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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Encore Event Technologies (previously Staging Connections) was tasked with the unique job of creating a flawless and welcoming atmosphere for Basma and Mohammad’s opulent and unforgettable wedding reception for 201 special guests at the Langham Auckland. The spectacularly beautiful reception, would be complemented and enhanced by the pink and purple décor via creative use of ...

In our latest blog Senior Event Stylist, Georgia Strachan, shares her secrets to creating a 'Mad Hatters Tea Party' themed event and discusses how she brought the event alive with digital styling. In our latest blog Senior Event Stylist, Georgia Strachan, shares her secrets to creating a 'Mad Hatters Tea Party' themed event and discusses how she brought the event alive with digital styling. Georgia brings to her role 20 years of experience in design for film, television and creative theme park attractions. Her varied professional background provides a fresh take on conceiving unique event experiences for clients. Georgia injects a fresh and innovative flair for event concepts both locally, nationally and globally. In order to set the scene for my clients Mad Hatter themed dinner party I collaborated with our technical services team to bring together creative styling with audio, vision and lighting technology. Through digital styling we created exciting integrated visual content that transported guests “down the rabbit hole” from the minute they stepped inside the room through a rear projected entry portal. From there the guests enjoyed pre-dinner ‘teapot cocktails’ at the custom made Astroturf hedge bar and played highly contested games of croquet on a purpose built mini Astroturf croquet course. We also covered plinths and cubes with Astroturf to make quirky cocktail furniture and decorated this area with topiary trees and hundreds of red and white artificial roses in Victorian urns. The lighting was very bold and directional to add to the surreal, artificial nature of this concept. For the main dining experience we built a ‘room within a room’ using floor to ceiling rear projection screens to give our guests the impression that they were really in another world. With full control over the environment we had the ability to transform the entire space throughout the evening as each course arrived at the table. We also wanted to change the proportion and perspective of the room at various times making the guests feel small one minute and giant the next and we achieved this by altering the content. It was a very dramatic effect and kept the guests guessing all night. All of our 35 guests were seated at one huge table and I wanted each place setting to have its own sense of style and character so we used a selection of beautiful antique timber chairs, leather wing backed armchairs and upholstered love seats sourced from all over the venue. For the table decor I used piles of old books and stacked them with collections of clocks, feathers and flowers and table cloths were layered with colours and textures to suggest the Mad Hatters workshop. Chef created spectacular cupcakes which we placed on lovely tiered cake stands to become edible centre pieces and we used dozens of vintage porcelain teacups as votive holders to bathe the table with flickering light. Check out the pictures below and let me know what you're ideas are for the ultimate Mad Hatter's Tea Party! Author: Georgia Strachan, Senior Event Stylist, Staging Connections. Image Credits: Unless stated otherwise, all images are owned by us ... Read More

When you’re preparing an audio visual budget for your event, there’s a lot more to think about than simply how much money to allocate for theming, lights, sound and vision. To ensure you’re getting the most value for money from your event’s AV design, a solid knowledge of the capabilities of both technology and your audio visual company are essential. Here we give you our top 8 audio visual tips for creating a successful event. 1. Look for creativity in your audio visual supplier When shopping for an audio visual provider, you traditionally seek service, price and reliability. All are good measures of a quality audio visual company, but to truly do justice to your event, creativity needs to be a central part of their product offering. Advances in projection and event lighting technology mean that the old business model of simply hiring out and operating gear for a client is no longer an adequate level of service. The main driver of this conceptual shift in the market has been technologies such as projection mapping. Projection mapping is the art of creating multimedia content for projection onto flat surfaces (2D projection mapping) or objects (3D projection mapping) and then using advanced computer and projector technology to bring that imagery to life. It has transformed major events, conferences and theatrical presentations the world over. While the technology is now common place, the creative talent to successfully use it is not. To really ensure peace of mind when selecting an audio visual provider, ask about their history in presenting similar events and their history at the chosen venue. Look at some examples of their work closest in scope to your event. If they have documentation of their work at your chosen venue, even better! 2. Set your event vision and share it Having a clear vision of the aesthetic feel and tone of the event is crucial at this stage of pre-production. Storyboard your event like a movie director, discuss themes and images with your key staff and audio visual team. Don’t get fixated on what you have seen done before or know to be possible; a good audio visual company should be able to take on board any creative idea you have and translate it into a practical suggestion. 3. Remember the importance of sound for your event The event sound system employed to deliver it should match the content. Important things to look for are adequate coverage of the room to ensure all attendees get crystal-clear speech as well as the full impact of any musical material. If you are employing high-energy music or cinematic sound effects ensure the system can replicate the full range of sound. A minimum of two subwoofers need to be in place to maximise the impact of any low-end effects or bass lines. Have a look at our blog post on how to get the best sound at your event for more in-depth understanding of the importance of sound. 4. Think digital Discuss with your Audio visual company about methods to digitally enhance your event. Can they digitally brand your conference with projections and then successfully transform the same space for a gala dinner? Entire ballrooms can be changed into another world, and the walls of an auditorium can ripple at the arrival of a new product. A custom built set design can be transformed into a living, breathing animal. Pretty much anything is possible, and an in-depth conversation with a design professional is invaluable to help direct your thinking in the planning stages. Understand what design and creative support the audio visual company offer and whether the in-house designers have the skills to shepherd you through the concept creation, implementation and delivery of just about anything your imagination can conjure. Creating a multimedia driven event from the ground-up can seem to be a longer process than the traditional method of simply stating a theme and letting the staging company deliver, but the results represent a much better return on investment. Elements of digital branding or presentation content can not only be used at one specific event, but also transported to similar events or venues at no further cost. The same media can also be repackaged as web content where appropriate 5. Get Mobile Almost everyone now carries a video displaying, networked computer a.k.a. ‘Smartphone’ in their pocket. This makes them capable of not only absorbing your content but also interacting with it. An audio visual company should have a lot of fresh ideas on how to make this work for your event, extending your theme and offering greater engagement with your audience. A key technology for presenters are apps to enable snap event polling of audience members and instantly display aggregated results on a main screen. For attendees, important information such as timetables, maps and key messages should be easily accessible from an app or network. 6. Ask your audio visual team the right questions Questions about the technical details are excellent for getting a sense of competence and good organisation. Is the PA suitable for speech reinforcement only or can it deliver loud, exciting music if you need it? What combination and numbers of lighting fixtures do they usually use – LED, moving lights, wash lights? Again, it’s not necessarily the specific information that you need, but the assurance of their confidence in answering. If you’re satisfied with that, then ask them what they recommend, or better yet, what they have always wanted to do given the opportunity. You’ll soon establish whether you’re in good hands. 7. Achieving cut through At Encore Event Technologies we realise that you have a unique opportunity to create an event specific to your audience. It’s worth your time to work together with a creative audio visual company to bring an original vision to life that makes a strong statement about your organisation. Your customers are already enjoying new types of audience engagement in both their professional and personal lives, either driven by large corporate organisations or the entertainment industry. The increase in quality of experience means all content providers have to compete to cut through. Watch this two minute video of an audio visual set up by the Encore Event Technologies team featuring Australia's first 360 degree projection screen, custom designed for the event and venue space to create something guests had never experienced before. 8. More than numbers Your audio visual budget now has the potential to deliver results way beyond the date of the event itself. All of your customers, employees and/or delegates are broadcasters, sharing their impressions, images and videos across their networks. Devoting time and creativity at the outset of your event planning can now pay off almost in perpetuity. Get to the heart of your message, envision the best possible shape it could take, and invest in bringing it to life in the most effective way. Written by Robert Meek, Event Project Manager With over 20 years’ experience in the meetings and events industry Rob has a wealth of corporate audio visual event experience that he brings to the delivery of the diverse range of corporate and association events he has managed. Related Blogs 5 top event tips for 2014 What benefit does vision fold back provide in your audio visual solution? Optimise your event communication with event design and technical production ... Read More