Tag Archive for: events

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!

Why hold an event?

Events are a great way to bring people together, and share a moment, message or idea with a captive audience. They do, however, take considerable time, effort and organisation to execute successfully.

When deciding whether to hold an event, the first step should be to ask why you’re holding the event. This will help you get to the heart of whether an event will be valuable and help you achieve your goals. Here are some of the common reasons organisations hold events.

To build brand awareness

Events bring people together at the one location at the one time, giving you focussed time you can utilise to build brand awareness around your business with target audiences. You might make a presentation highlighting your services, or hold a workshop that builds on your thought leadership, making you a respected and trusted person within your industry.

To humanise the business

It’s usually quite fun and interesting to meet the people behind certain brands, so make sure you give your customers or clients what they want by introducing yourself and letting them know that there are real people in your business. It’s also a good time to thank customers and clients for their support, and offer to answer any questions they have or help them in some way if you can. People buy from people, so make sure your business is real and authentic.

To provide networking opportunities

Events are a great way to expand your connections, gain new clients, customers or referrals, and also to show your existing customers or clients what else you can offer them. It’s also an excellent way to meet like-minded individuals in your industry, and you never know where those relationships may lead!

To fundraise

For not-for-profit and charity organisations events are a perfect way to do drive fundraising efforts. They offer a controlled and focussed environment for you to spread the word and incite empathy and curiosity in attendees.

To launch a new product or service

New products or services are a cause for celebration! Events can allow you to inform guests of this, offer demonstrations, or give away samples. It gives your potential customers a chance to interact with your product or service in person, and in a fun and upbeat atmosphere.

To recognise and reward

Awards ceremonies are a very common type of event to hold, and a fantastic way to recognise your team or others for their hard work. Recognition is always appreciated, and usually makes for a more loyal team.

To offer a face-to-face communication experience

Too often in this digital world, we lose that personal, human interaction. While the internet has opened up a world of possibilities, the feeling of being in front of someone; having a conversation and sharing a laugh, can’t really be replicated online.

So, now that you know some of the reasons and benefits of holding events, you might be wondering just what type of event suits your business. Events vary in style, size and outcome, but some common event types include a sit down dinner, a fundraiser, an awards ceremony, a cocktail party, or a conference. You might like to read more about which events really engage your customers or clients, or how to know which conference type suits your business.

Once you’re ready to start planning your event, ensure you have a solid timeline in place. For tips on this, check out how long it takes to plan an event.

At AVPartners, we love to help bring your event dreams to life! Speak to us today and let us know your ideas.

How to choose the right venue for your event

Choosing the right venue for your event is crucial to its overall success.

Once you know the type of event you are planning, and how many guests you intend to invite, you will have an idea of the type of venue you’ll need. Be sure to also consider the theme and style of the event, and that the venue reflects this along with the guests expectations.

Once you’ve got the logistics sorted, you will be armed with enough information to start researching venues. When it comes to choosing a venue, consider the following:

Location

The event location needs to form the basis of your decision making. Make sure the location is accessible by transport and has good parking access, along with accommodation particularly if the event goes over a few days. Ensure that the venue is in a location that is sensible and accessible for the majority of your guests to get to, an element of excitement about the venue always helps too.

Catering

Food is such an important element to any event, so whether you choose to have canapes, a sit down meal, or a cocktail option, make sure the venue can offer what you want. Find out what specialties the chef can provide that can give your event a point of difference. Always ensure you have catered for any special dietary requirements of your guests too.

Atmosphere

How the venue or event space looks and feels is a big part of an event atmosphere, and the message you want to convey. If you want to impress guests at a gala dinner with modern decor and a sophisticated ambience, you will need to look at more contemporary venues.

Services and accessibility

Consider your event audience and who are you are targeting, be it families, corporates, or gender specific events, and try to pick a venue that would best support their needs or expectations. For example, families may need access to baby change rooms, or children’s entertainment and enough room for children to run around in, whereas corporates would be expecting an up-market bar service or cocktail party. Be sure to also consider the ease of access to the event space for anyone with special needs, this includes parking, distance to walk, amenities, and ramp access.

Size and capacity

Your expected guest numbers will give you a good idea about the size of venue or event space you should be looking for. Many venues have a selection of spaces of varying sizes, and it will also change based on the type of event you are having, for example a sit down or standing cocktail style event.

Technology access

Ensure that the venue will be able to handle the audiovisual requirements for your event. Many venues will have an in-house AV team, such as AVPartners, who are able to make your lighting, sound and visual ideas come to life! This might include anything from setting up a stage and microphone for speeches, to a colourful and brightly lit ballroom with your logo projected onto the walls.

Make sure you visit the venue personally to see it for yourself, and to put yourself in the shoes of your guests. At AVPartners we couldn’t be more excited to show event planners through our venues, and to let them experience our state of the art technology first hand.

Contact us today to see how our venues can make your event a success.

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 hold an eco-friendly event

Planning an eco-friendly event can seem challenging, especially when sticking to a tight budget. Often there are higher price tags placed on eco-friendly products and services forcing event planners to choose cheaper, less environmentally friendly options.

With a smart plan in place, going green doesn’t have to break your event budget. There are many strategies to reduce the environmental footprint of your event while keeping costs down. The most important way to minimise costs while planning an eco-friendly event is to have an eco plan in place covering all facets of your event.

Here are a few things to consider when planning an eco-friendly event.

Impress on less

When going ‘green’, style doesn’t need to be compromised and costs can be cut, while still impressing your guests. Utilising reusable decorations is a great way to make your event more ‘green’ and will help cut costs at the same time. The type of lighting at your event should be considered when it comes to eco-friendly event planning. LED lights are highly efficient, cost effective and are much more eco-friendly than traditional lighting methods. The use of LED lighting at your event will help reduce power consumption and as a result will reduce your event’s CO2 footprint.

Reduce waste

Maintaining a wise waste management strategy will help make your event more environmentally friendly. Global food waste is responsible for a massive portion of the earth’s annual CO2 emissions. By carefully managing food waste at your event, you can help reduce global CO2 emissions. Utilising an organisation like OzHarvest, which redistributes excess perishable food will help make your event more eco-friendly while at the same time feeding people in need. Food redistribution organisations often work on donations, meaning it doesn’t have to cost much to manage your food waste wisely.

Choose your vendors carefully

Choosing eco-friendly vendors can make a big difference. Choosing all local vendors reduces the need for long distance transportation of goods and services, reducing CO2 emissions and pollution caused by vehicles. Selecting caterers that use organic food products also has a lesser environmental impact.

Keep things digital

Avoiding paper tickets and invitations will help reduce the environmental footprint of your event. Avoiding the use of paper can be achieved by ensuring your event exclusively provides e-tickets or online invitations. Keeping your marketing methods online will also reduce the use of wasteful and environmentally harmful products such as plastic and paper. Not only does the decision to go paperless make your event more eco-friendly, it will save printing costs.

If you would like some advice on planning your next eco-friendly event, get in touch with us today.

AV Favourites Wrap Up

With all the exciting events going on and new technologies we get to use, we’ve realised our blog posts cover a lot of ground in the audiovisual space. We thought it would be great to look back at some of your favourite posts over the past year!

Here were some of the topics that our readers found particularly interesting:

Digital technology for your event

Social media has become a huge part of events. We looked at 5 ways to use social media to promote your event, along with how to integrate social media into your event.

Planning an event is a complex undertaking, with countless tasks to keep track of, tight deadlines and multiple stakeholder demands. With the use of apps, the enormity of event planning becomes a whole lot easier.

Event styling, planning and layout

For those not sure how long certain event planning aspects may take, we asked how long does it take to plan an event? We also investigated how to take your event to the next level with event styling, and depending on the type of event you’re having, how to decide on the best seating layout for your event.

Events and your business

Attending an event can make such a positive impact on your business and brand. In this day and age, we often overlook the importance of being in a live environment and interacting with people face-to-face. This in person interaction means you have a great chance to improve brand exposure, and really engage more with your audience.

Audiovisual elements

Audiovisual elements can add a special something to your event. Whether you use lighting to create atmosphere in the room, or require a stage to be set up with microphones and speakers for perfect sound, a good AV team will have you covered.

The right AV team supporting your event can be the difference between a good or bad event.

Interested in finding out more about any of these topics or have a topic you’d like us to explore? Contact us today!

How to decide on the best seating layout for your event

The task of choosing a seating layout for your event may seem small or unimportant, but it is what will decide the flow of your event. You need to ensure that the layout suits the theme and style of your event, and that you are utilising the event space to its full potential.

The layout should give your guests the most comfortable experience for the setting and style of event. You’ll need to consider if people will be eating in a formal setting and therefore needing tables and chairs, or if they will be encouraged to mingle and network where a cocktail style layout might better suit.

Here are the most popular seating layouts and which event types they best suit:

Cabaret

This style is popular for conferences, gala dinners and training sessions. Guests are seated at a round table, all facing the front, with only five or six chairs so that no one has their back to the main stage or focal point. Cabaret style can take up more room though as you need more tables to seat everyone.

Banquet

The banquet seating style is similar to the cabaret, however it utilises the entire table and seats eight to ten guests. This takes up less room and makes serving food more streamlined. Banquet seating is ideal for awards nights, gala dinners, weddings and other such events.

Cocktail

A cocktail layout does not usually involve chairs, but instead utilises a few high-rise tables as mingling points for guests throughout the event. Consider the type of event you’re having, the guests who will be attending and if it will make sense to have them seated or not. This layout is great for Christmas parties and other social functions, along with more casual weddings.

Boardroom

The boardroom layout is essentially a large table setup with chairs around, ideal for board meetings as people are facing towards each other which makes interaction easy. This layout is used a lot for corporate meetings, events and small presentations.

U-Shape

The U-shape seating layout is ideal for when the boardroom layout is too small for your event needs. Commonly used for small conferences, workshops and meetings, it is made up of tables positioned into a U-shape and makes it easier for each person to see the speaker or screen if one is set up.

Theatre

This seating layout takes up a lot less room per person and is ideal for conferences and other such presentations. Guests are seated in rows and all facing the front, much like in a theatre, giving everyone easy viewing.

Classroom

The classroom layout allows guests to be seated behind long tables. It’s similar to the theatre layout but gives guests the use of tables, so for this reason it’s ideal for training, workshops, meetings and conferences where writing may be required.

Need some help deciding on your seating layout? Contact AVPartners today.

AVPartners introduces new blend screen at Hamilton Island

AVPartners has acquired a 12.5m wide blend screen at Hamilton Island, allowing them to integrate even more projection techniques and lighting effects into their events.

The screen, custom made in Switzerland, is a dual projector blend. The technology involves the use of two or more projectors, each portraying a section of an image, blended or overlapped seamlessly together to create a single wider image on screen in a different aspect ratio.

This stunning wide angle display means it’s almost impossible for the guests in the room to notice with the naked eye where the image has been blended.

The resolution is of a high standard, meaning images and videos are crisp, further enhancing the overall quality of the event.

AVPartners Hamilton Island Partner Ritchie Harland said “We look forward to taking our events to the next level with this magnificent piece of technology. This is an exciting and effective way to give events that extra wow factor.”

Director of Events at Hamilton Island, Carissa Ward, said “It’s the use of technology like this that really sets AVPartners apart from the rest, and we are excited to see the upcoming events with the new screen in full swing!”

The technology has already been in use and very well received at AVPartners venues Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre and Crown Perth and is fast becoming the norm for large scale events in Australia.

AVPartners and Hamilton Island have enjoyed a partnership for nearly nine years. AVPartners provides audiovisual support for conferences and events at the location and professional technical assistance for delegates.

How attending events can impact your business

Attending an event can make such a positive impact on your business and brand. In this day and age, we often overlook the importance of being in a live environment, and interacting with people face-to-face. It’s important that while attending events, you utilise this time for your brand and business, and you’re not just a fly on the wall.

Being active at events can bring your business many benefits. Some of the most positive impacts from attending events include:

Networking

While networking can be a bit of a buzzword, the act hasn’t lost it’s charm. Most people attending events have similar goals and are likely to be interested in networking as well. It can be really refreshing to connect with people in your industry that you can help or who can help you in some way. You never know who you’ll meet or what collaborations may come of it!

Changing up your routine

Attending events and putting your business out there is a great way to shake things up and inject some life into your team. The day to day of business can get mundane at times, so it’s nice to let off some steam and change up your normal patterns.

Showing your brand to the public

Events are a great way to showcase your brand and services to the other guests. You may be well-known, in which case an event can be a great time to humanise your brand, or you may be just starting out, which means people can get to know you straight away. People do business with people, so show them that you’re real and that you have passion for what you do.

Educational opportunities

No matter how much you know about your industry, there is always something to learn, even if it’s in a general sense. A lot of events have fantastic educational components and can leave you with a lot of great ideas to implement.

Above all, don’t forget to have fun! The event may be business related but that doesn’t mean you can’t relax and enjoy yourself. You’ll be far more approachable that way too.

Excited to plan your next event and impress your guests? Talk to us today.

 

How the right AV team can be the difference between a good or bad event

Audiovisual technology can add a special something to your event. Whether you use lighting elements to create atmosphere in the room, or require a stage to be set up with microphones and speakers, a good AV team will have you covered.

That’s not to say that sometimes, things just happen that are out of anyone’s control, like a lightning strike resulting in a power outage. But for the majority of events, choosing the right AV team can make a world of difference to your event outcome.

So, how do you choose the right AV team?

Focus on your event goals

A good AV team doesn’t just run the audiovisual components smoothly. They help you add value and drive engagement to maximise your results and increase excitement for your next event.

Figure out the message you want to send out at your event, and the impression you want your guests to walk away with. Sit down with your AV team and discuss all ideas and options. A good AV team will be able to help you visualise the event and all elements.

Also ask your AV team any questions you may have, as this will give you a good indication as to their level of skills and passion. The right team will be able to explain the features and benefits for different audiovisual elements, and help you to make decisions. If you ask questions that they can’t or won’t answer, that might be a red flag for you.

Get techy

Ensure that your AV team have the right technology. For example, a lot of events now incorporate access for virtual attendees, or you may need multiple cameras on a stage. Make sure they are experienced to handle a variety of technologies.

Build trust

The relationship between you and your AV team is extremely valuable to your event. You want a professional team who has seen it all, who are experienced and who you can trust with your event.

Make sure that your AV team has a solid reputation and that they have your best interests in mind.

While all events are different, the overall theme of people coming together to share an experience is something to be celebrated. Contact us today to find out how we can make a difference at your next event.