Dateline: Frankfurt, Germany
Event: Global Leadership Council Meeting for 200 top partners

Room Set Up: Six people to a round table with electricity run to every table and a computer hub run to every table to enable each of the attending partners to have access to the internet throughout the meeting.

Challenge: Enter the Keynote Speaker, Benjamin Zander. He surveys the room set up and says to the client, I will need theater-style seating for my presentation. There is a 15-minute break between the content presentations that afternoon and his keynote address. The client and the hotel perceive the challenge as unhooking all 33 tables, taking them out of the room and resetting 200 chairs. (They further envision the nightmare associated with resetting the room for the following day.)

This is where possibility thinking kicks in. There was an open space between the first row of tables and the stage that would accommodate approximately 90 chairs. There was a space in the back of the room that would accommodate the remaining 110. Pushing all of the 33 tables to the back of the room would require a massive effort. But disconnecting just the first row of tables—six in total—lifting them over the intervening tables and setting them down in the back of the room in the open space would take coordination, but a minimum of effort. Then the chairs could be walked forward and set.

The break ran 15 minutes as scheduled and the keynote address on “Creativity--Thinking Outside the Box” began on time.

Click here for more information on how Quicksilver can enhance your next meeting.

Kathy Morris has spent the last 10 of her 35 years in the communications business with Quicksilver. Her unique ability to rapidly ramp up on a client’s business, then present targeted information through the creative efforts of the production team she manages have been key contributors to the growth of Quicksilver’s live meeting and webcasting offerings.

If PowerPointless is trance-inducing in person, imagine how much less compelling it is when the presenter resides on the opposite end of a phone line and the viewer is alone in a cubicle or office with two days worth of work on the desktop and needy colleagues hovering about the entrance. Rallying geographically distributed management team members around your company’s mission and vision under the heading of “Quarterly Financial Update,” can be a challenge, but with careful agenda preparation and dynamic presentation, you can turn make these anticipated rather than dreaded events.

There are five keys to developing an effective webcast agenda.

• Present unique information – If all you are going to do is read the audience a published report – send them a link to the pdf and let them peruse it over lunch.
• Provide context – If the information that needs to be presented is quarterly financial results, distribute the numbers in advance and use the webcast event to provide context that helps members of the team understand the why behind the what.
• Reiterate common goals and give examples of how seemingly disconnected departments have contributed to achieving those goals. What recruiting and/or training successes has HR had that have contributed to the ability of R&D to develop or sales to sell the latest version of the product? What market intelligence did sales provide that enabled manufacturing to deliver a more successful product?
• Involve multiple presenters in the storytelling – Rehearsal is mandatory, but when the team hears the same message from multiple voices in their own words, it more quickly becomes the company’s story.
• Celebrate success – Share both corporate and personal achievements to connect geographically distributed team members.

The delivery format is equally important. Make technology work for you by choosing a delivery platform that enables you to keep the presentation moving without having to wait for files to load or awkward hand-off of presenter control. Allow the audience to see the presenters. Add pictures and video to demonstrate your points. Solicit opinions from the audience in the form of polling and invite questions through email or phone submission. Practice.

With compelling content and dynamic presentation, your management team will not only be informed, they will be energized.

Click here to learn more about Quicksilver's webcasting experience.

Kathy Morris has spent the last 10 of her 35 years in the communications business with Quicksilver. Her unique ability to rapidly ramp up on a client’s business, then present targeted information through the creative efforts of the production team she manages have been key contributors to the growth of Quicksilver’s live meeting and webcasting offerings.

More and more, clients are turning to unique venues such as symphony halls and movie theaters to hold their meetings. These types of venues are often equipped with much of the support gear (stage, lighting, sound) that you would buy and install in a ballroom.  And while this can be an advantage, unique venues also present unique challenges.

Take, for example, the Sydney Opera House.  It is one of the most recognizable structures in the world. Built on the edge of Australia’s largest city and bordering Sydney Harbor, it’s often the first thing overseas visitors seek out when they get to town. So our client was pleased to discover that, in addition to hosting the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and a myriad of Broadway caliber theater productions, corporate clients use the Opera House to stage their live events. 

Producing a live show at the Sydney Opera House is, in many ways, a producer’s and a client’s dream. The acoustics are perfect, there are no visual obstructions and there is a sense of intimacy that makes every member of the audience feels close to the presenters.  The hall comes packaged with a built-in stage, basic sound and lighting gear with control, and crew communications.  The staff is among the most accommodating that I’ve experienced anywhere in the world and there’s even a fiber optic feed to support a satellite broadcast. Video and projection were brought in because, even at the Sydney Opera House, you have to see PowerPoint! Although there is plenty of room for office space, the backstage area is small and rather tight. Jamming a portable video studio back there was a bit claustrophobic. But, we got over it. After all, we produced our general session inside the Sydney Opera House.

To take full advantage of the venue, it is important to design the show to complement the architectural design.  Our attendees, all C-suite executives who regularly travel around the world, were in awe as they sat beneath the cathedral ceiling, admiring the pristine wood interior and immense pipe organ. The smaller stage was a workable presentation area, even when one of the presenters made an entrance on a Harley.  Flying presenters onto the stage via a zip line made for an exciting entrance as well. 

But…

…you might want to take a look at the performance schedule before you book the venue.  Our meeting took place during symphony season, so we had to set, rehearse, strike, set, conduct the meeting, strike, set, conduct the meeting and strike all within a 48-hour period.

In his years with Quicksilver, Chris has staged meetings in Cape Town, South Africa; Barcelona, Spain;  Toronto, Ontario, Canada in addition to the Opera House in Sydney, Australia.