Keep the presentation simpleDon't overdue the slideshow with unecessary effects and complex builds. The more experience you have with PowerPoint the more likely you will be at risk of overdoing it. Be Passionate about the presentationThe biggest thing that separates an average presentation from a great presentation is the ability of the presenter to connect with an audience in an exciting way. Don't hold back and be confident. Leave the lights on:Don't turn the lights off so that the slides look better. Most of the projectors used today are bright enough to allow you to keep many of the lights on, and not have the audience sit in the dark. 10/20/30 Rule:10 - Is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than Ten concepts in a presentation or meeting. 20 - You should deliver your ten slides in Twenty minutes, yes you have an hour time slot but people will arrive late and have to leave early. In a perfect world you would give your presentation in twenty minutes and then have forty minutes for any interaction or Q&A. 30 - The majority of the presentations we see have a font size in the range of 12 to 16 point, then as much text as possible is jammed onto the slide. Try less text with only crucial or important points with a 30 Size Font; remember impact and the people towards the back of the room. Move Away from the Lectern:Now this will not work for everybody, some presenters need to stay behind the event lectern; I guess it's used as a sort of ‘shield'. The lectern can be a barrier between you and the audience, but the goal of the presentation is to connect with the audience. Removing this barrier between you and the audience can help you build a connection. Microphone:Generally a PowerPoint presentation is there to support a speech, don't rely on just Slides you will need to project your voice and ‘utilise' the microphone, this does not mean ‘shout' into the microphone though. Post - Matthew Allely. (material sourced from A Carsen). ... Read More

Nothing looks worse than empty tables in front of your stage on banquet night, especially when you have a guest speaker. When you want to make sure the tables in front of the stage are full, put reserved signs on the last two rows of tables in the room which forces people to look at tables closer to the stage. Once those front tables are filled you can simply pull the reserved signs and fill the tables in the back of the room. A simple but effective tactic. Post - Matthew Allely. ... Read More

A webcast is a media file distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand. Essentially, webcasting is "broadcasting" over the Internet. So why the hype? Webcasting has generated so much attention in and around the events industry because of the benefits the technology provides. These benefits include:• Extended reach of the chosen message• Increased event ROI• Extended event experience• Delivering the message simultaneously to many listeners/viewers• Overcoming geographic boundaries and time constraints• Positioning the brand competitively• Alleviating legal and regulatory compliance for AGMs When you sit down and consider the real application of webcasting in the events industry, Its no wonder it has been a success. Post - Matthew Allely. ... Read More

The Meetings and Events Australia State Awards for NSW, ACT and Victoria all took place last evening (March 10) at gala celebrations held at both the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre for NSW and ACT award recipients and the Sebel Albert Park Melbourne for the Victorian award winners. Staging Connections performed well in both states as the winner of the category award - MEA Products and Services Awards -Technical & Creative Production - Branch turnover > $5 million. Pete Urmson, General Manager Sales and Marketing of the Staging Connections Group congratulated the Staging Connections team on this great result. "Last night's wins, coupled with the recent win of the micenet Award for best AV and Production Services Company for the second year running, positions us well. The awards are recognition of our people and dedication to excellence in all that we do". State winners will now move ahead as finalists at the MEA National Awards to be held in Brisbane during the MEA National Conference from April 17-19. ... Read More

Staging Connections has recently launched the venue finder website www.venue.com.au. This website provides a comphrehensive portal that event planners can use as a resource for selecting the most suitable venue for their upcoming event/s. venue.com.au showcases Staging Connections venue partners across AUS/NZ/FIJI, providing a complete listing which includes detailed information about the venue and its capabilities for meetings and events. Users can send the same enquiry to multiple venues by using the "Add to Enquiry" functionality present on the website. Click here to perform a venue search on www.venue.com.au. ... Read More

On any given night across Australia there are 105,000 people sleeping rough. This number is made up of an extraordinary 12,000 under the age of 12 and 22,000 aged between 12 to 18. Staging Connections is once again the proud national partner of the Vinnies CEO Sleepout for 2011. Tony Chamberlain, Managing Director, will be "sleeping out" at the Sydney event and Staging Connections' teams will be providing pre-marketing and event staging services across the country in support of St Vincent de Paul and the tireless work they do to help reduce the level of homelessness. The event aims to challenge business and community leaders to experience homelessness first-hand for just one night. This event is not just a means to raise funds but also awareness and to effect change in social opinions about homelessness. For more information on the event and how you can help the cause of homelessness head to http://www.ceosleepout.org.au/ To view some of the personal accounts of CEO's experience sleeping out in 2010, click here ... Read More

A recent study released by the Harvard Business Review has confirmed the ongoing and intrinsic value of meeting face to face. Of the 2300 HBR subscribers, 79% stated that "in-person meetings are the most effective way to meet new clients to sell business" while 95% of all respondents said that "face-to-face meetings are a key factor in successfully building and maintaining long term relationships". The study also concluded that while technology is clearly on the rise the business executives confirmed that face-to-face meeting benefits (both tangible and intangible) cannot be replaced by technology. Download the full report here Post - Matthew Allely. ... Read More

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Do you want to deliver dynamic and engaging event communications? Strengthen the impact of your message and extend the reach of your event? Event communications is at a tipping point of change with the technological age offering new avenues for engaging with clients. The increase in internet use is the driving force behind this shift and at the forefront of event innovation is Webcasting. Webcasting put simply allows you to stream video and audio content for engaging and powerful communication According to ComScore, over 80% of Internet users spend 8 hours viewing videos online.* Webcasting is evolving the structure of events, extending the event experience and connecting to a new virtual audience. Staging Connections is at the forefront of this paradigm shift with a suite of integrated event services, including Webcasting. Webcasting is the first of Staging Connections’ new range of Digital Event Services which will be progressively rolled out in the coming months. How can you evolve your events with Webcasting? • Live webcast your Annual General Meeting to shareholders and journalists who can't attend the event location. • Deliver a corporate communication simultaneously around the state, country or across the world. • Bring your new product launch media release to life with rich video content for an engaging experience of the launch event. • Add a new dimension to your event marketing activities such as websites, e-invitations and online newsletters with up to date and compelling on-demand video content. Webcasting complements Staging Connections’ traditional Technical, Styling and Design services and enables Staging Connections to continue to deliver a range of innovative integrated event services to its customers . www.stagingconnections.com/webcast ... Read More

Now in its fourth year, Vivid Sydney is a celebration of ideas and creative industry attracting over 400,000 visitors who come to take in our iconic buildings transformed and surrounded by immersive light sculptures and projection mapping On Saturday evening last, I donned my winter coat and braved the crowds to experience the power of our creative economy at Vivid Sydney. Now in its fourth year, Vivid Sydney is a celebration of ideas and creative industry attracting over 400,000 visitors who come to take in our iconic buildings transformed and surrounded by immersive light sculptures and projection mapping The festival is about light, music, ideas and industry. It presents not only a program of unique concerts but seminars, public talks and debates via the new Vivid Ideas Exchange. While I’m off to spend some time with my artistic brethren, below is a wrap-up of the incredible public displays that could well change the perception of how we approach events creative! Customs House – City Life by The Electric Canvas By far the standout piece of 3D projection mapping at the festival, City Life transformed the facade of Customs House and tipped our perception, creating a “city within a city”. First we see a bustling city come to life; the ionic columns become city streets, the iconic clock a park fountain, birds and aeroplanes fly overhead. The point of view shifts from overhead to elevation as tall buildings tower over subways, animated characters interact and go about their daily lives. It is this unpredictable quality that The Electric Canvas is well known for, making the often overlooked a veritable dreamscape of ideas that can inspire. MCA – Motion Collaboration 1 by Justene Williams & Spinifex One of the more site-specific pieces of the festival, artist Justene Williams in collaboration with Spinifex and our friends over at TDC transformed the museum into a neon fantasia in the flavour of Soviet propaganda art. The egalitarian art deco facade featured the grand communist images of a working machine, neon cogs and toiling labourers. The final sequence featured a myriad of modern art – fractured De Stijl, touches of Magritte bowlers and constructivist paintings intertwine, eventually escaping inside the MCA’s entrance in the finale. MCA – MCA Lights by Keebz, will.i.am & Spinifex One wonders when this projection medium will become tired, at the rate at which technology grows, how do we keep a fresh approach? The answer is intractability. MCA Lights is an interactive display on the brand-new wing of the MCA, a unique collaboration between DJ Keebz, will.i.am, Spinefex and TDC that uses the building as an instrument. The general public can interact with three on-screen displays using hand gestures in mid-air. These gestures control the content and indeed re-sequence the music, the entire experience shaped around the user’s decisions. If ever we fantasised about the film Minority Report, it seems that technology has caught up. Sydney Opera House – Lighting The Sails by URBANSCREEN Coined as a ‘reinterpretation of the sails’, German design collective URBANSCREEN transformed the canvas of our iconic Opera House like never before. Instead of a play-on-light, the work centred around human interactions (albeit giant) on the tiled surface of the great landmark. The sails floated in the breeze then retained solidarity, lifting and bouncing as human figures danced across them. The projection was not only inspiring, it was alive. Sydney Opera House to Walsh Bay – VIVID Light Sculptures Whilst taking in the awe-inspiring projection work above, it is highly recommended that you take in the light sculptures that wrap around the harbour. From an illuminated igloo made from plastic water tanks to Brian Thompson’s magnificent chandelier featured in Opera Australia’s La Traviata there is enough here to have you thinking outside the box the next time you approach a creative project. It isn’t any wonder that Vivid Sydney was ranked in the Top Ten global ideas festivals by The Guardian UK. It presents a solid, immersive experience on a unique canvas that can be shared by all who experience it. It just shows you don’t need to spend a penny to be inspired! Written By: Joshua Mason, Senior Event Stylist, Staging Connections. Image Credits: Images credited when available. Unless stated otherwise, no sourced images are owned by us 1. Argyle in Bloome: Image by Shrestha Bidur via Vivid Sydney 2.Customs House: Image by Richard Dicky Simpson via Vivid Syndey 3. MCA: Image by Charles Brewer via news.com.au 4. Opera House: Image by Torsten Blackwood via Getty Images 6. Lights: Image by Eric Sou via Vivid Sydney 7. La Traviata Chandelier: Image by Jerry Dohnal via Vivid Sydney 8. Light installations: Image by James Morgan via CNNGO.com via Getty Images 9. Pallette of Urban Green: Image by Arielle Morris via Vivid Sydney ... Read More

In this post our lovely event stylist Alana discusses how she created this stunning look for the Starlight Foundation Five Chefs Dinner using over 1000 candles! In this post our lovely event stylist Alana discusses how she created this stunning look for the Starlight Foundation Five Chefs Dinner using over 1000 candles! With a background in visual merchandising, Interior design and floral art, Alana brings a fresh and contemporary vision to creative event design in Adelaide. Working with many of Australia leading companies and associations, she has delivered unique event experiences that inspire and impress. Whether it’s funky, old school, retro or cutting edge, Alana has the contacts, experience and creative inspiration to turn ideas in to a reality. I wanted to share with you a theme inspired by Phantom of The Opera I recently worked on with the Starlight Foundation for the Five Chefs Dinner. It was a spectacular event held in the Ballroom at the Adelaide InterContinental where we used candles and smoke effects to create an intimate mood for the 330 guests attending. The client first came to me with a theme in mind and some images of the play/movie on a mood board. We then came up with some ideas of how to create this visually. A lot of pre planning went into the event to ensure we could create the right lighting effect. We needed to make sure that the hazer, glaciator and smoke effect would fill the room and create a mystical, enchanting environment! We used over a thousand candles to create the look including pillar candles on the table and oil filled candles in the candelabras. A lot of work went into selecting candle sizes, colours and those with the longest possible burn time, even the small tea lights had a 9 hour burn time! The biggest concern was positioning candles and ensuring they were not in the direct path of air conditioners cause this makes them burn much quicker. It is also very important that they are not lit too early to ensure they get maximum length. For this particular event we lit them around ten minutes before doors and many volunteers from the foundation helped out, in the end it took 20 people 10 minutes! Overall we had 33 tables of ten but it felt like a very intimate evening with great ambience all created by the glow of the candles! Check out the pictures and let me know what you think of the end result! Author: Alana Berryman, Stylist, Staging Connections Image Credits: Unless stated otherwise, all images are owned by us ... Read More