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)

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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.

Miniature Facade Mapping

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Over the past few months we have posted a few times about Facade Mapping and how clients can use it bring a whole new visual element to an event. We stumbled upon this mini version of facade mapping last week and we watched in awe at the details and talent that was put into this futuristic children s book. This is the first ever projection mapped pop-up book, at least that we have found!

While this may not translate to the event industry, the creativity is astonishing and opens up a whole new world for art and technology to come together. The background is a fixed paper pop-up book that without light is plain, empty, and just cut-out white paper. With the projection, the scenery comes to life and tells a story.

Are you as impressed as we were? Take a look for yourself.

https://vimeo.com/davyandkristinmcguire/icebook

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!

Multi Axis Camera Jib

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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.

Million Dollar Idea

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After reading a few posts from our friend @blah2voila about million dollar ideas, I wanted to share this amazing project from the designers at MNML. Scott Wilson and team designed two watches that integrate the iPod Nano, the TikTok and LunaTik.

While the designs are great, the most impressive part is the response they got for initial funding. Instead of VC or angels, they went direct to the consumer through KickStarter.com.

[On a side note, Kickstarter is a great concept in its own right, and I find the most fun finding local projects that are getting off the ground. Try it if you haven t already!]

Their original funding level needed to begin production was $15,000. This is no small amount for the average on KickStarter. As it ended last night, they received a total of over $940,000. I thought this would be a great example of a million dollar idea!

Music Video: Shot on iPhone 4

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Read a great article today that highlights the video capability of the iPhone 4. While I am still waiting for the iPhone to be released on Verizon, I can certainly enjoy these great music videos.


All shot entirely on the iPhone. The video above is Cascades by Flakjakt. It will also be in my iPod shortly. Head over to Mashable for the full article and additional videos.

The Dark Arts: What Happens at a Hacker Conference?

EVENT INDUSTRY

Hacker conferences aren t your typical industry get-togethers. Here are some of the traditional and unique activities you might find at an underground technology meetup.

Spot the Fed

Maybe the longest running and most notorious hacker conference of all, DEFCON, held each year in the United States (usually Vegas), has traditionally included a segment called Spot the Fed , where attendees take turns throughout the conference trying to unmask the undercover federal agents who are inevitably there keeping tabs on the hacker community. Anyone who correctly spots a fed gets an I spotted the Fed t-shirt, and lots of cred. The Fed, we understand, gets a t-shirt too.

Social Engineering Panel

Social Engineering is a term used to describe basic con-man tactics to gain access to restricted information. A social engineer is skilled at, for example, calling a hosting company pretending to be the owner of a website account, saying they ve forgotten their password, and trying to get the host to read someone else s password to them over the phone. Social engineering often happens over the phone, but it can happen in person as well.

Wanna see it in action? Check out this video, whose description reads: Since the very first HOPE conference in 1994, the social engineering panel has been a huge draw. We basically round up a bunch of people who like to play on the phone, tell some stories, and make live calls to strangers who wind up telling us things they really shouldn t in front of a huge crowd of people who are trying very hard not to make any noise. It s all a lesson on how insecure information really is, and how you can avoid making the same mistakes that some unsuspecting person someplace will inevitably make when this panel randomly calls them.

Lock Picking

Physical security, for example in terms of keeping servers and other corporate computer hardware protected from breakins, requires knowledge of basic locks. That s why most hacker conferences include a Lockpick Village, complete with lock-picking lessons and practice spaces.
Would you like to schedule a lockpicking lesson at your next event? Contact Toool.us! Check out this video for an overview:

Spooky Interactive Experiences: The Real Life Escape Game Trend

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Dude. A little late for Halloween, maybe, but we just heard about this. Have you heard about this?

I remember playing those Flash-based Escape the Room puzzle games online a few years ago, back when Flash was still a thing. You d click around under the bed or in the air ducts or whatever and look for hints and mini-puzzles that, once solved, would get you one step closer to getting out.

A few months ago, we heard about a company in Beijing, China, running real-life room escape experiences. Mr. X Mystery House, with branches in both Beijing and Shanghai, is part of a growing real-life escape game trend where participants are locked in an enclosed area surrounded with hidden clues, with only one goal: to get out. Adding to the creepy vibe, support staff watch the guests attempts and liberation on hidden video cameras. This is partially for safety reasons, of course, but there s another angle: participants are allowed one hint. If they get stuck, they wave at the camera, and Mr. X produces a clue. Now that s what I call team-building.

Games can be themed as well: Mr. X offers Harry Potter, sci-fi and vintage themed games, across a range of difficulties. The recommended number of players at a time is 6-10.

But China isn t the only location for these types of games: they re taking off across the globe. Check out this super creepy video from Xcape Singapore:

More on escape games from around the web:

It s the most wonderful time of the year . at Decibel!

BACKSTAGE, COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, EVERYTHING ELSE, LIVE EVENTS, PERMITS

Decibel Management has been very busy since September and we are happy to finish out 2013 with an exciting amount of events we were fortunate to be a part of during the fall months!

National Book Festival, SHIRE Mobile Tour, National ATI Day, Glass Packaging Institute s Annual Meeting, Clorox Caroling with Busy Phillips, NextGen Climate Action Summit, Raleigh Christmas Parade, London Financial Forum, just to name a few.

We have already told you all about the National Book Festival in our last post, but we have lots more to share with you.

We worked with SHIRE to produce a mobile tour that went to two different cities to promote awareness about ADHD. Both the client and the participants had great feedback and we are looking forward to travelling again in 2014!

shire Collage

National ATI Day took place at the Newseum in October. We worked with our longtime  client FleishmanHillard to produce the event that focused on the Made by Me National Challenge which brought a student made video idea to life with a professional video producer to create the new Above the Influence commercial.

ati Collage

Of course we loved working the 2013 Glass Packaging Institute s Annual Meeting- especially because it was held in Sonoma, California. Attendees participated in an Annual Golf Tournament, association meetings over three days and of course, a Wine Tasting Reception. Really, when in Rome!

GPI Facebook Collage

Earlier this month Clorox launched their new campaign Bleach it Away for the Holidays. Clorox selected Busy Phillips to endorse their campaign. She joined the Clorox Carolers at two locations in New York City to sing about holiday s bleachable moments to people passing by.

Clorox Collage

NextGen Climate Action gathered at Georgetown University to host a summit discussing the Keystone Pipeline. Decibel assisted with registration, production, and logistics behind the summit to ensure a successful event for the client.

PicMonkey Collage

WRAL TV in Raleigh, NC gave us a call about a week before the Annual Christmas Parade with a potential rainy weather situation. Since we couldn t change the weather they asked if we could provide a tent for their on-air talent to be covered in case of rain during their broadcast.  We provided a custom tent that fit perfectly on top of their scaffold and everyone remained dry throughout the parade.

WRAL Collage copy

Decibel also went international this year! Dave Sonntag was tapped by Linder and Associates as the producer for the Financial Inclusion 2020 Global Forum in London. We worked with a great team to produce a great event.

Phew. We have a few weeks to enjoy the holiday season and then we are gearing up to launch a tour in January! Stay tuned for Blog posts, Facebook Updates and Tweets about everything happening at Decibel.

Throwback Thursday: Vintage Parade Photos from the early 1900 s

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In the midst of a busy New Year season, we caught a few minutes of the annual Pasadena Rose Parade broadcast, and naturally, we marvel at both the floats and the logistics: can you imagine? Even as a member of the industry, it s hard to wrap your head around the amount of work it takes to put together an event that size.

The official parade website gives us a taste: An event as large as the Tournament of Roses requires about 80,000 hours of combined manpower each year. That manpower is supplied by 935 members of the non-profit Tournament of Roses Association, a volunteer organization dedicated to presenting an internationally-recognized New Year s celebration. Each volunteer is assigned to one of 31 committees, with responsibilities ranging from selecting parade participants to directing visitors on New Year s Day, to hosting the press headquarters for media coverage of the Rose Bowl Game, to giving presentations about the Tournament to community groups.

80,000 man hours. That means it would take one person working full-time for 38 years to organize a single Rose Parade. Dude.

So, in tribute to both Throwback Thursday and the prowess of the Rose Parade team, we ve collected a series of parades and floats from yesteryear, archived by the Library of Congress. These photos are largely compiled from George Grantham Bain Collection, which represents the photographic files of one of America s earliest news picture agencies. The collection richly documents sports events, theater, celebrities, crime, strikes, disasters, political activities including the woman suffrage campaign, conventions and public celebrations. The photographs Bain produced and gathered for distribution through his news service were worldwide in their coverage, but there was a special emphasis on life in New York City. The bulk of the collection dates from the 1900s to the mid-1920s, but scattered images can be found as early as the 1860s and as late as the 1930s.

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Columbia s alumni float, class of 1909, marches in a 1913 parade.

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Also from 1913, this Suffrage Parade float, themed Women of the Bible Lands . The parade was held on March 3 in Washington, DC.

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Miss Rochester float from the Rochester, New York 1912 Centennial parade.

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Here s one you won t see again in a hurry: the 1916 Cloak Maker s Parade in New York, near Madison Square.

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Not a ton of info on this 1912 Naval Parade float, but look at the Victorian garland explosion on that thing.

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May 30, 1913 parade on 59th St. Photo shows parade before the unveiling ceremonies for the memorial to the battleship Maine, which had exploded in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, during the Spanish-American War of 1898. In 1913, the monument was placed at the Columbus Circle and 59th Street entrance to Central Park in New York City.

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