You’re producing a corporate meeting. You know that a great deal of planning and pre-production must take place prior to traveling to the venue. You painstakingly check every production to be certain that your show will execute perfectly. Experienced producers know that, on-site, nothing ever goes completely as planned. 

One of Quicksilver’s key differentiators has always been our ability to think on the fly. Murphy’s Law lives and breathes in every corporate meeting environment and the best producers can find a smart solution to almost any challenge.

Quicksilver was producing a meeting at Washington DC’s Grand Hyatt, an older venue. The main ballroom is three floors below ground level, ceiling height at 14-feet and too few hang points, which is not optimum for a 2,000-person meeting.  All these factors presented us with a challenge - how presenters were seen on camera by the audience.

The clients preferred to be looking into the audience or straight on to the cameras as if they were making eye contact with the viewers. In the past, prompter monitors were moved out and away from the stage to decrease viewing angles. But, this venue was a little tight. The client turned to Quicksilver and said “fix it.”

We chose to hang a 7’ x 10’ screen over the main entry to the ballroom. The problem was that there were no hang points in the center cove for a projector and no place to set it without blocking access to the ballroom.

Our solution was interesting. We went to Home Depot and returned with two lengths of steel cabling. We weaved the two cables through a 12” x 12” truss plate and attached a small LCD projector to that plate. Stretching the cable across the center cove and anchoring it to steel supports inside the cove, we built a suspension bridge for the projector. Weaving the power and video feeds around the steel cables, we leveled the projector plate. Once settled it was rock steady. Fed by a matrix router, the LCD was able to display TelePrompTer or still store, which enabled a theme graphic on-screen during walk-in periods.

The camera shots were perfect and back-of-the-room screens became a standard procedure when working with this client. We were applauded for our ingenuity and overall confidence in Quicksilver skyrocketed. However, there were many more challenges in the shows to come. We say, bring it on.

Click here to learn more about Quicksilver's innovative meeting production.

Chris Bartot truly is a meeting superhero - his innovative production skills and ability to think on the fly have resulted in many successful client meetings around the globe.

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.

People have trouble differentiating between webcasting and web conferencing. While participation via the Internet makes them similar, their optimal audience size and event impact make them different.

You are an executive for a global corporation. Your company is tightening its belt but you must still pass important information on to employees so they can achieve their goals in the coming year. You need to create excitement. You need to move seamlessly among presenters and prerecorded content. You need the wow factor. You consider using the Internet and are about to experience your first webcast.

A webcast is equivalent to a TV broadcast, in which a live (or prerecorded) program is sent from a central location to an unlimited number of viewers, streamed over the Internet as audio and video and received within a branded interface. Savings come from eliminating venue booking and travel costs. Participants still experience a high-end, branded meeting with consistent content, seamless transitions among presenters and prerecorded media with a live-meeting wow factor. The webcast is typically viewed using your computer’s web browser and Windows Media Player or RealPlayer. Different connection speeds can be used based on network needs. Presenters can use PowerPoint as well as pre-recorded media–all in real time. Interactivity can be achieved through audience questions and polling. A webcast retains the live-meeting-style production often provided by a production company. 

Ever get invited to participate in a WebEx, or Live Meeting event? You accept the invitation, dial into a phone conference bridge, connect to the Internet and login to the Web portion of the conference. You and a small group of participants share PowerPoint slides; have discussions; review white papers, etc. Perhaps you view a video or two, exchange control of the meeting and vote on issues. It is a good meeting and all for a reasonable cost. Sound familiar? You just experienced a web conference.

Web conferencing is similar to a face-face meeting or seminar, with multiple degrees of presentation, interaction and collaboration among a smaller group of users. These user-driven Web conferences are generally interactive with the ability to share presentation rights and control of applications among all group members. Attendees generally dial into a conference bridge to receive the audio in real time and access the internet to view the presentation. This technology continues to advance and some leading Web conferencing services such as WebEx and Microsoft Live Meeting are now offering versions which deliver the audio, presentation and video playback as a single Web connection. A Web conference is normally driven by the client who owns the licenses needed for everyone to participate. All media must be pre-loaded into each participant’s computer prior to being viewed making it difficult to ensure that all participants are receiving the same content at the same time.

Webcasting and Web conferencing each have their place in the world of corporate communications. It really depends on who you want to reach and with how big a bang.

Chris Bartot is a Senior Producer with Quicksilver who this past winter helped Right Management reach their leadership over three days using webcasting.