Creating the Main Stage
Planning an event requires focusing on several areas such as theme, venue, vendor bookings, presenters, exhibitor selection, sponsorship, attendee registration, and much more. A key recommendation on this front would be selecting your audiovisual vendor early on in the process. Designing your event with your AV partner can provide opportunities to add flair, enhance attendee experiences, market for event organizers and key sponsors, and create memorable moments that reflect the event.
The following series of posts will explore ways in which the relationship between the audiovisual provider and the meeting organizer can be leveraged, to increase the benefits for the audience via the use of a shared skillset and event design best practices.
Presentation Area Design
For events that have a central presentation area, an event design that has input from both the meeting organizer and the AV partner can result in a better-planned and executed event. This would contrast with the audiovisual team coming in later, and working within the bounds of an existing stage design and not optimizing its use due to various limitations. The meeting organizer may not realize the various options the AV partner can provide, to improve the layout of the space from the initial planning stage.
Stage Design
The use of innovative staging elements such as multi-level risers, backdrops, scenic elements, custom furniture, and graphic displays (either as printed banners or on video walls) can help create an immersive and eye-catching presentation area.
Presentation Support
The key element of any presentation area is that the audience is able to clearly see and hear the content being presented. The AV partner can work with the room layout to ensure that every audience member is presented to, through the use of well-placed audiovisual equipment such as speakers, screens, delay monitors, and other items such as captioning devices, assistive listening support, and translation broadcast.
Branding
An event’s branding, either representative of the event itself or of the organization putting it on, should be prominent. The AV partner can enhance this prominence by using displays that promote the branding (with elements such as printed or digital lectern signage), as well as rigged and on-stage signage. They can also help with the design of custom video loops that promote this branding.
Audio Design
In addition to the stage design, the AV partner can create an immersive experience for the attendees with well-crafted audio design, through the placement of speakers to provide intelligible speech, as well as by using thematic soundtracks and pleasing sound bites that draw in the crowd.
Lighting
As part of the stage design and to immerse the audience, the AV partner can provide lighting elements that can enhance the presenter as well as be eye-catching. The use of moving lights, pixel tubes, uplights and LED fixtures, can work in collaboration with LED walls and video loops to enhance branding, highlight a session change, showcase a sponsor, and much more.
Depending on the scale of the event, the presentation area can be transformed to be a well-themed and memorable part of the conference. The next few posts will focus on other portions of the conference and how they can be enhanced through the partnership between AV vendors and meeting planners.
