An event planning app for Annual General Meetings (AGMs). There is a lot that goes into the planning and execution of an Annual General Meeting. To help make it easier for event planners to communicate with attendees, we’ve created Event Briefcase, our event planning app. With Event Briefcase, event planners and organisers are able to upload information such as maps, venue locations, event schedules and so much more so that guests of the AGM are able to access relevant information from their smart phone or mobile device. With Event Briefcase, you can easily communicate with all of the attendees of your event simultaneously. When planning an annual general meeting, our event planning application is a must-have tool. Here are 10 ways that our event app can help you with the panning and management of your Annual General Meeting: 1. Schedule & Agenda Feature: Agenda Once you have confirmed the schedule and agenda for the annual general meeting you are organising, Event Briefcase allows you to upload the schedule so that the attendees of the meeting are able to view it ahead of the meeting. This is a great way to help the attendees of the AGM stay organized and on schedule which will add to the flawlessness of the event you have planned. 2. Upload venue information Feature: Facility Overview Venue Overview: Our event planning app allows you to share with your guests an overview of the venue where the general meeting will be held. If you are hosting the meeting at a large conference centre, for example, you can let your attendees know which conference room the meeting will be held in. You can also upload a map of the venue so that the conference room, where the meeting is held, will be easy to find. 3. Getting to and from the AGM Feature: Transit With Event Briefcase, you can make it easy for attendees to find the venue where the general meeting is taking place by including a map to the venue. If there are any out of town guests who will be attending the general meeting, it is also easy to include shuttle and transportation information to and from the venue where the meeting will be held. 4. Upload important information on speakers, Board Members and New Appointments Feature: Speaker Information With our event planning app, you can share the bio of the board members who are attending the annual general meeting. It is also a good idea to include profiles on any speakers that are scheduled for the meeting and to include bios on recent additions and appointments to the board. 5. Distribute important company and shareholder documents Feature: Downloads Our event planning application makes sharing information and reports with your attendees extremely simple. You can upload annual reports, motions, previous minutes, yearly figures and so much more so that the meeting’s attendees can access the information from their smart phone or portable device. This is a great way to help guests stay organized while providing them with all of the necessary information they will need throughout the meeting. 6. Provide Proxy Voting Information Feature: Links With our event planning app, you can share relevant proxy voting information with the attendees of your annual general meeting. 7. Keep your attendees up-to-date Feature: Bulletins Event Briefcase makes it easy to share pertinent information and news updates about your annual general meeting. Once you upload a news bulletin, your attendees will be able to access and read that information from their mobile device. 8. Live Audience Polling Feature: Links A new method of shareholder voting is facilitated by our live audience polling platform, Event Poll. You can include a link to your AGMs Event Poll and have your attendees respond to questions and cast their votes in the room. This method of anonymous voting is currently only legal in New Zealand so please speak to your Staging Connections representative to see if it's right for your AGM. 9. Venue Promotional Information Feature: Downloads / Links Depending upon where the annual general meeting is being held, your venue might have promotional information for you to share with your audience. Our event planning app allows you to easily share in venue promotional material with those in attendance of your annual general meeting. 10. Showcase important company video content Feature: Video Event Briefcase also comes with the ability to share rich and engaging content such as videos with your guests. With our event planning app, you can include videos about the company that is holding the annual general meeting, a company show reel, a video that pays tribute to all that happened the previous year and so much more. Watch this short video on Event Briefcase to find out more about our free corporate event app Event Briefcase by Staging Connections - a free corporate event app. When you enlist Staging Connections’ AV services for your Annual General Meeting or shareholders meeting, Our corporate event app, Event Briefcase, is included at no extra charge. Additionally, Staging Connections can offer you 30 years of experience when it comes to event planning. We can put our experience to work for you and our professional event production team can help you plan and execute a stand-out AGM. To find out how Event Briefcase can enhance your event, speak with one of our Staging Connections representatives today by calling 1800 209 099 or by sending an online enquiry. ... Read More

A free event app - the new way to plan and manage an Incentive event from the palm of your hand. To help you ensure that the incentive event that you are planning is a delight to all those who in attendance, we’ve created Event Briefcase, our event planning application that opens up new and exciting ways for you to engage with your event attendees. If you are planning a destination conference or awards night as a way of saying “thank-you” to an organisation hardest working team members, Event Briefcase is an absolute must-have to ensure a successful and exciting event. What are Incentive events? Many companies and organizations seek to incentivise success among their team members and employees by offering fun destination conferences or awards nights. These events are typically meant as a big thank-you to an organisation’s highest performing employees and is a heartfelt event meant to convey appreciation. With this in mind, as the event planner for an incentive event, it is important to plan an event that is an absolute treat for the attendees of the event. Here are 10 ways that our free event planning app, Event Briefcase, can help you manage an incredible incentive event: 1. A Schedule of Events Feature: Agenda / Download Documents Incentive events by nature are action-packed. They usually comprise a combination of both conference / educational workshops interlaced with leisure and recreational events. At the end, guests are treated to a spectacular gala dinner where high performing staff are awarded. With such a full schedule and so many people to organise, uploading your event's agenda or schedule to Event Briefcase is the easiest and most efficient way to ensure everyone is where they are meant to be at all times. 2. Information on Speakers & Presenters Feature: Speaker Information There will likely be a number of key people who are on-hand at your event to give speeches or seminars, as well as presenters, entertainers and company C-level executives. With our event app, you can upload bios and introductions to all of the key people who will be speaking and performing at your event. This is a great way to get your guests excited about the presentations, and find out more about these key people. 3. Important Venue and Destination Information Feature: Facility Overview / Download Documents / Links Event Briefcase offers a multitude of features to provide your attendees with essential and interesting information on your venues and the destination itself, in the case of a destination incentive. Over the course of the incentive event there is likely to be several seminars, workshop events, gala dinners, networking lunches and team building activities taking place in various locations. Uploading information about the location and venue will arm your attendees with all the information they need to help them find their way and be on time. This is a great way to minimise potential questions about where the venue is, what time to arrive and what people can do there. With Event Briefcase, you can make it easy for your event’s attendees to navigate all of these venues. If your event includes shuttle or transport service to and from the various venues, you can also share this information via our app under the Transport feature. 4. Facilitate Networking Feature: Attendees Corporate events have the delightful by-product of providing attendees with a plethora of networking opportunities. With our application, you can put networking right at your guests’ fingertips by uploading a list of attendees and their e-mail addresses. With Event Briefcase, your guests can tap a person’s e-mail address and our app will open up their device’s e-mail client so they can type out their message. 5. Go paperless for important event documents Feature: Links / Download Documents At most events there are countless handouts and leaflets given to each attendee. While these papers hold important information, it can be difficult to stay organized and keep track of these important documents. With Event Briefcase, you can upload all of the important documents that are relevant to your event’s attendees. You can include destination information, emergency contacts, emergency telephone numbers, team building exercise information and so much more. 6. Highlight Event Sponsors or partners Feature: Sponsors Our event planning application allows you a unique way to say thank-you to your event sponsors by highlighting their brand in a special sponsorship area of the application. In the sponsor area, you can share hyperlinks to your sponsors’ content and information on their brand. 7. Live Event Polling Feature: Links With our event app, you can include a link to our live audience polling platform - Event Poll. Event Poll is a fun and engaging way to interact with your attendees by asking them questions, seeing their answers displayed on screens and discussing the results. There are over 11 types of question templates you can use giving you a wide range of questions to ask. With Event Poll, you can conduct fun surveys, organize exciting competitions, manage Q&A sessions, brainstorm ideas, test understanding and much more. 8. Keep Guests Up-to-Date Feature: Bulletins With our event planning application, it is easy to keep your attendees up-to-date with any changes, news or other information they need to know. Providing news updates and bulletins is as simple as uploading relevant news. With our app you are able to share content with your event’s attendees all at once, making it the most convenient way to manage changes and updates. 9. Engage With Videos Feature: Videos Videos are a great way to share content and engage your audience. Our event planning application is capable of displaying and playing videos. If you have any video content to share with the attendees of your event, such as a welcome message or introductory information, our application makes it extremely easy and seamless. 10. In Venue Promotion Feature: Download Documents / Links / Sponsors For destination events, it is likely that the venue you choose will offer promotional deals such as tourism offers, meal deals, spa packages, jet ski hire deals and much more. With Event Briefcase, you can pass these deals along to the attendees of your destination event. Watch this short video on Event Briefcase to find out more about our free corporate event app Event Briefcase by Staging Connections - a free corporate event app. These are just a few of the ways our free corporate event app, Event Briefcase, can help you plan and pull off a seamless and flawless incentive event. When you choose Staging Connections for all of your event’s AV needs, our application is included free of charge. In addition to our event planning app, we are able to offer you event planning and event production services backed by more than 30 years of experience. To find out how Event Briefcase can enhance your event, speak with one of our Staging Connections representatives today by calling 1800 209 099 or by sending an online enquiry. -- ... Read More

Awards night and gala dinners aren't typically the types of events that need an event app. However, when you think about the purpose of an event app, helping you share information about your event with attendees instantly and conveniently, you can see how one could make your life and the event planning and management process much easier. That's why we've launched Event Briefcase - an easy-to-use, easy-to-navigate event app which puts all event information at your attendees’ fingertips such as the agenda, sponsorship information, location information and so much more. Our app is a must-have feature for any gala dinner or awards night and all of our AV service clients can use our app for their event at no charge when they use Staging Connections exclusively for their AV services. Here are 10 ways Event Briefcase will make your gala dinner or awards night experience even better. 1. Upload the seating charts and floor plans Feature: Download Documents With our free event app, you can upload the floor plan and seating chart for your gala dinner or awards night so that your guests know where they will be seated ahead of the event and who they will be seated with. As your guests arrive, you’ll be able to get them seated quickly and you’ll be able to get your event started on schedule. 2. Upload your gala dinner or awards night agenda Feature: Agenda Upload the agenda or schedule for your awards night or gala dinner so all your guests know the plan for the evening. For awards nights, this piece of information is helpful in making sure they don't miss the award presentations or speakers they're most looking forward to. Aside from communicating the schedule for the evening, it is also a great way of saving on printing costs, and it also gives you the luxury to update and change it if needed! If you do end up changing it, you can take advantage of the Bulletin feature and blast out a message to all attendees there has been a change to the schedule. 3. Save printing costs by uploading award categories, finalist lists, judging guidelines and more Feature: Downloads With every event, there are leaflets and other handouts that cost a lot of money to produce, are wasteful and hard on the environment and usually get lost or discarded by the attendees of your event. With our event planning app, you can share any important information that you’d usually share via hardcopy handout. For your gala dinner or awards night, you might think to include a list of nominees and finalists, information about each category of awards, how the winner of each award will be chosen, a list of silent auction items and anything else you might think pertinent to your event. 4. Include important information on your MC, presenters, and performers Feature: Speaker Information Using our event app is a good way to share with your attendees the key figures of your event. You can let your guests know who will be MC at your gala dinner or award show. You can also let your guests know who will be on hand to deliver speeches and present awards. This is a great way to share bios and introduce the key people of your event. 5. Showcase your sponsors and partnership information Feature: Sponsors Our event planning app offers a multidimensional way of highlighting your event sponsors and partners. You can share information about your sponsors and partners by creating a dedicated recognition area. Our app also allows you to share rich text content and include sponsorship messaging and internet hyperlinks that take you to your sponsor’s website or content. With Event Briefcase, there are many different sponsorship levels available for you to highlight your event sponsors and the partners of your gala dinner and awards night. 6. Links to silent auctions, brand information and other Useful Information Feature: Links With Event Briefcase, you can include external links to rich content that will be useful and interesting to your event’s attendees. If you have prizes or are running a silent auction, you can include external links to information about what products are up for grabs. You can also include links to promotional videos and the like. 7. Upload information on your charity, company or awards Feature: Links / Videos / Downloads Depending on the type of content you have there are several features in Event Briefcase which can let you distribute information about your brand, charity, awards and more. If your gala dinner is in support of a charity, our event planning app allows you to share links to the charity’s page as well as links to videos about the charity that your event is supporting. It also allows you to upload any relevant video content such as season highlight reels, company showreels, tributes or charity awareness videos. 8. Keep your audience engaged with live polling Feature: Links With Event Briefcase, you can engage your audience and add an additional element of fun to your gala dinner and awards night by including a link to Event Poll - Staging Connections exclusive live audience polling platform. For your awards night, you can ask your guests to predict who will be the evening’s big winners. For a gala dinner, you could include a poll on who is best dressed, or other fun questions to keep the guests entertained and engaged. Event Poll is an excellent chance to garner attendee engagement. 9. Get your audience posting on social media Feature: Links Awards nights and gala dinners are gold mine for social media buzz. Staging Connections offers a specialised event social media platform - Event Feed - that captures all social posts containing the event's hashtag and displays them live on screens around the venue for all guests to see. Event Feed is a great way to encourage your guests to get posting, and your brand or event can capitalise on the added exposure the social channels bring. If your awards night or gala dinner is private, Event Feed also offers a private feed. You can include the link to your private Event Feed in the Links feature so only posts and content uploaded to that feed will display, rather than the guests posting to their own social channels. The benefit of a private feed is you can still encourage audience engagement whilst containing the content to within the venue walls. 10. Promote venue deals and offers Feature: Links / Downloads With Event Briefcase you are able to highlight any venue promotions that go along with your gala dinner or awards night, such as an accommodation discount for your next stay and so on. It's also a great way to strengthen your relationship with the venue by providing them with promotional opportunities with your audience. Watch this short video on Event Briefcase to find out more about our free corporate event app Event Briefcase by Staging Connections - a free corporate event app. Our free event app, Event Briefcase, is just one of the ways that Staging Connections can help you plan and flawlessly execute a truly spectacular gala dinner or awards night. With over 30 years experience planning events, we've got everything covered from the latest audio vision, lighting effects, stage set designs and multimedia right down to audience engagement with social media services and live polling. In addition to our AV Services we can provide you with a professional event production team that will help you plan and execute a gala dinner and awards night that will leave your guests breathless. To find out how Event Briefcase can enhance your event, speak with one of our Staging Connections representatives today by calling 1800 209 099 or by sending an online enquiry. -- ... Read More

Working collaboratively with cievents, a valued long-term client of Staging Connections, the team delivered the visual and creative design for the dazzling Welcome Event for the 2016 Australian Tourism Exchange at the Gold Coast Event Centre on Monday 16 May 2016. As Australia’s largest annual travel and tourism business-to-business event, ATE brought together Australian tourism businesses in a forum to promote their products directly to tourism wholesalers and retailers from around the world. Using AV, multimedia and styling to bring to life the Australiana event theme To create the memorable Welcome Event theme, which brought to life Australia’s aquatic and coastal experiences, the focus of the latest global campaign by Tourism Australia, Staging Connections provided audio visual, multimedia content and styling. Creative lighting was used throughout the venue, in conjunction with fleur panelling on the ceiling, to further transform the space with a wave design that immersed guests in the underwater theme. A vibrant beach atmosphere was designed featuring lots of sand as well as a DJ hut, LED screen and beach furniture, in collaboration with other service providers such as Coastal Productions who custom built the food stations and ELS. Guests were greeted by Tourism Australia chief executive, John O’Sullivan and the Minister for Trade and Investment The Hon. Steven Ciobo as well as the main ambassador, much to the delight of attendees, Chris Hemsworth. Short speeches were followed by live music as well as time for networking and for guests to enjoy delicious Queensland cuisine. Staging Connections’ Technical Director worked with cievents producers to coordinate the event and manage the camera direction for mobile cameramen, including live interviews with celebrity chef Luke Mangan. The interview vision and nautical backdrop vision of sea and sun was distributed throughout the evening to 12 LCD monitors across the venue, as well as LED entry screens, the beach area LED truck and the main stage 40m x 10m blend screen which was powered by two 18k projectors. Significant rigging was required to create two rectangular truss grids of 20m x 10m for lighting and to support the creative fleur panels for the wave design. Additional trussing was rigged throughout the ceiling to support 80 lighting fixtures and a combination of FX, LED floods and statics. The immersive theme showcased Australia’s aquatic and coastal experiences in the creative design, multimedia and styling of the event. Innovative audio visual and quality sound ensured the key objective of enabling all guests to network was achieved, and the event was deemed a memorable success. South East Queensland Sales Manager for Staging Connections, Susan Hamilton, was proud to have helped deliver such a high-profile industry event. “This was a great opportunity for our team to showcase our range of world-class event services. After months of preparation, we were thrilled with how it all came together on the night, a truly fantastic result for the team and for the Australian Tourism Exchange." Partner with the leading AV team for your next corporate event Our South East Queensland team is proudly led by Karsten Richert and comprises some of the most talented design and styling professionals in the industry, offering event production and management services across 13 key venues. If you're looking to host your next corporate event in Brisbane, the Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast, then we're the experienced events team you can rely on. We proudly offer Australia's largest range of event services across audio, lighting, staging, vision and extending to styling, multimedia and digital event solutions like webcasting, live polling and event social media. Get in touch with us today or call 1800 209 099 to speak with one of our event experts. ... Read More

For the latest in styling and theming of events, one can’t go past the use of clever lighting and design to create a sophisticated and engaging environment, perfect for celebrating the VIPs of a brand. Staging Connections teamed up with Rush Events to create a glamorous and immersive event for the Mercedes Benz Dealer of the Year Awards (2015). Held at the gorgeous Palladium at Crown, the spectacular event had everything; from acrobats, to an 18 piece big band, to a car reveal that was shown through a smoky haze and to top it all off, an incredible wave wall made by joining individual panels. The wave wall featured projections by powered by a 6 projector blend, giving the audience a huge wall of vision of the brand’s logo, its colours and large background images of a glistening city skyline. It was a real talking point for attendees and showcased how smart multimedia content and clever projections can enrich events. The city skyline was seamlessly projected across the wave wall onto the LED stage backdrop, positioned behind the big band. For a gala dinner to truly celebrate the attendees – who are the real stars of the event, the room was designed to fully immersive the guests in the brand, which was all achieved through effectively implementing exciting lighting sequences. The Staging Connections styling team brought in all the furniture to fit with the theme of a ‘city skyline’, and decorated the tables with smart, shimmery features to complement the clients’ own centrepieces. The lighting team then went to work using LEDs, spotlights and room hazers to create an exciting atmosphere that layered the brand’s colours of silver, black, white and blue over the entire event space. The custom designed bar with hanging crystal chandeliers was a focal point for the evening. The 700 guests were taken on a journey from the moment they entered, starting in a pre-dinner drinks area where they were greeted by a live trio, two aerialists and podium dancers around a custom-made bar. They were then escorted to the main room for the awards ceremony via a butterfly drape which dramatically revealed the main room, accompanied by a theatrical music segment. This welcome sequence built hype and excitement for the main event, whilst allowing the brand to showcase new vehicles in the pre-dinner area. AV elements used to showcase and reveal Mercedes Benz vehicles. Bottom Right: Clean and sophisticated styling elements were used for the table centerpieces. Bringing together a beautiful event like this was no small feat - Staging Connections played an integral role, from pre-production planning right through to the night, for which they ‘called the show’ as well as providing the lighting and audio control and management. Creation of all on screen multimedia content and backgrounds, along with furniture selection and styling were done by the Staging Connections team, completing the full service that was provided. This event showcased how clever lighting and design can create a smart and engaging environment, perfect for celebrating individuals and teams at gala awards. Get all the event services for your awards night Staging Connections has been the name behind some of the largest and most technically demanding live events to hit Australian soil. Having been in the events business for over 30 years, our experienced team of technicians and event directors understand what it takes to deliver unforgettable awards nights and gala dinners. We only use brands we trust; we take a tailored approach to every brief using everything from the latest in AV, lighting and staging through to event styling and engaging digital media; and we work with you every step of the way so there’s no surprises. If you’re interested in finding out what Staging Connections can do for your event, get in touch with us today by calling 1800 209 099 or by completing our event quote form. ... Read More

Staging Connections Perth were engaged by long time client of 17 years, Australian Hotels Association - WA (AHA WA), to deliver their annual NAB WA Hospitality Suppliers Awards and Toxfree gala Dinner for 350 guests. As with every year, the AHA WA look to design a memorable awards night and opted for "an elegant starry night" theme for this year's event. Stage design using Digital Banners and custom multimedia To bring this vision to life, Staging Connections used an array of audio visual, staging and styling solutions including a custom stage stage made from our range of Digital Banners with a circular cut-out in between. This unique design created the perfect stage set, which we projected custom designed awards categories and winner announcement videos onto. Whilst clean and simple in design, constructing the stage set in this way created real impact and became a talking point of the night. Designing the stage set using Digital Banners also gave Staging Connections' in-house multimedia team the chance to custom design a spectacular opening sequence which really set the tone for the event. Below is the video which was projection mapped across the array of Digital Banners. The Staging Connections styling team answered the brief with our range of elegant Eclipse centerpieces, on a black table cloth and paired with black chair covers. Styling the tables in this way complemented the room design and centered the focus to the unique stage design where the winners were being presented. “The AHA has worked with Staging Connections on countless events over the last 17 years. At every event we are blown away by their professionalism, dedication and creativity. The rooms always look spectacular and work synonymous with the audio visual aspect. We’d like to extend a huge thank you to the team at Staging Connections for all of their consistent hard work over the years.” Bradley Woods, CEO of AHA WA. Partner with Staging Connections for your event Staging Connections have been delivering spectacular awards nights and gala dinners for local and international companies for since 1986. When it comes to delivering an unforgettable event, we are the events team you can count on. With Asia Pacific's largest range of event services, we have the tools, ideas and people to turn ordinary events into extraordinary experiences. This means we are your one-stop-shop for all event production services from the audio visual, staging and lighting through to styling, multimedia and digital engagement tools. Our work speaks for itself so please view our Recent Events Portfolio to see what amazing experiences we're curating every day around the country. If you're interested in speaking with a Staging Connections representative about your event, give us a call on 1800 209 099 or by sending an online enquiry. ... Read More

Staging Connections delivered the Annual General Meeting (AGM) for Scentre Group in early May 2016, as Mr Frank Lowy (AC) performed his final duties as Chairman of the company that he began 57 years ago, in front of 250 attendees at Centennial Hall, Sydney Town Hall. Mr Lowy’s farewell received a standing ovation from the audience, as the Staging Connections lighting team doused the enormous event space in the Scentre Group’s brand colours. Media, shareholders and Scentre Group staff attended the formal AGM which featured audio visual and lighting services to professionally highlight and support the communication from board members on stage to the audience. A themed board table with individual visual displays for each of the 11 board members and a mega screen set above the stage ensured clear communication throughout proceedings. Communicating widely with shareholders across the world, the entire event was live webcast by Staging Connections and will be available for Scentre Group shareholders on demand for many months. Chris Lewis, Event Director, Staging Connections commented on the professionalism and technical expertise required by AGMs and other events of this magnitude. “It was an absolute pleasure to deliver this engaging production. AGMs require absolute technical know-how and there is no room for error, this is where Staging Connections’ experience in delivering these sorts of events comes into play. Our team delivered this AGM, highlighting a true hero of the corporate world in style and with the utmost professionalism. We are proud that this was another successful AGM delivered for the Scentre Group, and look forward to delivering many more,” said Mr Lewis. Partner with Staging Connections for your Annual General Meeting Staging Connections has been the name behind some of the largest Annual General Meetings held in Australia and New Zealand for over 30 years. With Australia's largest range of audio visual equipment and event services, you can trust Staging Connections to deliver a truly engaging event experience for your shareholders. Speak to a Staging Connections representative today to discuss your AGM needs by calling 1800 209 099 or by sending an online enquiry. Recommended: Visit our Event Insights page to download the latest whitepaper and discover 4 key elements every event planner should consider adopting if they want to maximise attendance at the Annual General Meeting, year after year. Join the AGM Revolution ... Read More

The use of webcasts has increased dramatically due to their cost-effectiveness and time-efficiency. However, event professionals need to consider tools to ensure they’re maximising the success of the webcast by keeping their online audience just as engaged as those in-room. Here are some tips on how to create webcasts that will keep attendees focused on learning, not on checking their e-mail. Because webcasts are relatively easy to produce, inexpensive to host, and bring geographically far-flung participants together with the click of a mouse, they have become ubiquitous in the world of corporate events. But when poorly designed and executed, they run the risk of failing at the very thing they are designed to achieve—increasing reach and audience size. A disembodied voice accompanying a deluge of uninteresting slides becomes an open invitation for participants to check e-mail, complete charts, read their Twitter feed, or surf the Web, while remaining somewhat tuned in to the content. To overcome the passivity that is inherent in a webcast format, it’s critical to design and plan for interactivity so that participants engage directly with the content you want them to absorb. Here are some best practices for keeping your webcast audience engaged.> 1. Present with your webcast audience in mind The long established way of delivering content at corporate events involves a speaker presenting on stage accompanied by slides. Event planners need to refresh this format to ensure both online and in-room audiences are catered for. Here are a few tips to update your presenting style: Address your webcast attendees throughout the event. It’s best practice for the MC to include the webcast audience when welcoming the event attendees. If there is an event hashtag to be communicated, ensure the webcast attendees are encouraged to join in as well. Lastly, throughout the event, ensure you continue to acknowledge your online audience. Eye contact is still important. Let your presenters know where the cameras are prior to the event and ask them to look into the cameras every now and then to mask the effect of eye-contact with online audiences. Keep your webcast audience on track Make sure your webcast attendees have access to the same documents as your in-room audience. Staging Connections’ webcast platform allows you to upload a variety of downloadable documents to ensure your webcast experience mirrors the in-room one for your event attendees. If you plan on referring to these documents throughout your presentation, give your webcast attendees ample notice so they have time to download and can use them when referred to. Similarly, if you reference information from a document, remind your presenter to clearly instruct the webcast attendees what document you’re referring to so everyone’s on the same page. 2. Get your audience talking Almost every conference, exhibition, awards night or gala dinner you attend these days are encouraging the use of social media. If event attendees are posting on social media regardless, your brand may as well jump on board and reap the benefits of the amplified exposure and user-generated content. As a web based channel, it is also the one element of your event in which both in-room and webcast audiences will have the same experience with. Hence, encourage social conversation so your webcast audience can feel just as involved and contribute to the event. Staging Connections’ webcast platform allows event professionals to embed a live social media window into their webcast skin, displaying a constant feed of social posts surrounding the event’s hashtag. Typically, social events such as gala dinners, charity nights or awards night which are webcast live have a better uptake of the social media feature. This also holds true for the Chat feature. If social media isn’t the right dialogue for your event demographic, the alternate solution is a Chat feature which can be also be embedded into the Staging Connections webcast skin with the added benefit of moderation. Naturally, the chat feature is only available to your live webcast audience, but it’s a useful tool for encouraging discussion, whilst also providing them with an exclusive experience. A novel way to engage your webcast attendees is to use the Chat feature for competitions and quizzes with the first correct answer as the winner. 3. Interactivity via live audience polling A clever tactic for keeping your audience engaged throughout your event is by asking them questions. Polling your audience has a myriad of uses and benefits rendering it a universal audience engagement tactic no matter the style of your event. The questions can be used as ice-breakers, for knowledge testing at the end of a session or even for voting on Best Dressed at gala dinners. Event Poll is a live audience polling platform exclusively offered by Staging Connections which can be embedded into your presentation slides as well as Staging Connections’ webcast platform. It allows both your in-room and webcast audience to respond to questions in real-time using their mobile device or desktop with the answers displayed instantly on screen. We’ve previously explained 25 reasons why event professionals love Event Poll so to ensure you’re also getting the most out it, here’s some helpful tips: Introduce Event Poll at the beginning of your event and be sure to include your webcast audience and explain how it works and how they access it. An effective way to check all attendees, both in-room and webcast, can use Event Poll is to ask a simple ice-breaker question such as ‘Where have you come from today?’. Ensure you alternate taking questions between the physical and webcast audience. Do not ignore the online audience! Doing so will alienate them. This is where using the embedded live audience polling platform, Event Poll, comes in handy as all questions are displayed in the one location, regardless of the askers location. Allow time to discuss the results of each poll and any follow up questions that may result, time permitting of course. 4. Best Practices for Slides for webcasting Event professionals should consider the design of their presentation slides to ensure it caters for webcast audiences. Staging Connections’ webcast platform gives you the option of housing only the live recording within the webcast skin, or both the live recording and synchronised presentation slides side-by-side. If you have opted for the former, than the below points provide a helpful guide for designing slides that work for webcasting. Review slides for readability - Regardless of whether you prefer to use PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides, or Prezi, you’ll want to make sure that your presentation slides are easily readable. For maximum readability, contrast is the key. We recommend sticking to either to black text on a light background. Use images that illustrate your point in a dramatic, memorable way (graphs, pictures, drawings, etc.) Don't rely on too much text, and whatever you do, don’t read slides aloud word for word. Use a maximum of three or four bullet points per slide. Use your pointer to highlight key points on the slide. Why event professionals choose Staging Connections for webcasting By planning ahead and implementing a variety of engagement tactics tailored for webcast audiences, you’ll maximise the effectiveness of your event. Staging Connections offers Australia’s most customisable webcasting platform that can be custom designed to look like an extension of your brand. On top of its flexible design, many event professionals choose Staging Connections for webcasting due to the variety of embedded features available which have been included purely for the purpose of enhancing the experience for webcast attendees. When webcasting your next event, ensure you consider incorporating downloadable documents, social media, online chat and live audience polling into your presentation to maximise engagement. Interested in webcasting your next event or taking your event webcast to the next level? Our team of event experts have the ideas to take your event where it needs to go. Speak to a Staging Connections representative today by calling 1800 209 099 or send an online enquiry. This article was written by General Manager of Digital, Tim Chapman. ... Read More

We delivered an exciting fire and ice theme to the delight of 700 guests at the Greencross Limited Annual Awards Dinner at the National Convention Centre, Canberra in late 2015. The Exhibition Hall was radically transformed from a breakfast/lunch space into the impressive fire and ice theme for guests of Australasia’s largest integrated pet care company, to network with company VIPs, connect with suppliers and celebrate the outstanding achievements of the company. Theresa Chiller, Projects Coordinator, The Pet Foundation Administrator at Greencross Limited was thrilled with the technically superior result that Staging Connections produced. “Our guests had a fabulous time. We wanted to create an atmosphere fit for the occasion and Staging Connections combination of set design, lighting, audio and special effects certainly came together to give an ultimate wow factor for our audience. “As two different conferences were merged into this one event, our guests had extra high expectations of what this gala event would deliver. When the doors opened we were already convinced that we’d exceeded expectations – guests stood at the doors, too busy taking photos of the amazing visual feast within, to even walk inside!” said Ms Chiller. Felicity Webb, Event Stylist, Staging Connections created the dramatic fire and ice theme using a combination of styling, design and audio visual elements to truly transform the Exhibition Hall. “Our aim was to design an environment that immersed the guests in a true experience, engaging all their senses and giving them the opportunity to celebrate in a memorable atmosphere. “We designed a large digital backdrop using our modular panels that created a 9.5m x 5.5m screen which we mapped using a high performance Christie 18k projector, on to which we projected vibrant animated content of fire and ice. This really brought the Exhibition Hall to life and created a central focus for all other styling elements to be crafted around. “Over 30 assorted moving head lights and 40 extremely bright quad coloured LEDs were used to achieve the dramatic distinction between the opposing forces of fire and ice. In true celebratory style, projections of colourful fireworks played as award winners were announced and then when it was time to party, projections of disco balls inspired everyone to get out on the dance floor,” said Ms Webb. Three different centrepieces were used to enhance the visually stunning theme including tall white willow branches surrounded by acrylic ice; mirrored mosaic vessels clustered at different levels with accompanying ice, snowflakes and tea lights; and beaten nickel bowls glowed from the interior orange LED pillar candles placed inside. With the objective of delivering a big celebration, dramatic audio was paramount to the events resounding success. Twelve Meyer line array elements were complimented by four 700HP subwoofers all controlled by the Meyer Galileo processing and Yamaha M7 mixing desk. White table linens created a clean canvas for the dramatic lighting effects and visuals around the hall and a custom Perspex lectern was internally lit to draw the crowd’s attention. We offer Australia's largest range of event services across audio vision, lighting, staging, styling and digital services. When you partner with Staging Connections you're partnering with the best AV technicians and event professionals in the market. Send us an enquiry or call 1800 209 099 to speak to an event specialist. ... Read More