Part One of EVENT Design – Our GiveBack to the Community

Part One of EVENT Design – Our GiveBack to the Community

Our Round Table!  I do love Round Tables – and not just the round kind, the table can be square or rectangular or at our Event Design and Creativity Round Table it was “T” shaped!

Howard Givner of the Event Leadership Institute (ELI) and I began to talk about the Event Community and how Pink Powered by Moss could give back. We said we could look at the tricks and trends in Event Design but we also wanted to address what is really going on with Creativity and the Business of Event Design.

The idea of bringing together 15 Event Designers (listed below)- from all kinds of disciplines was important to broaden the scope of the project.  We wanted a lively discussion where all kinds of ideas came bubbling up!

The lively discussion went on for a couple of hours and all kinds of points were made from Design and it’s worth, to the buyers, who are much smarter about what is available to them.  With Social Media the communications travel much faster then in the old days and how do we deal with that. Pinterest was sited as a new watch out for tool.  Our group chat was so vibrant and deep.  And of course we had a bunch of opinionated Designers in the room!

Howard culled the information down into a White Paper, The Business of Event Design, that Pink Powered by Moss sponsored.

So please go ahead…. DOWNLOAD and take a read!

This informal group of Women in the Exhibit Industry have been meeting live for several years as well as our connection through our LinkedIn Group

Forty women met live in Las Vegas, in March at the Exhbitor2012 show.  We broke up into groups of 10 and spoke about Building Your Personal Brand.

I want to encourage everyone to join into this discussion on LinkedIn and add points that were learned through our open discussion.

I look forward to read all about it!  I will repost the discussion here to make this post rich with our collective knowledge!

Meanwhile, read my EXHIBITOR2012 Recap and take a look at our group photo!

BizBash NYC takes place Wed. the 19th and I want to detail for you all the ways we are involved and I want to remind you to VOTE for me and other event professionals in our community!

BizBash NYC is this coming Wednesday the 19th of October at the Javits Center.  Pink Powered by Moss is in booth # 341.  Click here for a discounted Planner Pass! And of course you can Power UP! At our JuiceBar!

OK, so here is the skinny on where you can find me outside of our BOOTH!

• Tuesday Night October 18, 6 – 8 pm I am part of the group hosting the Social Media Soiree.  Come on down and network and have some fun at this pre-party at the 300 Club at Chelsea Piers.

• Wednesday the 19th – 11am Expo Floor opens!

• 12-2 You can find me in and out of the Social Media Lounge! Talking Twitter or whatever platform you would like to discuss or learn about!

• 12:30-1:30 – HOT TOPICS LUNCHEON – I will be hosting a table as ISES NYC President with my President Elect Paul Neuman

• a quicky 10 minutes at 4:05 on the show floor with ELI (Event Leadership Institute) and my topic is Boosting Your Creative IQ! (something we all can use!)

• I will float around the ISES booth # 354 where members that JOIN on site get headshots on the spot! (thank you Fifth Avenue Digital!)

• Event Style Awards – 5:00

• Pink Powered by Moss is a Finalist for our JuiceBar Charging Station in the category of Best New Product!

• ISES NYC is up for Best Corporate or Association Event Concept for the Chapter’s Sustainability Forum and Marketplace!

OK, OK – Here is the big one!  I am up for Event Designer of the Year in the BizBash Readers’ Choice Awards!  This means you have to go vote for me! Go VOTE now!  And do it again tomorrow,  and the next day and…..

Other ISES colleagues and board members are nominated and take a look!

- Association/Nonprofit Event Planner: Ann Dean,

- Corporate Event Planner: Ellie Winkleman, Caterer: Paul Neuman,

- Event Designer: Jes Gordon, Debra Roth

- Entertainment Act: The Three Waiters, Brad Wilson

- Event Producer: Reed Baker, Morgan Steele Connacher

- Venue Manager: Jessica Rothstein Berman

• After we catch our breath we will be at the Post-Expo Cocktail Reception from 6-8PM at the Sir Stage37 – 508 West 37th Street right by Javits!

Wow! We are really doing a lot at BizBash! So come on out and see us and the entire NYC events community!

The Event Camp Twin Cities as a whole was a couple of days of connecting a lot of technical ideas with event practices, virtual audience and the combination of Pods –remote branches of the conference goers in other cities.  AND a very fun experiment was had by all!  And The EXPERIMENATION was the point of the conference to begin with, and Sam and Ray stressed this throughout their contact with us.

Emilie Barta – tYophe voice of the virtual audience and Glenn Thayer, the master of the airwaves they, together inhabited the broadcast studio provided by Sonic Foundry and Metro Connections.

The studio felt like a news center where the virtual audience was kept engaged and connected to our live portion of our event camp.  Emilie and Glenn interviewed people all day long as made good sense.

I was interviewed by Emilie twice. Ryan Hansen and I talked about the event décor and the fabric décor that my company Pink Powered by Moss brought. And then I spoke about the class I presented – 3d Design in the Future of Events – My class went well – it was  a conversation, a conversation of one…me!  This informative talk was on 3d techniques and trends in Event Design that are currently popular.  You learned about me and my history, working with event design concepts, tools used in 3d design, material and technical trends, current event trends of all sorts of case studies – from tradeshows to technical innovations.

We played a game throughout the event.  It was tough to get started, information overload!  I liked it though. I think the makers should use it in a much more concentrated dose – like over a half day or a day – It will be more successful that way.  It is a good game.

I heard lots of similar stuff – Hybrid Hybrid Hybrid!!!

One of the most exciting things about the Event Camp model is that this group of Event Professionals (#eventprofs) is growing, is experimental, experiential, is passionate, and together we are discovering and uncovering new territory. We are trying different things and speaking to the live and online audience.

So join #eventprofs on our Twitter Chats – Visit and participate in EventCamps and generally remember that Technology is here to stay and LIVE Face to Face Meetings and Events will ALWAYS be necessary but the future of  F2F events will continue to interface between live, hybrid and cyber connectivity.

Last week, Event Camp Twin Cities was held at the McNamara Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Event Camp can be described as an innovation lab for meetings and events that we will review in further detail soon, but for now we wanted to show some pictures from the event which we provided much of the decor for. The building itself provided quite the backdrop; designed by Antoine Predock and completed in 2000, with a six-story open space and walls set at all different angles that are intersected by slices of windows casting dynamic shadows below.

Our fabric structures naturally sorted themselves out in the space and defined several different areas. For the registration desk, we used 4 Colonnades to provide a presence. The stage was backed by a 20′ long Circle Surround that the speakers presented above. To the side of the stage, you can find 4 25′ long ribbons, all in different configurations illustrating the different possibilities found within our Ribbonesque line. We also had a cluster of Turning Birds supported on pipe and base providing some extra decor. View some images from Event Camp below and be sure to check back soon for more . . .

EventCamp National Conference #ecnc

There are a group of Event Professionals #eventprofs that are like mind and we come together to discover and discuss where events and technology/social media meet!

The 2011 National edition has left my head full of ideas and info on this concept. For me there is a feeling of the Future is Now and We Really have NO idea of what is going to happen especially with technology. In my opinion we ain’t seen nothing yet!

MY HIGHLIGHTS:

Hank Wasiak @hankwasiak – Asset-based Thinking – Hank was a real MadMan and he continues to work in several mediums including advertising. It was exciting to hear him proclaim that this IS the most interesting time in history in relation to technology.

• @LizStrauss @ChrisBrogan and others presented

• Gaming is a hot topic to engage your audience

• #eventprofs meeting f2f is still very exciting and many relationships are deepening and time marches on

• New faces have joined the eventcamp community and they are welcome with open arms.

• This great community is think tank for the future of events! Great resource!

There are SEVERAL Blog Posts that I would like to link here – So take a look below these pictures!!!

Here are the several Blog Posts and I encourage you to read all about it! I will also make sure to add to the list so come on back!

What I loved about Event Camp! Tahira Endean @tahiracreates #ECNC

85 Takeaways in 140 Characters or Less Liz King Events – @lizkingevents  #ECNC Part 1

85 Takeaways in 140 Characters or Less #ECNC Part 2 Liz King Events – @lizkingevents

Commentary: EventCamp Must Keep Evolving Mitchell Beer    in Corporate meetings and Incentives

Liz Strauss’ story about the fabric that only goes to those who love it!

Event Camp National Conference 2011 Highlights Social Media for Events Heidi Thorne @heidithorne Promo with a Purpose TODAY

What are you searching for (on Twitter)? Christina Stallings @MsStallings    light bulb moments

Everybody is a Champ at EventCamp! KiKi L’Italian  @kikilitalien    Acronym Soup

5 Reasons Why EventCamp Community Rocks My World Michael McCurry    @michaelmccurry    McCurry’s Corner

Lessons from Weekend Camp: EventCamp Deirdre Reid    Avectra Insights from Deirdre

Jessica Levin wrote: EventCamp’s Social Gaming Contest

Virtual Event Logs and Glenn Thayer, the EventCamp Virtual Event Host   @glennthayer

EventCamp Slide Share – lots of decks! Take a look!

Moving towards the #MPI European Meetings & Events Conference that also took place last week…

EMEC and EventCamp and Event Experiments oh my!! Midori Connonly   @greenA_V    Pulse Staging

The Visual Shift | Solution Room Experiment Ruud Janssen  @RuudWJanssen   TNOC – The New Objective Collective

Using Design as a Tool

Posted on January 10, 2011 by EventCampEC

During this session, participants shared their knowledge—as well as the gaps in knowledge—of how design can shape the effectiveness and success of events, especially trade shows. While a couple of participants said design was their forte, others had more limited knowledge.

Debra Roth (@pinkdeb), who led the session, asked that it be run as a dialogue, focusing first on how style affects events, and why first impressions matter. One participant said he was not very creative; he asked how to approach hiring professional designers, and what information they would need from him to build an effective show design.

Another participant added that while it can be easy to look at something and judge it, it can be more challenging to offer more detailed and useful feedback. The participant said she hoped to gain a better knowledge of the issues involved in design decisions.

Packaging all aspects of the event with a coordinated design gives the impression of a cohesive unit. When every aspect of the event looks coordinated, from pre-event mailings to the display on the convention floor, each piece’s design builds upon the last one. By the time a participant walks into the conference, they’re already familiar with the ideas and theme being conveyed.

Participants agreed on the need to achieve this by bringing a designer into the process very early, even during preliminary planning sessions. One participant said it is impossible to learn how to do everything involved with designing an event. So if design is not a company’s in-house specialty, someone must be found who can drive the event’s creative elements.

While most people do not think much about visuals, they are an important component of effectively conveying a message. People “don’t believe it’s going to affect the dollars,” a participant said. But smart use of design can enable a planner to engage people, so that they remember the event, and “look really smart when their nametag matches the poster on the wall.”

A participant offered an analogy: “When you sit down to eat and the plate doesn’t look appetizing, I don’t care how good it tastes, you’re not going to want to take that first bite. People aren’t going to want to listen to the message if it doesn’t look good.”

Another participant, who had more of a design background, expressed the need for dominant, subdominant, and subordinate or tertiary backgrounds. One element must be strong enough to become a focal point: this can be an attention-grabbing photo, outstanding typography, or any design element. However, if all the elements are dominant, the message becomes less effective.

“It’s kind of like Las Vegas, where everything has ‘oomph’ to it,” the participant said. “If you look at Vegas from a distance it all looks the same, and if you put one brick building there, it would probably stand out.”

“Our minds are really full,” another participant said. “Everything wants attention, but few things receive it, so really, less is more.” Different colors stimulate different chemicals in the brain, and can evoke certain feelings. Reading something at eye-level can deliver the message straight to the conscious mind, but messages read below eye-level can have a more “subconscious” effect.

The emotional response to color means that it can be most effective to show clients early drafts of logos or other artwork in black and white. This enables them to make the choice from a business perspective, because the lack of color helps clients narrow down their decisions.

A crowded display is not as effective as a simpler one. In print material, a common mistake is to fail to allow enough of a margin, enough space between letters in a heading, or breathing room around pictures. This idea applies to websites, as well as presentations. If participants can get all of their information from a screen, they have no reason to listen to the speaker, and essentially no reason to show up in the first place.  Planning presentations, then, means knowing the audience. “It’s important to establish in the beginning, ‘This is what we’re trying to communicate,’” one participant said. “Throughout the process, you have to go back and check [that you're focusing on that].” By knowing the audience’s objectives, and how they like their information, presenters can make their material more intuitive, and thus more effective. This means considering why people are attending a conference or event: is it for purely educational purposes, for entertainment, or to make a social connection?

Three-dimensional planning is just as important as 2-D aspects like web and print. For example, seating arrangements can drastically alter an event’s environment. Three-dimensional design is also a significant part of creating an “experiential” event. While events may claim to be experiential, many do not live up to this assertion. Participants discussed how to transcend that; the goal is to have attendees leave the conference thinking, “That was so great, you have to come with me next year.”

Participants discussed the use of lounges, debating whether they help or inhibit conversation. Many said that conversations can become static, and mingling can be inhibited by lounges; however, at the same time, lounges can offer a sense of comfort that can encourage conversation. If a conference does not offer lounges, some participants said they might be more inclined to go somewhere to sit down and network comfortably.

The group discussed how to maximize interaction at tradeshows, noting that free space can be utilized by scattering random seating around booths, which are arranged in a circle. Placing food in the middle of a circle and drawing people there takes much of pressure out of the environment, since people can see everything. This is key for vendors too—if attendees can stand in the middle of the room and see everything, it creates energy.

“What we often do is almost like spokes coming out of a wheel,” she said. “We’ve often scrapped what a traditional trade show looks like completely, but sometimes you have to do that when you’re redesigning.”

Session summaries produced by The Conference Publishers, the world’s leading specialists in capturing and repackaging conference content.

My Prediction list will continue to grow over the Holidays but here is a start!

• The events industry will continue to build as people need people

• Hybrid events will become the norm as technology expands and people adapt

• Event experiences will continue to get more and more dynamic to engage folks out of their homes and off their computers.

And click on these links for my colleague’s predictions for a WONDERFUL NEW YEAR and DECADE!!!

Fabric Architecture trends from Sam Armijos

Meeting Trends Predictions 2011 from Successful Meetings

From Jeff Hurt – 14 Conference and Event Trends for the next Decade!

From Jenise Fryatt – Engage 365 – 3 Social Media / Events trends to watch in 2011

21 Trade Show Predictions by Mike Thimmesch via BizBash Hive

Pantone – Color of the Year 2011! and it is PINK! (Honeysuckle)

5 Tech World Predictions for 2011

Interesting! – 11 Meeting Industry “Things to Look Forward To in 2011” from Greenfield Services

BizBash’s Mashup of 2011 Predictions 100 of em!

I am on the train coming back from a great couple of days at EventCamp East Coast.  The model is that of an Un-Conference – a safe place for attendees to gather and to exchange knowledge and ideas though user generated content. EventCamp is a conference that has developed through a group of events professionals that have come together through many channels but originally met and are still involved on twitter and the eventprofs #hashtag.

This is the third in what is an ongoing conference series. The National EventCamp will be in Chicago on February 11-13, 2011. The EventCamp East Coast was planned around the format of Adrian Segar Un-conference style that he wrote about in his book Conferences that Work – Creating Events that People Love.

Here are my observations:

Networking

I really enjoyed the style of this smaller more intimate conference. We all were placed on an equal playing field with a beginning roundtable of introductions that allowed us all to hear about each other.

In retrospect I realized that this and other methods employed really allowed us all to get to know each of the 40 people well, better then other conferences that I have been to with 2000 attendees.  It is kind of a fascinating idea if you think about it.

Content Development

The content was developed through ideas that we all brought to the table. Adrian took us through the process that he has developed and that process involved our interests and our knowledge. We all participated in identifying the sessions that we wanted, rated them and added our expertise level if applicable. We did this through writing on sheets of paper.  This all took place over a dinner and cocktail evening of networking. After all the info was in, Adrian worked with a team of several people to identify what each one hour block of time would be for our curriculum for the next day.

Participation

When we arrived to the venue we had our schedule.  At that time I learned that I would indeed be facilitating a class in Design. I recruited the other designers at the event as I knew my session needed to be a focused conversation.  I was happy to jump in and I am excited to explore my topic in a more focused way in the future. This process made me accountable for my topic and although I have been thinking of teaching a class on design this activity catapulted me into ACTION. I appreciate that! And I believe all of us involved in my session had a good learning experience.

Knowledge and Interaction

Overall the sessions I attended went smoothly as I learned a lot, both about the un-conference structure and the knowledge I gained at each session I attended. Another benefit was the excitement I now have about my topic that I am determined to uncover more.  Meeting new eventprofs and continuing established relationships was great and as I said earlier – the quality and depth of relationship that we were able to achieve in this short time was remarkable.

Face to Face Engagement

In my view, this particular EventCamp had a “camp” feel, no fancy props, not a lot of tech, in fact many pens and paper. This crowd is fairly tech and social media savvy and I found our task at hand caused us to “be in the moment” and it kept us all off of our mobile devices and computers.  My point in bringing this up is that we truly all were paying attention to each other and our topics and this proved the un-conference style worked and it once again proved that there is NO REPLACEMENT for Face to Face engagement!

Howard Givner‘s observations

Sam Smith‘s thoughts

Cameron Toth weighs in

Eric Lukazewski‘s POV – Back to Basics part 1

Carolyn Ray says

Mitchell Beers perspective

What Jenise Fryatt has to say

Jenise also says

A different look at it all from Michael McCurry

BizBash‘ speaks!

BizBash speaks again! My back is in this shot!

BizBash NY is coming up the Wednesday October 27^th and I am involved in lots of different ways.  I hope you will come on down!

I started with the Top 10 items @pinkdeb is doing for #BizBash  but realized it was so many more then 10! So here you go!

First! You must VOTE for me as I am nominated for Event Designer of the Year through The BizBash Readers’ Choice Awards

•  I am speaking on the panel for event design with @markaddison @eventstyle

•  I am in booth 611 talking fabric structures and event design!

• I am a Supporter of Event Camp and contributor to the booth design

• I am designing my first tabletop display!

•  I am on the social media committee as a host during our BizBash Expo Pre-Party

•  Host ISES reception on the #bizbash show floor as #ISES board member

• I set up a tweet-up for after the BizBash Expo Pre-Party

• I am tweeting about 10th anniversary, BizBash Expo

• BizBash Expo offers the ultimate showcase of the freshest ideas.

• I am talking and squawking about BizBash Expo—One Day of Inspiration To Last The Whole Year

•  I am visiting the Social Media Lounge

• I am an Event Designer of the year nominee for the Readers’ Choice Awards

• I am a participant in the Social Media Lounge

•  I will judge the participants on the Event Design Educational tabletops

•  I Host new members in the #ISES @isesnyc booth! JOIN NOW!

•  Check in on the #ISES tabletop DESIGN display! I am!

• Vote for me! In the Readers Choice Awards! BizBash – NY Event Designer of the Year!