Upcoming Event Trends for 2020

Upcoming Event Trends for 2020

The approach of 2020 has us thinking about all of the amazing developments we’ve seen in our industry this past year - as well as some that we’re seeing on the rise going into this new year! Here are some of the trends we expect to see even more of in the year ahead:

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As convenient as they can be, ballrooms can be a bit.. well… boring. Choosing a unique venue allows you (and your partners) to push the boundaries of your creativity, creating truly unique event experiences for your attendees. Thanks to things like custom fabric solutions, projection, lighting, and advanced staging techniques, event planners have more options than ever in terms of choosing an interesting location, whether it’s an industrial space, a farm, a museum, or even a gym! And although it’s true that unique venues come with unique challenges, like power supply, rigging points, and lack of wifi or staging, the challenges just give you more opportunities to get creative - and the right partner can help you transform virtually any space to meet your needs.

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We’ve talked a lot about polling in the past, as a way to help attendees’ stay engaged (The Evolution of Audience Participation), but there are other ways you can appeal to their tendencies and get them involved in the event without too much extra effort on their part. Gamification is a great way to capture attendees’ interest and increase the fun factor of your event! Leveraging gaming elements like competition & rewards can help drive your event goals while also increasing attendee satisfaction. For example, you could reward attendees with points for connecting with different sponsors’ booths throughout the event, or they could win awards for acing a post-general session quiz. You could even display a leaderboard to keep the competitive factor high! These are all ways to make your event more fresh & interactive, and keep your attendees interested.

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We’ve all heard lots about AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality), and AI (Artificial Intelligence) this past year. But the beginnings of an opposite reaction have begun, where people are looking for more authenticity & more “real” sensory engagement - even in events! The use of dedicated scents has long been used across retail & hospitality establishments as a means of establishing a mood, and creative lighting is another way to help your attendees connect with the event space in a unique way (and is a great way to pull in your brand colors!) We’re also seeing more textural elements coming to the forefront, like unique custom fabrics and interesting furniture, lending a tactile element - even if it’s all the way up onstage.

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With high-impact displays at your disposal, it’s never been more important to ensure that your visual content is engaging. Utilizing basic design principles to keep slides legible & interesting is key. (Here’s a quick reference document with some tips for designing your slides: 10 PowerPoint Tips) We’re also seeing speakers integrate more emojis, GIFs, and ambient video graphics to bring their visuals to life! Additionally, if a speaker has slides or graphics that are crucial to their content but are complex to understand, animated infographics are a great alternative to help audiences better understand the visuals. (No one likes looking at an over-stuffed slide that they can barely read, let alone understand.)

 
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As social norms in the workplace are tending towards the informal, so are those in the event sphere! Event breakouts & meeting locations are becoming more casual, and classroom-style configurations are being traded in for more informal, multi-purpose gathering spaces.

 

Ready to employ some of these trends for your 2020 events?
Give us a call and let us come up with some unique & innovative ideas for YOU!

How to Choose the Perfect AV Provider

How to Choose the Perfect AV Provider

We know that it can be difficult trying to choose the perfect partner to help you execute your event. It can be hard knowing what questions to ask, or even how to start the conversation. We'd like to make that easier on you, so we've compiled a list of tips on how to choose the perfect audiovisual team for your event!

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1. Look for creativity.

Try to find an AV provider who goes above and beyond to find creative solutions for their clients - whether that's through a standout set design, a unique mic setup for a speaker with specific needs, optimizing a small space to feel larger, or finding ways to accommodate an uncommon order of events & make it feel effortless for attendees. A creative & resourceful AV company will not only provide you with new & innovative ideas during the planning stage, but will also be better able to deal with any day-of challenges that might arise.

2. Share your full vision.

Sure, you can approach your AV company with a list of equipment if you'd like, but their biggest concern will likely be tending to the people involved - aka your speakers & your audience. Do you know how big your audience is, and how many speakers you'll have? Do you know how you'd like your speakers to enter, and are they walkers or podium talkers? Beyond the technical needs, what do you want the event to feel like? What is the general atmosphere you'd like to achieve? The right AV company may have ideas that you wouldn't have thought of! Clue them in on your fullest vision for the event, and let them tell you how they'll realize it!

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3. Share whatever venue details you have.

In order to get the most accurate quote, your AV company will likely need diagrams of the event spaces, and may also need information on rigging points, power limitations, internet provision, and access times. If you don't have this information, don't fret! Just try to provide the AV company with a point of contact for your venue so that they can ask those questions without you having to play the middle man. This will ensure that you get the most accurate picture of what is possible at your venue, and what it will cost.

4. Share your budget early.

If you have a firm budget, be upfront about it. This will allow the AV company to make sure that all of their proposed solutions fit within it. If you have flexibility in your budget, allow your AV company to come up with some options for you at different price points. We’ve been known to present project proposals in tiers, to give the client the most informed choice possible and to let them know exactly what is possible with different levels of investment.

5. And lastly, don't forget to think beyond the event day itself.

What are your post-event needs? Do you need to distribute information from the event to those in your organization who could not attend? Perhaps recording your event & sharing the video might save you the time of typing up summaries or collecting written information. Do you need to poll your audience to get feedback? Perhaps instead of sending out an email poll afterward, integrating a simple polling app at the end of your event might be the way to go. Whatever your post-event needs are, talk about them with your AV professionals. There may be a way that they can make those tasks more efficient!

Producing an event can be a challenge. But taking the time to find the right collaborators can result in a smoother planning process and a more impactful event that meets the goals of all involved. We're humbled to get to be a trusted collaborator for so many meeting & event planners across the country. 

If you're interested in having these conversations with us and allowing our knowledgeable, professional, & creative team guide you as you produce an extraordinary event, give us a shout!

The Ultimate Content Checklist

The Ultimate Content Checklist

When it comes to our conference clients, we pride ourselves on providing thorough guidance for their speakers as they craft their presentation visuals. But it’s always easier to communicate tech needs beforehand, than to spend days or even weeks going back and forth with changes and updates, right?

So to help speed up your tech prep for speakers, here’s our ultimate checklist for visual content!

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  • You’ll will want to format your slides as Powerpoint, Keynote, or Prezi presentations. Playing presentations from PDFs or Google slides can be unreliable - and reliability is the name of the game in event production!

  • The aspect ratio of your slides should be 16:9 - not the standard 4:3 - in order to fill most screens. You’ll want to check your slide format before designing your slides, so that you don’t have to go back and make changes later on.

  • Try to avoid using black or blank slides if you can. Often times, audiences may not be able to tell if a blank screen is intentional, and it can be distracting. 

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  • All images used in your slides should be at least 1080px large in their smallest dimension. This ensures that none of your images appear pixelated on-screen. (If you’re unsure how large an image is, locate the file on your computer, right click on it, and select “Find Information” or its equivalent. You should be able to find the dimensions of the image there.)

  • A good rule of thumb is, if an image appears pixelated on your screen, it will appear pixelated on ours as well - possibly a little more so. So pay attention to the quality of your images as you’re adding them to your slides.

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  • Videos should ideally be in .mp4 format, thought .mov format is acceptable if necessary. (Our tech team will typically convert it to .mp4 prior to the event, as this filetype often has a smaller size and has a better chance of playing smoothly.)

  • All videos should have a minimum resolution of 1920x1080px. Anything lower than this will appear pixelated on-screen. 2K and 4K videos are also great!

  • Just like the slides, videos need to have a 16:9 aspect ratio in order to fill the screen. If your video has a different aspect ratio, there will be black areas around it on the screen.

  • You can embed video into your slides, but we always ask speakers to provide all videos as separate files as well. Embedded videos can be unreliable at times, so the tech team will keep your videos files cued up separately, to play if the embedded version fails.

We hope this help you and your speakers prepare well for your next event!

Need more specific guidance?