meeting facilities, but also one of the best views of Washington, DC. They are located on Pennsylvania Avenue just blocks from some of the most famous Washington DC landmarks.
At registration Tuesday morning the members and guests received their name badges as well as a custom Moleskine notebook as the take home gift for this meeting. Registration for the members, guests, and staff are one of our roles for the GPI meetings.
Meeting topics this week ranged from Government Affairs to Member meetings as well as Congressional Office Visits on Capitol Hill for some of the GPI Members. Branded handouts and printed packets as well as the organization of agendas and other meeting documents were also handled by the Decibel team.
The members experienced the beautiful view on the 13th floor Rooftop Terrace at the Member s Reception on Wednesday night. The members were able to enjoy hors d oeuvres while they took in everything Washington DC had to offer.
Decibel Management executed many other aspects of this meeting including hotel accommodations at the St. Regis for the members and visiting guests, online and onsite registration, and all banquet and catering needs for the various meetings and reception.
Freebie: Scaled Advance Diagram Icon Set and Powerpoint Template Pack
TIPS & TRICKS
We designed, assembled and released this pack in the hopes that it will help others in the event production industry (and particularly the political event production industry) by making the tedious task of creating political advance flowcharts a little easier.
The idea was to create a ready-made Powerpoint and icon set that allows anyone to quickly construct professional, correctly scaled advance diagram Powerpoints without spending ages tracking down icons and trying to relatively size each piece.
(5MB download)
We hope to expand and improve this set over time. If you have any requests for new icons to add, questions about the set or how to use it, or suggestions for improving the next version, please drop us a note in the comments below.
Click for full preview
The Set Includes:
1 Powerpoint file: Scaled_Advance_Diagram_Template.pptx, the main working document in this set. This includes car icons for creating motorcades / car plans, indicators for calling out important locations, such as the press room or green room, seating chart graphics, lighting, sound and electrical icons, and a stage builder (more on that below). All icons in the template are provided in both black and white color schemes for dark and light backgrounds.
1 folder of images: Contains all the source jpg and png icons that can be imported into the powerpoint or into other document formats.
1 Photoshop document: Contains the original, editable icon design files in vector smart object layers you can use this if you are familiar with the Adobe creative suite (Photoshop / Illustrator) and you want to change icon colors, shapes, or base grid sizes.
Preview jpg: Shows each of the icons with descriptive names
Readme: This here how-to guide.
Quick Start Guide
- Copy the Powerpoint document entitled Scaled_Advance_Diagram_Template.pptx, renaming it whatever you like.
- Open your newly created document, and delete any icons you don t need or won t use.
- Select all your icons at once, and re-size them to the right scale
- Arrange your advance diagram
- Use powerpoint default arrows and shapes to mark out walking paths between the diagram objects
- Enjoy!
Scale and Grid
The icons were created on a scale of 8 pixels = 1 foot. We ve done our best to preserve and re-create this scale using Powerpoint guides, which are hidden by default. To turn on the scaled guides, open the Powerpoint, go to the View tab, and click the checkbox next to Guides in the top panel. By default, each box created by the guides represents 1 square foot.
You can also use the 24 scale graphic to help proportionally size diagram elements.
Any time you resize an icon in the Powerpoint, it s a very good idea to select all the icons on the page and re-size them all together at the same time, so all your page elements stay the same size in relation to each other.
Stage Builder
There are two main stage building block icons included with the powerpoint and icon set. The smaller block represents an industry-standard 4-foot by 8-foot riser, the larger block an industry-standard 6-foot by 8-foot riser. Duplicate these blocks as many times as necessary to make an appropriately-sized stage.
You can stack multiple elements on top of the stage risers. For example, use the light background microphone icon on top of the dark background stage risers icons to indicate a podium.
Other Notes & Tips
- The pipe and drape icons will tile horizontally if you align them next to each other.
- Use the indicators and markers to create a pathway of events start and end of a motorcade or walking path, stopping point for a press bus or security locations.
The Photoshop Document
If you re familiar with the Adobe design suite, you can use the included Photoshop document to modify the original icons in the set, re-export the icons in different formats, change icon colors, or add other effects.
The Photoshop file includes each of the icons saved as vector smart objects. If you have Adobe Illustrator installed, you can double-click any icon layer in the layers panel to open that icon in Illustrator for vector-level editing.
The License
The Scaled Advance Diagrams are released under the Creative Commons license, Attribution, Non-Commercial, No-Derivs. You can read the full text of the license by visiting the link below, but in non-legalese, that essentially means that:
- You re welcome to freely share this set with others, as long as you credit Decibel Management as the source of the file. You do not need to put Decibel Management s name on actual advance diagrams that you produce for your own clients using this set, but if you give the icon pack to someone else, you must include a credit to Decibel.
- You may not re-sell this icon set either on its own, or as part of another program or document for sale.
- You may not modify the set and re-distribute the modified version.
- In other words, we love sharing! But we also put a lot of work into this, so please don t be a jerk.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
Go nuts! And again, do let us know in the comments if you d like to see any improvements in the future we d love to hear your input.
Congrats Clairemont!
EVENT INDUSTRY
Congrats to our friend Dana Hughens and her team over at Clairemont Communications on today s NCPRSA InSpire Awards. In light of the good work, this song is dedicated to you! Snap I ve Got the Power
NFC Integration for Mobile Tours and Event Environments
EVENT INDUSTRY, EVERYTHING ELSE, LIVE EVENTS, TIPS & TRICKS
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.
Decibel Red Carpet Premiere Event
BACKSTAGE, COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS
Fleishman-Hillard DC and their ONDCP team tasked Decibel to create a red carpet entrance for a press event. This was for the winner of the MTV Unwasted Weekend Challenge. Decibel traveled to Essex Junction High School in Vermont to turn an Auditorium into a traditional red carpet event. It was a privilege for the team at Decibel to be part of this amazing evening dedicated to the members of the Essex CHiPS program for high school students that stay above the influence of drugs and alcohol. The evening started with the students, parents and speakers having pictures taken on the red carpet. The evening also included speakers from the Essex CHiPS program, the director of the Above The Influence Campaign and the students that created the winning video. Take a look at the video they produced.
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.
Exhibitor 2013
COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, TRADE SHOW
We had the opportunity to travel to the Exhibitor 2013 show this year, and it did not disappoint. This is a trade show and conference for trade show and conference builders and planners. Many of the manufacturers bring their best new concepts and technologies for display, and we were able to spend quality time with some of the best of the best. It was also great to see the show growing again this year- with a host of new exhibitors, and some that have come back from a few years away. Below, we have included some of our favorites.
Here is what Exhibitor Magazine has to say about their trade show floor at the 2013 Exhibitor Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada:
EXHIBITOR2013 s New Product Showcase delivers the industry s largest collection of new trade show and corporate event products and services making their public debut. The spotlight is on innovation as exhibitors vie for the coveted Buyer s Choice Awards selected from the field of New Product Showcase entries.
AVFX is a staging and technology vendor out of Boston. They built out a video wall with NEC monitors that looked great, but the tech that made it stand out was the control surface. This was a clear touchscreen monitor in front of the display wall. When you stepped in front of the controller, it frosted over and allowed a user to select a video for playback on the wall. Very cool execution.
Armodilo
We have been using and building in iPad kiosks on our tours and mobile media activations for years now. We have used Bounce Pad, and have quite an affinity for Lilitab, but Armodilo was able to capture our attention. The product is quite simple- something easier said than done. We can utilize various tablets in the same enclosure, and it is a very simple and quick setup. We are excited about getting in our test units and if all goes well, folding them into our new tours moving forward.
Brandstand
Brandstand debuted their new, all in one, digital signage. It is very clean and simple, needing just a flash drive to show movies or graphics on a loop. There are limited features and options, but a great price point. These are brand new items in their portfolio, and we look forward to evaluating them in earnest when we have the chance.
GES
GES let their case studies speak for themselves, as they built out an all white booth and environment for Exhibitor. What really got our attention was a small, simple, but very cool graphic technique. QR codes seem to be everywhere these days, but they took it a step further and created a design around the QR code itself. Simple, but a great technique to incorporate.
Czarnowski
We have come to expect great, creative activations from Czarnowski on the exhibit floor, and this year did not disappoint. Their main tech showcase was a photo/light booth. Built in the middle of their exhibit, their guests entered the booth and a photo was taken, then you had 15 seconds to make a light-design as the aperture remained open capturing the movement of the light sticks. Great tech, great execution and a great end product. This is a rentable solution as well, so look for it out on the road.
Blue Telescope
It is always a treat to get to experience what Blue Telescope brings to Exhibitor. Their interaction started pre-show with a great online interaction where you build out your personalized digital flower. From there, the tech and story continued on the show floor, and included a section of questions about the individual attendee. They also displayed graphics and motion sensors with the Microsoft Kinect interface. At the end, we received a flower to plant to close the entire loop. Always fun to see their new activations.
Elements Exhibits
We have to give it to Elements for a great fully immersive experience on the floor. They featured ice sculptures and themes throughout the booth, but topped it off by working with Icebar to include an onsite walk in freezer, ice, and a bar built into their booth.
Panphonics
In many build outs, booths, and mobile activations we are asked about directional audio. Many times we use audio cones, speaker placement and volume control to accomplish the task at hand. It was great to see the solutions from Panphonics. They developed a square and very, very thin directional speaker for these applications.
More Facade Projection and Mapping
BACKSTAGE, COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS, TIPS & TRICKS
Another Lyon Festival of Lights (F te des lumi res) has concluded. I am a big fan of the festival as well as the fa ade projection and fa ade mapping that has become ubiquitous with the celebration. Each December, I look forward to seeing the displays and designs that are produced for the 4 day event.
This year, it was an experience, rather than breakthrough content that we were most excited about. The installation and design was from a French company called CT Light Concept. In the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon a square called Place des C lestins is home to the theater in the video below. (Quick aside, the square is located on lands once owned by the Knights Templar). Instead of simply having festivalgoers watch a presentation, CT Light Concept took fa ade projection and fa ade mapping to an interactive level, a pinball game that users can control. The only piece that would have been great to see added was a high-score list on the fa ade, but I am sure that folks had a blast nonetheless.
I thought this was a very unique and interesting installation. You can view the video by following the link here.
