By Scott Reagles

Contacts

Have a list of those people you will be dealing with on site and their phone numbers. Make sure those people know how to contact you or those working for you. Also, make it clear to everyone involved who is in charge and who has authority over what.

Schedule

Make sure your AV provider has a detailed schedule, including times for the following: start and end of each session; when doors are open for the audience; meetings, rehearsals and walk-throughs; and any other times that AV crew or equipment will be needed. Also helpful are schedules of other vendors or crews that might cause any conflicts.

Load In and Load Out

Conditions for loading in and out are
important, especially when it comes to dock space and traffic. Too many companies on the dock at one time can lead to chaos. Also, room availability, amount of time required for set-up and strike, and the availability of in-house personnel
such as electricians and technical people
is important.

Room Dimensions and Details

Make sure the room where your event is going to be held is big enough for the attendees and all the equipment. AV gear takes up space, not just on the floor, but also in the air. Make sure you account for ceiling obstructions such as chandeliers, ceiling coves, air ducts and so on. How and where the audience is seated will also make a difference in what kind of AV gear should be used.

Power

Check to see if arrangements have been made for needed power drops and electrical service, keeping in mind that they are rarely free.

Facility Requirements

Many facilities have special requirements, such as putting covering over carpets, use of hallways and elevators, or hiring security personnel. Ask a venue if they have any such requirements and get them in writing.

Union Requirements

Find out if your event is in a union-contracted facility. If so, take time to know the rules and budget accordingly.

Speaker and Talent Requirements

Ask talent and presenters for their needs and requirements well in advance. This may include Internet accessibility, specific types of microphones to use, someone to operate a PowerPoint presentation and so on. Oh, and pass that information along to your AV provider.

Changes, Add-ons

Changes and add-ons are inevitable. Keep a detailed record and, if possible, get sign-off when it comes to changes. Confusion later just costs money and causes headaches.

Contract and Payment

This may sound trivial, but make sure you have a contract, that you know what the payment terms are, and that you understand what is included and what is not. Ask questions and get answers before your event.

Scott Reagles is a production manager and video director for IPG (Initial Production Group), based in Denver. He focuses on bridging the gap between clients and technology. You can reach him at scott@initialpro.com. IPG is a full-service production company that has been serving the faith-based market for more than 20 years.

This is no ordinary newsroom. Yes, seasoned veterans operate high-tech cameras and production equipment. Men and women whiz by as they prepare for the live 6 p.m. broadcast. Editors and reporters turn around stories in hours as a full production staff gets graphics and packages ready. And make-up artists touch up anchors and panelists.

This impressive newsroom was a temporary setup for Adventist NewsLine, a half-hour live news show reporting daily from the 10-day Session of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Atlanta. A staff of producers, anchors, reporters, news directors, photographers and behind-the-scenes staff with decades of commercial broadcast experience moved into the Georgia Dome, bringing with them a shared sense of purpose.

“This is an every five-year reunion for all of us,” says David Brillhart, Adventist NewsLine producer. “We get to train young people who want to be in this business for 18-hour days, and we enjoy it. It’s different working with a great group of believers. There are tensions but we care for each other.”

David Brillhart and his team

From June 23 to July 3, Willa Sandmeyer, the broadcast’s news director, ran the show from the press level of the Georgia Dome as business meetings, elections, musical performances and division reports took place on the other side of the wall in the main auditorium from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sandmeyer approached the job no differently than any of the commercial news broadcasts she has directed during her 30-year career.

Sandmeyer began preparing for NewsLine almost a year before the event. She brainstormed possible stories and interviews that might occur at the session so the entire staff could hit the ground running in Atlanta. She used the denomination’s wide network of international missionaries and video footage from around the world, and researched inspirational stories that could be developed on site.

“To make something like this successful, it takes careful planning ahead of time,” Sandmeyer says. “You can’t walk in wondering what you are going to do. You have to know what you are going to cover on a daily basis.”

Each morning began with a devotional followed by a news meeting, and then reporters collected stories on the session floor in time for their noon deadlines to fill the 30-minute newscast, which featured two- to three-minute news stories, sidebar stories, panel discussions, world division reports and musical performances. Sandmeyer’s hard and fast deadlines ensured the broadcast ran smoothly each night.

Willa Sandmeyer edits scripts before showtime.

“We didn’t want delegates just sitting in a chair and internal shots of the Dome,” Sandmeyer explains. “We wanted to connect to the World Church members with the actions taken outside the Dome, committee events, the fun run, and share with them a rich variety of stories.”

Rajmund Dabrowski, communications director for the General Conference World Headquarters, spearheaded the production by the Adventist News Network (ANN), the denomination’s official year-round news service, which also provided articles, photos and a daily podcast covering the conference on its website.

“We wanted to do this with a journalistic foundation without it being propaganda,” he says. “We wanted to provide a realistic picture of the event. Naturally, as a church we are interested in projecting a positive image about ourselves, but if you read our stories there is plenty of controversy; [we] reported on varied opinions that the delegates had.”

The high-quality broadcast operated like a commercial broadcast from all angles, but it wasn’t just professionals like Brillhart and Sandmeyer putting it together. Aspiring journalists manned the cameras and collected stories out on the floor.

“We wanted to involve young people in this because they are Seventh-day Adventists so they care about the church, but at the same time they get training,” he says. “They get a chance in a 10-day period that they would not experience — the tension, the intensity.”

Full coverage of the General Conference Session, including webcasts of NewsLine, articles, photo galleries, podcasts and more are at news.adventist.org.

— Jennifer Garrett

Related story: Adventist on Adrenaline, a Q&A with GC Session planner Sheri Clemmer

First on the list of considerations is room layout. Having 500 people seated theatre-style is a completely different scenario than 500 people sitting at rounds because their distance to the screens is different. Ideally, people should sit (in relation to the screens) no closer than twice the height of a screen and no farther away than eight times the height of a screen. So, let’s say you have a screen that is 10 feet tall. That means you want your audience to sit no closer than 20 feet and no farther away than 80 feet from the screen. Why is it based on height, you ask? Because our eyes perceive more detail from top to bottom. That’s why TV standards are based on how many lines make up a picture. Those ads you see for 1080P HDTVs are for TVs made up of 1080 lines from top to bottom.

This guideline is subject to change, however. If there are going to be presentations with a lot of fine detail or small text then your audience needs to be closer, just like holding something closer to your face if it has fine print (reading glasses included, of course). In this scenario you may want to have your audience no farther away than five times the height of the screen. If you’re just doing cameras for I-Mag, you can be farther away. Being too close can be uncomfortable, which is why a minimum distance is also important. Screens should be high enough off the ground for people to see the entire screen (usually about 4 to 6 feet for a seated audience). Delay screen may need to be added if people are seated too far away.

Now, let’s take a moment to think three-dimensionally. In addition to room size and layout there is one key factor that trumps all others and is often overlooked, and that is ceiling height and ceiling obstructions such as chandeliers and ceiling coves. If the ceiling height is 18 feet and the screen should be at least 5 feet off the ground so people can see it, and you factor in a foot or so for drape, you now have a maximum screen height of 12 feet. Ceiling obstacles may determine where the screens can be placed So look up — it may just affect what you can and can’t do.

Scott Reagles is a production manager and video director for IPG (Initial Production Group), based in Denver, Colo. He focuses on bridging the gap between clients and technology. You can reach him at scott@initialpro.com. IPG is a full-service production company that has been serving the faith-based market for more than 20 years.

By Jennifer Garrett

Who needs a printed version of the Bible anymore? You have your iPhone.

And a business card? Just give me your Twitter handle.

What about a map of the trade show floor? There’s an app for that.

Smartphones have transformed the way we get information, the way we communicate, and the way we interact at events. And this was even before Steve Jobs introduced the iPad as “the most important thing I’ve ever done.” The iPad, which came out in early April, may re-transform the way we look at meetings applications, but until then companies are trying to stay up to speed on the current ever-expanding technology.

The most recent articles in the technology section of RejuvenateMeetings.com will guide you through some of the latest trends and offerings to the world of meetings including custom apps that give attendees schedules, maps and Twitter feeds all in one place on their phones; audience response technology; hybrid meetings; social media; and more.

Or link to the articles in the package here:

Case Study: Implementing Social Media

Live From Chicago: Simply Youth Ministry Conference

Techies’ Dreams

Meetings in your hand

Survey Says

Q&A: Jessica Levin

Matt Markins keeps the conversation going.

Planner: Matt Markins, Randall House marketing and sales director

Event: D6 Conference

Our conference is designed for ministers, leaders, church volunteers and those core parents at a church who are really involved to help them understand how to motivate and inspire parents to be more active in the lives of their children and their teens. The name, D6, is based on Deuteronomy 6, which is the primary parenting passage in the Bible where Moses tells the children of Israel to pass along their faith and their heritage to their children.

We have our main event in Dallas in September. Our model is to always have a main event and then [in the future] to either do regional events or simulcast events. We’re not sure exactly which direction we are going to go yet.

Audience and Technology: I would say about 40 percent are very saavy, 20 percent are so-so, and then 40 percent are probably not very saavy at all.

Best Practices: Most of our speakers already have blogs because they are writers, authors, celebrities to their niche, and so people are already going to their blogs to get that frontliner information. So it doesn’t take much twisting of their arm to get them to talk about the D6 conference. They know, “If I talk about this conference that I’m going to be at, maybe I can drive more people to that conference who are going to hear my message; they are going to love my books; they’re going to buy my books.” So it’s to their benefit to talk about the events that they are involved in.

We do a lot of videos and all of the speakers who chose to be a part of our promotional videos did not ask to be compensated for their time. They realize that giving of their time (two hours on a video shoot) and giving to the marketing and the promotion, they are basically driving their own self-interest. We also have videos of Steve411 — he’s like a video concierge. When you get to an event there are always lots of people helping you find stuff, lots of signage, so Steve’s job, four to five months before the event, was to explain to people before they even got there things like that. He gave tours, he was goofy and fun, and then we used him at the live event also.

“We never felt it would keep people from coming,” says Matty McCage, manager of attendee care and registration. “We just weren’t sure people would watch it.”

The conference sold out in early February, and SYMC wanted to give those who couldn’t attend at least part of the experience. But between distractions, technical needs and other challenges, the main concern of conference organizers was whether people would even tune in.
In fact, the online audience reached the equivalent of at least half of the live audience, up from a 25 percent equivalent who tuned in the previous year for the closing session, according to McCage. And the pre-registration for the 2011 event is stronger than ever.

While the general sessions streamed live, viewers could sign-in as guests or as registered users, and could then participate in a live chat led by a SYMC moderator. Behind-the-scenes interviews conducted by SYM founder Doug Fields with speakers and other prominent individuals involved in the conference were shown on SYMClive.com and are still on the conference Ustream site. “It was a way for everyone to see the personal side of our speakers,” McCage says. “Our speakers are never just a stage presence, they are real people.”

The organization also emphasizes relationships through its dedicated social networking site (SYMCconnect.com), which has more than 500 members. Affinity groups within the site allow people with similar ministries to connect, and leading up to the conference, forums initiated carpool partners, roommates and conference meet-ups. Similar to Facebook, the site creates community for the SYMC audience.

“People are protective of their time; if they are going to use it, it has to be beneficial to them,” says McCage. “This is just another avenue. Postings are more ministry-related. It is a safe haven.”

— Jennifer Garrett

Compassion International’s Dan Wooley found himself covered by the rubble of the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince following the devastating Haiti earthquake in January. Wooley was rescued 65 hours later. He stayed alive by using apps on his iPhone.

While they may not save your life, mobile applications could save your event. From the passive — a hashtag on Twitter for attendees already engaging in the social network — to creating a custom app for your event, applications are redefining how events are planned, the attendee experience and the ongoing conversation.

Not everyone at your event has a smartphone, but connecting with those who do has become a must. Take advantage of the fact that attendees bring their own device to events: Use them to implement audience response technology or other communication and engagement tools.

Custom applications have become an affordable option for conventions. You can have a custom app created by one of hundreds of mobile application developers, or use applications already created with meetings and tradeshows in mind, and then customized to your event. ChirpE by a2z, one such example, won a Trade Show Executive 2009 Innovation Award. The application has event maps, floor plans, program schedules and an exhibitor list, and integrates social media into one place. “Buzz” text messages can be sent through the app to alert attendees of schedule updates, promotions or important reminders.

FollowMe, created by Core-Apps, was used at the 2010 International CES, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow. It integrates with Twitter, sends notifications and alerts, and allows attendees to add sessions and events to a personal schedule, read speaker and exhibitor profiles, star who they want to see on the tradeshow floor and download brochures from exhibitors. The GPS exhibit hall mapping tool allows exhibitors to offer promotions to attendees as they walk by.

Macro View Labs Custom App

VisionTree Conference is accessible through a personal mobile device or one provided by the developer. VisionTree has much of the same functionality as other apps — exhibitor listings, floor plans, messages and agendas — and adds mobile surveys, the ability to ask questions during a session and business card exchange.

MacroViewLabs creates custom apps for hotels, airports, cities and attractions, so its custom event app incorporates area and hotel information, as well as the custom content needed for the event, including GPS maps, ratings and reviews, meetings schedules, speaker information and PDF downloads.

“We host the content but give you access,” explains Keith Michel, co-founder and CTO. “It is a loose and dynamic app. It can be updated every hour to provide content specific to the event.”

Current mobile technology enhances the attendee experience a great deal. Programs, handouts and other paperwork have become almost unnecessary; the conversation surrounding the event can be ongoing; and this is just the beginning. As Wooley (@webguydan) tweeted on Jan. 29, “Used iPhone 2 help poor children around world & 2 stay alive in Haiti earthquake. What could I do w/ iPad?” Meeting and event techies have the same question.

— Jennifer Garrett

Websites worth visiting:

a2zshow.com

core-apps.com/follow_me.html

runtriz.com

dubmenow.com

spotme.com

core-apps.com

macroviewlabs.com

snipp.com

By Larry Anderson

Can we see a show of hands: Who’s looking for better ways to engage meeting attendees?

Audience participation has come a long way in today’s high-tech environment. Attendees can now participate in sessions in real-time from their seats, using a smartphone, keypad or some kind of “clicker” device to provide feedback to a presenter. Livelier interactive sessions are possible using real-time polls to get audience feedback — complete with instant PowerPoint slides illustrating trends and results. Audience members can also text ideas to a presenter for brainstorming or Q&A. It’s a more democratic approach because the least shy person — or the one with the loudest voice — no longer has the upper hand. Anonymity also enables discreet discussions and feedback about sensitive topics.

“Audience response is so critical in our industry and it has changed so much in the last few years,” says Jim Spellos, CMP, founder and president of Meeting U. “It has gone from a really expensive approach to one that at least theoretically should be connecting with your smartphone to be able to utilize it in session.”

Spellos, who speaks at conferences and events about the latest technology tools for meetings, says that Poll Everywhere seems to be leading the charge when it comes to Audience Response System (ARS), but Turning Technologies also offers a quality option in TurningPoint that takes advantage of attendee smartphones. “Really the trend is going from a much more elaborate system to what makes most sense today,” he says. “Which is being able to use the attendees device to send the answers.”

Poll Everywhere offers a free product online that enables up to 30 attendees in a session to participate using their smartphones, laptop or Twitter account. Attendees can vote and see the results in seconds in a PowerPoint slide — the presenter only needs to cut and paste the slide from the Web site into their presentation before the session. (Slides created with the free product include the Poll Everywhere logo.) Smartphone text messages or tweets are great ways to ask questions of expert panels or provide feedback to a presenter.

For larger gatherings, Jeff Vyduna, co-founder of Poll Everywhere, suggests buying a month of unlimited access to the system for $375. At any given time, up to 2,500 people can respond to a poll, and you can use it as many times as you want during the month.

Jim Spellos is a frequent speaker on technology and "Way Cool Tools" for meeting planners.

ARS is also a greener approach to feedback surveys. The technology can be used instead of paper surveys after conference sessions. True/false, multiple choice or strongly agree/strongly disagree opinion scales can be included. The systems can also capture demographic information. The technology lends itself to getting the information you would normally not get until a post-event survey. “What better way for us to find out how people like what we’re doing, how much people like or dislike the conference, than to really get a sense about what people feel at the time they are feeling it,” says Spellos. “Imagine being able to make a mid-course correction in terms of content or programming or timing because the audience really doesn’t like the way the session or the event is going. Now that is an extreme example but if you think about it, it has a lot of power for the meeting professional who understands those tools and can harness them properly.”

At the higher end, another ARS provider IML provides interactive meeting services using its own specialized keypad and software for applications such as corporate and association meetings and events, shareholder meetings and charity fundraisers (including silent auctions). The keypad is a polling device, can provide text messaging and has a built-in wireless microphone — when an attendee pushes the microphone button, it locks everyone else out. Costs are higher (as much as $20 per device per event, but a flexible pricing model depends on how many events and how many attendees). The company offers top-to-bottom service for clients, and does about 2,500 events a year globally. The largest-ever event had a live audience of 8,000. Accuracy has been audited because IML systems are used in shareholder meetings. The devices were used to pledge $26 million during a Robin Hood Foundation fundraising event in New York last May.

Engaging an audience ensures continuous attentiveness during longer presentations, says Ray Hansen, director of business development for IML. During a 60-minute presentation, for example, getting audience feedback after each 20-minute span of time can ensure that attendees’ brains remain in the “active” rather than “passive” mode so they retain more information. The feedback could be a quiz or opinion poll. It could be used to measure comprehension of the subject matter or to direct the remainder of a presentation. IML can display poll results using 3-D animation or show them over a graphic; there are plug-ins for PowerPoint and Flash Player.

“As a participant, when you are engaged, you are going to get more out of an event,” says Hansen. Meetings are more productive when everyone gets a say without having to compete for attention. Also, audience-directed sessions encourage a feeling of ownership among attendees.

By Jennifer Garrett

Following Jessica Levin on Twitter, it’s easy to see the association marketer, meeting planner and owner of 7 Degrees Communications consulting company wears a lot of hats, but it is also apparent she has fully taken hold of social media and its benefits in every role she takes on.

Meetings and social media go hand-in-hand, says Levin. “Events are largely to bring people together and share information. Social networking really helps people engage in relationships and provides access to share information much more easily than we’ve ever been able to do before.”

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, etc., can be overwhelming. We asked Levin to share some basic tips for those who are just getting started or feel they are already in over their heads.

Social media may seem daunting. How can an organization get started?
I would tell them to start with “What are you trying to accomplish?” That really drives what they are trying to do. So in terms of putting on an event, the “big four,” which are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs, all have a place, but it all has to do with what you are trying to do — if you are trying to increase engagement, promotion, etc. Social media is not one-size fits all.

What if engagement is your goal?
Ultimately, if you can afford it, implementing an event community that ties into your registration system is really a great way to tie a community together because they can know who is attending and can have message boards and can link to all the outside sites like Twitter and Facebook. It really is a pre-dialog about the event. Twitter is a great tool during an event. Having a Twitter hashtag [#] and following the conversation there really changes the whole dynamic of an event.

What are some meeting-specific social networking sites?
There are three big players in that market — Pathable, Social Collective and Crowdvine. There are some other products but I would say those are the main ones.

What if promotion is your goal?
You have to figure out where your attendees are. If you have a group on LinkedIn, that might be a platform you use. In terms of promotion, it is easy to use multiple platforms. Start a group on LinkedIn, incorporate blogs, YouTube, but put your emphasis and your time where you find that your attendees are.

If you’re using multiple channels, do you risk sounding redundant?
I prefer the word consistent to redundant. There is a lot of noise out there whether it is hard copies or social media, so while as a planner we may feel like we are saturating the market, the recipient may only see it once or twice. Social media clearly expands what you can do. Blogs are terrific; you can get a lot of different people blogging. You can have your speakers blogging whether you have them blogging for you on your site or on their site. Generally, when they are blogging on their site about your event, they have huge reach so they are helping promote your event as well as providing content and teasers for the attendees about what to expect.

What is a common mistake when implementing social media?
They try to do it and don’t realize that they need to plan and there is a time commitment involved. They throw up a bunch of sites and then there’s no one monitoring them.

When time commitment is a factor, what should planners focus on?
One of the best things you can do is get other people involved. Your attendees are going [to your event] because they want to meet other attendees. They are not really going because they want to interact with the staff — whether its an association or a company. So having what I call Social Media or Communication Ambassadors can be really helpful. With social media it’s important to spread the wealth, so you’re asking people to handle some of the updates and help spread the word.

Every group has leaders. It’s just a matter of identifying them and finding people who want to help.

What do you recommend for an audience  that is not tech-saavy?
One of the things that I highly recommend for an audience that isn’t savvy but is interested (if they aren’t interested it’s going to be difficult) is to provide an education. This education has nothing to do with why they are coming to the conference, but you can teach them how to use some of the tools so their attendee experience is enhanced. Have webinars ahead of time, and maybe even a series of webinars, on using different platforms. If you have decided that you are going to implement an event community than you need to teach people how to use it. You need to have a session and allow people to ask questions and really be patient, speak in plain English and not text terms. The same thing if you are using Twitter or having a Twitter stream during an event. I do a 1-hour Twitter101 to really give people an overview and it helps them not only for the event but it teaches people a new skill.

Industry leaders and meeting professionals chimed in “Twitter-style” on their meeting technology dream of the future.  After translating the lingo, all-in-one stands out as a popular theme among their ideas for the technology that will enhance the planning, event and community experience for everyone involved.

@JeffHurt: Mts tech dream of future: One that combines education, learning & networking with massive multiplayer online gaming concepts

— Jeff Hurt, Director of Education and Engagement,
Velvet Chainsaw Consulting

@RepKBrooks: My mtg tech dream wd be a ttly wireless & paperless reg, mtgs, agendas & hndouts. No ppr=no wste. Paperless mtgs are a gr8 way to strt.
— Kevin Brooks, Public Relations and Conference Management, Church of God International

@JessicaLevin: My dream would be a one-stop shop for connection and collaboration full of features that make it as
easy to build relationships as possible.
— Jessica L.Levin, CMP, Seven Degrees Communications

@Markins: To maximize our use of existing & emerging technologies to create an effective, creative, & interactive learning environment for leaders, churches, & parents.
— Matt Markins, Director of Marketing and Sales at Randall House Publishers,
D6 Conference Co-founder

@CheRhonda: I would love a 3D hologram of me running around at my meetings while I am getting a few extra ZZZZs in my room!

— CheRhonda Greenlee, Operations, CMETV

@jspellos: Integrated solutions for planners & suppliers that are easy to learn & use and work across all platforms.
— Jim Spellos, CMP, Founder and President of Meeting U.