If you haven’t been to a conference in a few years you’re in for a big surprise. These once stiff, white-collared, corporate events are changing, and have seriously raised the bar on everything from styling to attendee engagement. ‘Engagement’ has been the buzz word for event planners and marketers for some time now. It has permeated every communication channel as companies look to create new and exciting experiences. Events have become the perfect playing field to really engage audiences and give companies a direct connection with their consumers. Those companies that invest, pave the way for a more enriching and memorable experience for their customers and are likely to turn them into lifelong advocates. The next question then becomes, how are companies turning their conference into an invigorating and unique experience? Read on to learn more about six of the hottest corporate event trends this year. 1. 2 Venues, 1 Location One of the most costly expenses in event planning is venue hire. Over the past few decades we've seen conference venue trends do a full circle. In the 80's and 90's it was all about hosting your conference in big hotel ballrooms, followed by some polite small talk and canapés at the post event drinks in some non-descript location just outside the conference room. Coming into the new millennium, conference planners were getting creative and hosting conferences in unique venues or utilising multiple venues to suit each section of the day. These 'hybrid' events would typically host the information-rich agenda in a hotel meeting space after which attendees were then directed to a unique venue for the informal networking part of the event. Whilst this 'hybrid' event is still very popular and provides attendees with a great experience, it isn't the most cost-effective way to host a corporate event. We're now experiencing a convergence of these two trends, where event planners choose a hotel venue that has enough variety in its meeting spaces to mimic the split locations whilst remaining in the one venue. Instead of relying on a new venue to inject interest, event planners are turning to new immersive-themed rooms and styling to do the heavy lifting. Why this works: It goes without saying hiring one venue instead of two is a massive cost-saving already. Using two spaces within the one hotel and investing in theming and styling is a great way to ensure you’re giving guests the best environment for each agenda whilst maximising your budget. Hotel meeting spaces give you the AV support and space needed to deliver your key messages and support your speakers. Once the formalities are over, your guests can move to another space within the venue for the next section of the conference whether that be a sit-down gala dinner or styled cocktail event. Encore Event Technologies recently delivered the annual conference for one of Australia's largest professional services organisation. Part of the brief was to deliver an exceptional formal conference experience for 300 employees as well as a unique and spectacular gala dinner post conference. To maximise the budget, Encore Event Technologies used Hilton Sydney's ballroom to host the main conference agenda. Once the conference conclude, guests were ushered out into a beautifully styled holding room for cocktails and canapés while the Encore Event Technologies team transformed the conference room into a fully immersive 'Vintage Carnival' themed gala dinner complete with live circus acts and interactive carnival booths. Immersive, 'Vintage Carnival' themed conference delivered by Encore Event Technologies at Hilton Sydney. This is a win-win both the brand and the guests. It creates a lasting impression on attendees, which is key to continuous attendance and conference longevity. 2. Design Immersive Conferences Gone are the days of a stuffy ballroom, lined with endless rows of chairs and a small stage. Corporate conferences are turning to styled, immersive themes to ramp up the atmosphere, provide talking points and truly immerse guests in their brand. After all, events are one of the only occasions a brand has an uninterrupted interaction with their target market. So they’d better make the most of it. We’ve mentioned Immersive Events in previous styling trend reports and they’re fiercely becoming the norm for corporate events. If you’re not adopting this new event planning mindset, you’re in danger of being left behind. Immersive Events are where styling, audio visual, digital, staging and design services merge into one harmonious environment. It’s about using these services in combination to truly transform your event into a branded experience. Why this works: A conference is the ultimate marketing event for a company. Whether it’s a corporate, training, education, or a sales conference, organisations need planners to design events that build brand loyalty and drive advocacy. Effectively branding an event builds attendee engagement that translates into increased connection. In addition, aligning your message with a theme provides a tangible vehicle to carry your message across all touch points. From the invites, to the entrance, room decor, multimedia content and post event communications. For example, we recently worked with Capital S.M.A.R.T. for their annual sales conference. The objective of the conference was to recognise the company’s achievements of doubling their revenue celebrate their 7th anniversary and set the direction for 2017. Therefore, it was very fitting for the conference theme to be 007 Bond. This theme was integrated into every aspect and became the creative ‘glue’ that tied everything into one cohesive message. Encore Event Technologies delivered an immersive '007' event theme for Capital S.M.A.R.T.'s annual sales conference. 3. Encourage Attendee Engagement Our third corporate event trend we’re seeing in 2015 and which will definitely become common place in 2016 is attendee engagement – that ‘engagement’ buzzword again. This means event planners are actively seeking new strategies and technologies to encourage two-way conversations with attendees, driving participation and building a positive brand experience rather than asking them to sit and listen for hours on end. Increasing engagement can come in a variety of forms. Today’s event planners are ditching PowerPoint slides for total engagement activities such as live social feeds, video conferencing, audience polling, on-site bloggers, event-specific apps, event hashtags and much more. Why this works: Encouraging your attendees to participate and share ideas results in a much richer experience for your guests and allows event hosts to unearth insights and gain valuable feedback that mightn't have been possible without the audience participation. Increasing engagement translates into better overall experiences. By becoming active participants, attendees are more likely to gain knowledge and skills than by simply being spectators. Encore Event Technologies' audience live-polling platform, Event Poll. 4. WOW with High-Tech Events are the perfect playground for showing off your brand and wow-ing guests with the latest technology. When it comes to creating truly unique and personalised experiences, technology is your best friend. Having free Wi-Fi is no longer a nice add-on, it’s an expectation. So what are conference organisers turning to surprise and delight their attendees: Event apps featuring presentation and workshop schedules Real-time social media integration on-screen In-app scheduling and communication capabilities GPS event locator and navigation assistance On-demand video feeds and special keynote webcasts Live audience polling and contests Personalised push notifications (think meeting agenda or announcements) Real-time language translations Even projection mapping was used at recent Aussie Home Loans Sales Conference we produced to add a huge wow-factor to their event. Why this works: Technology bridges the gap between the event and the individual guest experience. Utilising event apps and social media allows you to effectively communicate to your guests and provide instant updates. Technology and innovative audio-visual solutions provide a cost-effective solution for engaging and create last impressions. 5. Build an Event Community Brands invest huge amounts of their marketing budget into growing and nurturing a solid community of brand advocates. It therefore makes perfect sense to treat events as a sub-brand which has its own community where people with common interests and likes come together. Building this fan-base takes a lot of time and effort and has changed the life-cycle of the traditional event. It’s no longer just the event day itself, event planners need to consider the journey months before the event, the event itself, and then post-event follow ups and content. The overarching objective? Keeping their audience engaged and coming back year after year. Your event hype plan usually starts with creating the necessary channels and touch points where your community can grow and interact. The heavy weights here are an event Facebook page, YouTube / Vimeo channel for your video content, Instagram and Twitter account and a dedicated branded event hashtag. Utilising these channels to house engaging content provides you with a cohesive platform to keep your event community engaged throughout the event life-cycle. A great strategy for growing your event community is to use a social media integration platform. We’ve included Event Feed as part of our digital portfolio for this exact reason – it captures your event’s entire social conversation across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter via a dedicated hashtag and displays them instantly on screen for all to see. Why this works: Positive word-of-mouth is the holy grail of marketing. If you can create and sustain a dedicated community of enthusiasts for your event, you are tapping into a rich source of insights, free advertising and invaluable instant feedback. In the past, event planners would rely on paid advertising to promote the event and would only be able to review all event happenings weeks after the event ended to learn what was successful and what wouldn't be used next year. Event Feed used at this years Tourism Australia, Destination Australia Conference. 6. Embrace Green Events Going ‘green’ isn't just a phenomenon we’re experiencing in the food and beverage industry. Companies that demonstrate they’re environmentally conscious are also reaping the benefits of positive brand operations. This year we’re seeing a lot of corporate events taking on a ‘local, organic and sustainable’ approach to their event planning. This mindset is being adopted across every possible facet of the event, from environmentally conscious AV and staging processes, down to local and organic catering, as well as using recycled and sustainable materials to design, communicate and run the event. Why this works: In some cases, going ‘green’ can be very profitable as people are generally happy to forgo higher quality / luxuries for the sake of being environmentally conscious – think recycled paper, more efficient energy and recycling processes, cardboard chairs etc. Aside from the obvious benefits of a demonstrating corporate social responsibility, it allows companies to build relationships with new audiences via this common interest and strengthen ties with existing customers. The corporate event scene is experiencing a huge overhaul. Audiences demand interaction, immersion and innovation. The great thing is, it’s being driven by a common need to discover and improve ways to engage audiences and communicate the event message effectively. This means, it’s a landscape that is forever changing. When organising your next event, make sure you consider these 6 trends to ensure you’re conference is hitting the mark and ensuring the longevity of your event. Interested in hosting your next event with Encore? Get in touch with us today and let's make it happen! ... Read More

There are 5 fundamentals of staging a successful event. Audio, Lighting, Vision, Staging, and Content. With all eyes on the stage, it's one of the most important elements you need to get right because unlike AV, you can't just 'tweak' it on the day. The stage is a major element when planning successful corporate events. Everyone will eventually look towards the stage, and your intent is to keep the audience focused on the message you’re delivering. While an involved audience is the goal, we know there are various factors that can make the audience lose interest - causing you to lose out on money, prospective customers, and possible partnerships. Here are 6 staging mistakes to avoid if you want to keep your audience interested and attentive. Poor Sound Quality The level of sound coming from the stage speaks volumes about your brand. We know that echoing sounds and volume should be expertly controlled with professional audio connections at frequencies that are pleasing to the ear without being too high or low in pitch. If the sound isn’t clear or makes the audience uncomfortable, you're likely to lose attendees and your presenters. If the presenters can't be heard, your attendees will lose interest which in turn, makes the presenters feel uncomfortable. All you're left with is everyone in the room having a bad experience. When considering your stage design, work with a professional AV company to determine where the speakers and fold backs need to be so both presenters and audiences can hear with crystal clear clarity. Music can deeply influence the audience just as much as an expert speaker. Emotions, motor functioning and creativity are boosted by music, and we’ve witnessed its power at all types of events. Not only do people relate music to personal experiences, music ignites the entire human brain. Bad Lighting Design A well-lit stage enhances the atmosphere and mood of the room. Therefore, stage lighting should really wow your audience with dynamic style. With flat or malfunctioning lighting, attendees will be far less interested in looking at the stage. Too much white lighting can also drain the appearance of your presenters and wash out the on-screen projection content making the vision hard to see. Professional lighting always comes with flexibility. The light can fit your theme and power audience engagement by drawing focus to your presentation. Depending on the electric system at the event space, lights can be powered at various settings to create a unique environment and add texture to the room to intrigue the audience. Lack of Creative Branding Techniques If your brand isn’t presented tastefully, potential buyers will quickly consider it overkill and lose interest in your services. In fact, 52% of customers report feeling overwhelmed by companies that don’t communicate the presence of their brand effectively. We view corporate events as a creative opportunity to consistently display your brand’s logo and visual message. More than half of B2B marketers acknowledge that branding is a must for company growth. On average, a 23% increase in revenue has been credited to consistent branding. Your logo can be incorporated into the stage design and transformed into an interactive experience. Serve up your logo as part of the beverages and refreshments offered to guests, or display it as a piece of 3D art that emotionally connects with viewers. Disregarding The Line of Sight Audiences need to see and hear for a favourable event experience. Presentations, speakers, and visual branding has to be visible to everyone. Otherwise, the crowd will quickly lose interest and find better things to do – such as playing on their mobile phones or distracting the nearest person with small talk. Considering the seating arrangement and size of the event, the stage should be raised for better viewing. Opinions will always vary on the proper height of the stage. Some may say 12 inches, others might recommend 24. Every event is special in its own way. It’s best to use a professional audio visual team that will work closely with your venue and company while considering all necessary elements for the proper stage height. Better still, partnering with an AV company that's already in-house at your venue means they'll have a better understanding of the rooms layout and how to maximise the stage design for audience viewing. Use a Bland Stage Backdrop The backdrop attracts more attention than many people realise. Today, stage backdrops aren’t just coloured accessories for the stage. They can be textured walls in stunning 2D and 3D designs that enhance your theme or branding, or even internally lit backdrops that display print-quality images or branding. With modern technology, backdrops can now be turned into media pieces that move on the wall. If audiences look away, this moving media will lead their eyes back to the presentation. When executed properly, media walls add to the effectiveness of the message being delivered, and the visuals will help the crowd retain the information presented. Choose a Poor Seating Layout Whether you are setting up a business presentation, training classroom, hosting a full scale gala dinner or product launch, the arrangement of the seating can make all the difference. You have invited your audience to communicate a message, so it’s important that your audience is seated in the best way to achieve the maximum impact for your message! Guests want to feel involved in professional discussions and enjoy sharing their knowledge and common interests. Using the right seating style creates a deeper connection between the speakers and audience members. It also encourages any moving participants and standing listeners to walk behind seated guests. Learn The Best Strategies To Create An Outstanding Corporate Event For Your Audience Keeping your audience engaged requires thought, planning, and creativity. We can work with your team to create a stage designed to hold interest and generate excitement. At Encore, we use our experience to transform your corporate events into interactive and memorable experiences for attendees that live long after the event concludes. Contact us for innovative event staging production and concepts that combine event creative and technical expertise. ... Read More

This is the third installment in a three-part series in which Chris Cavanaugh, CMO of Freeman, discusses the event technology that is shaping the future of brand experiences. In his final post, Chris talks about how brands can leverage mass personalisation to maximise the potential of your brand experience. Maximise the brand experience through mass personalisation Written by Chris Cavanaugh, CMO of Freeman, originally posted on the Freeman blog. Catch up on Part Two: Live Streaming Can Change The Way Brands Engage With Audiences here -- We are a society that has become hyper-personalized. Today’s consumers don’t just appreciate customized content — they expect it. Whether we’re shopping for clothes, planning a vacation, or browsing for a TV show to watch, we seem to have very little patience for choices that we don’t relate to. There’s an emotional angle to all of this. Across the globe, consumers have started craving a deeper connection with the brands they use. They want to feel like they’ve made the right choice with their money, and they prefer to invest in brands that understand them and know what they care about. Technology has made this possible. Now more than ever, there are a multitude of channels that learn our behaviors, listen to our feedback, and give us the ability to opt into — or out of — the experiences that fill our lives. The future is being dictated by what individuals want rather than what brands want for them. Nowhere is this truer than in the world of brand experiences. This is a good thing. Brands, at their core, are all about people. Not crowds of people but rather individuals, each with their own unique set of values and emotional connection points. Personalisation based on emotional investment gives us an opportunity to forge deeper connections with our audiences. Fortunately, live events offer a wealth of opportunities for brands not only to provide personalized experiences but also to continue learning how to make emotional connections with their audiences as well. Know your audience(s) It seems obvious, but many brands do not actually know their audience beyond the broad strokes painted by their standard research. Today’s audiences can be much more complex than that. By the year 2020, there will be five different generations working at the same time. That’s more generations than have ever been in the workforce at once, and it presents a new wrinkle in addition to the usual segmentation challenges we face. Each generation will have its own set of priorities, motivators, and preferred methods of communication. Speaking of generations, as our original attendees age out, who will replace them? The up-and-coming generations will have an overabundance of experiences and channels to choose from, so it’s very likely that the same old tactics may not work on them. If we want to attract these new audiences, segmentation will be the first step in understanding how we can connect with them. Use data to make a human connection Now that you’ve defined your audiences, data is the key to personalisation. Once you have the data, there are many ways to customise the experience for your audience. Turning heaping piles of information into insights that are actionable and meaningful is no easy task, but with today’s event technology, anything is possible. It starts with putting the customer at the center of the proposition, using empathy and insights to understand what he or she wants and needs, and then creating a personalized experience that delivers emotion without feeling intrusive. There are challenges, of course. We will have to be vigilant about issues of privacy, data ownership, and usage. I find that, in this case, honesty is the best policy. If audiences are aware that you’re collecting their data in order to enhance their experience and remove the clutter, and you ensure that they are totally and implicitly aware of what is being collected and studied, then you should have no problem. Reach audiences where they are As mass media continues to fragment, so do the ways in which marketers can reach audiences. The days of the big ad running during prime-time television are being supplemented by new devices, new streaming vehicles, and an evolving mass of new marketing channels. If you are going to employ multiple channels to get your message across, there should be continuity between those channels. It’s important to remember that campaigns are ongoing conversations. There are many avenues of communication at our disposal today, and the beauty of many of them is that they’re two-way. They allow us to listen to what our audiences are saying and gather insights into what motivates them and speaks to them on a deeper level. Allow audiences to co-create When creating brand experiences, we can now use data and technology to design environments and make these story worlds more responsive. We’ve developed some platforms that allow consumers to control their own experience and offer real-time feedback that can shape the content of a program as it is happening. Given that most attendees have their phones in their hand at any given time, this provides a great opportunity to get them involved in coauthoring content at your event (and feeling the ownership of it). What better way to get them to feel emotionally invested in what your brand has to say. Keep storytelling at the center of the creative journey There was a time when advertising and marketing relied almost entirely on the power of emotional storytelling. In recent years, storytelling has given way to algorithms, metrics, and optimization. While there’s no doubt that those things are important, storytelling has always been the beating heart of this industry. Storytelling can be a powerful drug. A 2006 study by Spanish researchers looked into the effects of storytelling on the human brain. They found that, while statistics and facts have little to no effect on our emotions, descriptive stories have the potential to stimulate certain sensory regions of our brains, such as touch or smell. They can even generate activity in the motor cortex, the part of the brain that controls movement. Now more than ever, brands need stories that help stimulate audience emotions. After all, a customer who feels an emotional connection to a brand is 52 percent more valuable than one who is not emotionally connected. Few marketing channels have the capacity to incite emotion in quite the same way as brand experiences. While many can come close, a personalized brand experience is the best way to envelop an audience in the context of a story and really inspire them to feel something. At the end of the day, personalization is about transforming the idea of marketing from a form of mass communication to a form of conversation. We are asking people to give us their time and attention, and we should be giving them something in return. Personalization lets an attendee know that, not only are we listening to them but we are genuinely interested in their individual interests and needs. We care about making them feel comfortable, entertained, satisfied, and, most importantly, emotionally connected. That sort of attention goes a long way toward converting an attendee from a potential client into an existing one. This is the final installment in a three-part series in which Chris Cavanaugh, CMO of Freeman, discusses the event technology that is shaping the future of brand experiences. Catch up on Event Tech Trends Part 2 - How Live Streaming Can Change The Way Brands Engage With Audiences This concludes my series on event technology. As part of our effort to keep up with the rapid pace of change, Freeman will continue to monitor and curate the latest trends. ... Read More

The 105th Rotary International Convention was confirmed to be held in Australia for the first time since 2003. The event brief outlined the four day event schedule featuring two opening plenary sessions , 5 plenary sessions, 1 business session and 28 breakout sessions with the overarching brief to deliver an event that was intrinsically Australian. ...

Andrew MacColl, Director of Event Technology at SCGL, recently travelled to Las Vegas to attend InfoComm, the largest AV technology trade event in the world. He reveals the top technology trends from the tradeshow. 3D: The rise of the ‘interactive film phenomenon' meant 3D was the word on everyone's lips. With consumer interest driving the use of 3D in events, organisers are starting to include it to create personally tailored environments that heighten the audience's experience. But remember - content is king. LED technology: LED technology is already widely used but the latest versions have new benefits such as: 1. Improved colour rendering 2. Increased light source from a single fixture 3. Reduced power consumption - making them a better, ‘greener' technology all round. Next Generation Control Systems: Control systems allow for the best in communication technology- an essential component of ensuring smooth running of any event. Control systems have evolved, bringing new benefits including: 1. Increased sophistication through completely digitised systems 2. Saving time onsite with new software and hardware 3. Ensuring smooth event delivery with the convergence of IT and AV Event technology was once influenced by the broadcast, theatre and rock n roll industries. Now, increased consumer exposure to different technologies has resulted in a more educated and confident event buyer who has sophisticated knowledge and expectations of what is possible. ... Read More

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