Every once in a while you hear a bit of wisdom that kind of sticks with you forever. I was fortunate enough to come across one of those that wound up having a significant impact on how I view the production of large meetings to this day.  I was working at an outdoor summer stock theater, a big place with seating for over 12,000, discussing the best way to move scenery for the audience’s vision.  We had gotten it down to a couple of options when the Artistic Director said with a smile, “Either one works, for 90% of the audience it’s a radio show anyway!” It was a throwaway line, but I was immediately struck by the profound truth of it.  This was the first time I really considered how important it is in a large group setting to establish a ‘real’ connection with the audience’s senses as a way to open the door to their imagination.  Ultimately, this leads to a door of emotional intimacy and meaningful communication.

In almost any theatre, when you are hundreds of feet away from the stage, it visually shrinks to a postcard.  However pretty the postcard may be, your only emotional connection to the ‘scale model’ in front of your eyes is the ‘full scale” impact of what you are hearing. If your ears accept what they hear as ‘real,’ your eyes are willing to play along.  Your imagination then encourages you to establish a connection and intimacy with events that in other circumstances you would scarcely notice because of their distance from you.

You may think that’s a pretty long-winded way of saying “don’t scrimp on the audio!” and you’d be right.  Whatever you do – don’t scrimp on the audio!  That said large meetings have an enormous advantage to summer stock theater – we have video! Instead of 90% of the audience experiencing a radio show – they’re experiencing a television show.  But, what a show! A large meeting is a television show unlike any other. This show is sculpted for a unique audience at a particular moment in time. This show is experienced live, in an arena filled with colleagues who share common goals and aspirations. Couple these factors with the anticipation each guest brings to a big event, and you have an audience primed and willing to open an emotional connection that leads to meaningful communication.

So, don’t scrimp on the video either! Quality audio and video systems are the table stakes of any large meeting and without these any hope of a connection with the vast majority of your audience is lost.

Beyond basic A/V – the array of tools and technologies available to the production community are a curse of wealth.  The good news is, with so many toys and ways to combine them there’s never been a more exciting time to be in the production business. The bad news is, with an ever more sophisticated audience that is continually exposed to these technologies there’s never been a more challenging time to be in the production business.

Bottom line, there’s no one right answer to ‘where to save and invest’ and that’s great! Finding the one right answer to each production’s unique set of circumstances is the art and craft of what we do. It’s what makes this business fun. It would be cruel to make you read this far just to find out there’s no one right answer though, so here are a couple of criteria I use when trying to find a unique right answer.

Spend your money where the audience can see it.

This is a hard and fast rule for me when considering what goes into a show. I avoid spending money on production infrastructure, elaborate system integration and the like. If the audience can’t see it or experience it, I don’t want it. So, I guess a subset of this rule is ‘hire great people’ and work to find low tech background solutions to achieve high tech results.

 Don’t buy things you can only use once.

Flying in the CEO from the rafters or working a laser show into the open are potentially very cool moments. Still, they are just moments in an event that can often spans days. Unless budgets allow, or clients demand, I steer clear of one-trick ponies. After all, how many times can you pull the same rabbit of the hat before the magic is gone?

Your company’s big event should be the cornerstone of its mission and platform.  Make sure you’re investing in its messaging first and foremost.

To learn more about producing your next large meeting, contact Joe at joef@theswitch.us.