Tag Archive for: event management

Top tips for clear audio at your event

Audio is one of the most important, yet often overlooked, elements at an event. Any issues with audio at an event can leave guests with a negative impression, and make you or your business appear unprofessional or unprepared.

For clear audio at an event, you’ll want to ensure announcements are audible in an open space, or that presentations or music can be heard both at the front and back of the room.

Here are our tips to ensure your audio is clear:

A little goes a long way

You don’t need to overdo the volume or audio effects to make a great impact on guests. If there are changing parts to a presentation, such as a shift between speaking, music or video, make sure the volumes are set and that you won’t shock your audience by a sudden increase in decibels.

Match the right tool for the job

Just as you wouldn’t eat cereal with a fork, you need to use the correct microphone or speaker for the job. Microphones and speakers all have their own qualities that make them best suited to particular sounds or presentation settings.

Make sure presenters know how to use their microphone

With the many variants of microphones available, it’s important to give your presenter a quick intro to the one they will be using, so they’re aware of it’s capabilities and how they should best handle it. For example, a presenter may need to wear a lapel microphone and as such they will need to be advised not to create excess noise through their clothing covering or coming into contact with the microphone.

Ensure you have qualified technicians at the soundboard

Audio at an event is not just a ‘set and forget’ type of support, it needs qualified technicians to organise, manage, and control it throughout the entire event. Hiring an in-house AV team, such as AVPartners, can be a fantastic option as in-house teams know their venues well, can offer you a wealth of knowledge and experience, and tailor audio and lighting options to suit your event.

To find out about the best ways to use audio at your next event, speak to us today!

The benefits of a team building event and how to plan one

Team building is vital to the success of your organisation. When you have a team that appreciates and respects each other, they will likely be more productive, efficient and happy. What’s not to love? A team building event is a great way to deliver on your team building goals and enhance the overall performance of your team.

The benefits

Team building events give employees the chance to test out their teamwork skills and have fun by engaging in activities or challenges together. Each person starts the day on the same level as everyone else, despite where they may sit in the organisation, with a task at hand and a novel approach to it. Everyone has the chance to be heard, have fun, and draw on skills they may not have had an opportunity to showcase within their workplace role. These events are also a great way for your team to form better relationships with each other, and truly bond over common ground.

The objective

When planning a team building event or activity, it’s best to determine a goal or objective before you begin. Knowing what direction you would like your team to go in, and what you want everyone to get out of the day, will assist you in choosing appropriate activities and venues.

Usually, team building events or activities aim to provide fun and boost morale, or they aim to solve a problem or a communication breakdown within the workplace. This is achieved by getting everyone out of the work environment and allowing them to relax and get to know each other better in a new setting. This can help people to open up to new experiences and can lead to a better understanding of each other. Additionally, tackling a workplace problem outside of the usual domain can reveal a new perspective on the issue, and potentially, how it can be solved.

Things to consider

Ensure that the activity chosen is appropriate for your team and workplace. A wine and cheese tasting or a trivia night are great options for fun casual events where the goal is to relax and socialise. If you want to take things up a notch, you could arrange a CSI night, where your team works to solve a ‘murder’, or a casino or games night where everyone can let their hair down and mingle with their colleagues. If the aim is to create greater team cohesion, activities such as ‘escape rooms’ or interactive matrix style mazes really test people and require them to pool their strengths to get out of the game.

More ideas for your next team building event include cooking workshops, live drawing, community service, bowling, and outdoor sporting activities such as bootcamp, rock climbing or rowing. These can all be fun activities, but you might find that some are better suited to your team than others.

At AVPartners we love supporting team building events to bring your team closer together! It’s important to think about what technology will be required to make your event a success – from getting the lighting and sound right, through to ensuring you have the right projection screens, or even considering what app technology you can leverage to strengthen communication and engagement – technology can often make or break an event.

When dividing your team into groups, keep the group sizes to a maximum of 10. This will mean that each group member can be fully engaged and it’s far more manageable than larger groups, where people tend to detach themselves.

Keep the momentum rolling after the event by setting action plans at the end of the day for everyone to take back to work with them. This could include making sure employees say hi to a new friend made that day, or keeping tabs on the progress of solved problems. These actions can ensure the team building event has a lasting and meaningful effect.

Keen to bond your team together with a team building event? Contact us today and we’ll show you how!

Top tips for improving presentations at your events

Presentations at events are commonplace, and are held for various reasons. You might be presenting awards at an award show, giving a speech thanking donors at a charity event, or speaking to your guests about the upcoming direction of your organisation.

Whatever the reason or desired outcome, the basics of presentations are the same – be as prepared and as engaging as possible. However, what has changed over time, is the ways you can take your presentations to the next level, and really impress your audience.

Here are our top tips for improving presentations at your events:

Include imagery and video

A picture is worth a thousand words, so if possible, include some photos, graphs or illustrations to support your words. Imagery is a great way to explain your point, or provide extra information. Bonus points if you want to include short video clips too! To read more about the importance of including content in your presentation, check out our article on how to create standout presentation content.

Be clear and concise

It seems obvious, but along with being prepared for your presentation, ensure that what you are saying needs to be said, and that you’re saying it in the best way for your audience to hear and digest. A great presentation will be the perfect combination of concise information delivered with the right tone and manner that encourages audience engagement.

Be aware of your audience

Be aware of who is listening to you, and what they might need to better understand you – are they elderly and would appreciate a slower pace, or are they your employees who you can be more casual and fun with? Tailor your approach as needed.

Set the mood

The instant you are in front of people, you are giving an impression and setting the mood, so decide how you want to be seen. You can also use your surroundings to help support your presentation. For example, using modern lighting techniques such as flooding the room with a certain colour scheme while you present, or using a spotlight to follow you on stage.

Have fun!

Everyone loves to be entertained, so injecting some humour into your presentation will help people loosen up and become engaged with what you have to say – after all, they won’t want to miss the next laugh! You can use imagery within a presentation to lighten the mood, or just pure banter – the possibilities are endless.

To start preparing for your next presentation, and really impress your audience, contact us today!

How to plan a product launch event

A product launch is an event which promotes the launch of a company’s new product. A product launch will aim to introduce the new product to your target market, promote your brand, build brand awareness, boost customer loyalty and drive sales.

Here are a few simple steps for planning a product launch event.

  1. 1. Choose your venue

    When choosing your event venue, the size and location will depend on how many people you expect to attend, your target market and target location. Some additional factors to consider when choosing your venue should include decoration potential and audiovisual accessibility.

  2. 2. Find a food and beverages vendor

    Providing food at your event will provide a drawcard for potential attendees and will make the event more enjoyable for your guests. If the product you are launching is a type of food or beverage it’s important to ensure your product is the feature of the event and all other accompanying food and beverage products highlight your feature product. If you need to acquire an external vendor, considering a sponsorship partnership is a great way to offer food and beverages at a lower cost.

  3. 3. Decide on your theme and develop your event messaging

    Your launch product should be reflected in your theme, event messaging, decor and colour scheme. For a product launch event, the event messaging will reflect the launch product and should tie into your conversion goals for the product and event. Your event styling, including the colour of your decorations and event lighting, should echo the colour and aesthetics of your product. This will help reinforce the memory of your product for your event guests.

  4. 4. Get the word out

    Marketing and promotions are some of the most important components of a successful event. Prior to undergoing marketing activities for your event, it’s important to decide who you would like to attend your event as well as define your marketing objectives. Are you interested in getting media coverage for the event? If so, you might want to consider investing in some public relations for the event. Would you like the event to be invite only? If so, you will need to arrange invite distribution and RSVPs. A few effective ways to promote your event include through social media, event listing sites, pamphlets and flyers, and through media outlets in the lead up to the event.

If you would like some help planning your next event, talk to us today.

How to make your event stand out from the rest

Ever wonder how you can make a lasting impression on your event guests? How you can make your event memorable and stand out from the rest? The answer is relatively simple. Following a few steps to maximise convenience for your guests and to create the ‘wow’ factor will have attendees walking away with the experience firmly imprinted in their memory.

Here are a few ways to make your event stand out from the rest, for all the right reasons.

Define and amplify your event messaging

First things first, what is the purpose of your event? What would you like your guests to take away from your event? Your event messaging should be apparent prior to organising your event and should remain at the forefront of your planning process. Making sure your event messaging is not only clear to you and your team, but ensuring that your guests understand their role in the event and why they’re attending, will guarantee that they leave with something more than just a party favour. Amplification of your event messaging can be made through marketing and promotional efforts prior to your event and can be reinforced on the day through speeches, decorations and styling.

Simplify the ticket sales process

Ensuring ease of the ticket sales process is one of the most obvious however often understated components to the event planning process. At a time in which the majority of internet usage is utilised via mobile, ease of availability is increasingly important for event ticket sales. Maximised user experience through a mobile friendly ticket merchant is the first step to any successful event and will set the scene for a pleasant event experience.

Beautify your event space

What colour scheme will best reflect your event messaging? What type of centrepieces will wow your guests? Special consideration should go into all visual aspects of your event, big and small. Including customised lighting to match the theme or style of your event is a simple yet hugely effective way to make a difference to the overall look and feel.

Choose the right entertainment

Choosing event entertainment can mean the difference between a good and bad event. Choosing the right entertainment for your event will of course depend on your budget, however some considerations should be made prior to booking. It’s important to consider how your entertainment reflects your event messaging, how the entertainment suits the demographic of your guests, and how it enhances your event theme or style.

If you would like some more advice on how to make your event stand out from the rest, talk to us today.

Different ways to incorporate smartphones into your event

When running an event, smartphones can be used in several ways to boost publicity and ease some aspects of the planning process. The ubiquity of smartphones these days means that word-of-mouth marketing is on the rise. Fostering the use of smartphones at your event can ensure that you get the most out of it.

Here are a few ways smartphones can be incorporated into your event:

Ticket buying

Using a ticket vendor or maintaining your own ticket purchasing site which is mobile-friendly is becoming more and more important for the success of event ticket sales. More people have been accessing information via mobile than desktop since 2014, and the internet usage figures between desktop and mobile are steadily becoming more disparate. With more people accessing the internet on their smartphones than ever before, the availability of event ticket buying via mobile is increasingly important for ticketed events. When choosing a ticket vendor or developing your own ticket purchasing site, it’s important to ensure that the mobile site is easy to use and the transaction path is straightforward.

Photo sharing

Today, more people are taking photos on smartphones than on any other device. The presence of smartphones amongst your event attendees means that people are likely to take photos during the event to share on social media. This is a highly effective means of word-of-mouth marketing for your event. Depending on the style of your event, a great way to encourage photo taking and sharing, while at the same time promoting your brand, is to provide branded selfie sticks for your event guests.

Hashtags

Creating a hashtag for your event is a great way to ignite conversation amongst your event attendees and your industry at large. The development of a unique hashtag specific to your event will encourage your event attendees to engage with each other and your business.

The use of a hashtag is not only a great way to boost communication between people in your industry, it’s a great tool for building brand awareness. Hashtags can create an air of excitement around your event. Hashtags can be promoted leading up to your event to build awareness and create a buzz around the event.

Live tweeting

Live tweeting has become an important tool for event promotion and for sparking conversation amongst event attendees. Live tweeting is a great way to promote your event in real time. Real time event tweeting means that updates throughout the course of your event can reach people immediately, assisting in the creation of conversation amongst people engaging with your brand.

Networking

Even if your event is not specifically intended for networking, socialising and contact building is likely to occur amongst your guests. During all types of events it’s important for attendees to have a channel in which they can record details like names, phone numbers and company details of fellow attendees. Relying on business cards is not always wise. The development of apps like Bump, which allows users to bump phones with other users to instantly exchange details, is proof that smartphones are increasingly important for building professional and nonprofessional relationships, while business cards are quickly becoming obsolete. A quick add on Linkedin can mean the start of a lifetime professional relationship, whilst a business card, once exchanged, can often be lost or forgotten.

In events it’s important to foster the use of smartphones while treating them as source of event promotion and as a channel in which event planning can be made easier.

If you need some help incorporating smartphones into your next event, contact us today!