Want to take your company or association’s message beyond the walls of your meeting space and out into the world? Social media tools like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn are a highly effective way to increase your company’s visibility, engage with stakeholders, and gain new followers. Chances are, attendees at your conference are posting actively about their experience, and If you aren’t a part of the conversation, you’re missing out on a big opportunity!

Technisch Creative employs a highly experienced staff of professional social media managers who can provide live coverage of your event. We will handle all the details of your online engagement so you can focus on producing an amazing live event. Here’s a snapshot of what we can do for you.

Event Preparation

Work alongside your team to develop a social media strategy

Create a Twitter list before the event that includes speaker, influencer, and attendee Twitter names

Create custom event social media profile banners to place on each profile leading up to the event.

Create a strategically chosen event hashtag and use it in teaser posts in the weeks prior to the event.

Work alongside your team to come up with for giveaways, hashtag campaigns, and contests.

Event Broadcasting

Create in-the-moment posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn about your event keynotes, sessions, speaker panels and networking events.

Capture and post videos and photos and videos of speaker sessions, tradeshow booth interactions, awards shows, networking, speaker sessions and more.

Monitor your event hashtag on social media channels to engage with others using the hashtag.

Use a hashtag board that provides a customized projection of photos and posts that people publish about your event, to increase attendee engagement.

Increase traffic to target events and areas by managing contests, giveaways, audience challenges, book signings, etc.

Event Reporting

Report all results, including social media platform growth across all channels, hashtag use, and mentions by attendees, press, and influencers.

Our social media live team has successfully executed campaigns for events from 5 to 15,000 attendees. We’ve seen enhanced press coverage, increased buzz and awareness for our clients. Your event is a perfect opportunity to build new influencer relationships and increase your fans and followers and engagement levels in your social media communities. Want to amplify your message and really make waves online? Contact us now: heidi@technischcreative.com.

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For meeting and event planners new to working with audiovisual services, it’s often hard to know what you need. You have a good idea in your head of what you’d like the event to look like, the material you want to share, and how the speakers should be presented.  But translating that into a service order can be nerve-wracking- you don’t want to forget anything vital!

First of all, you’ll want to provide your company background, the purpose for the meeting, venue details, and equipment requirements for each location and segment of your meeting. But going beyond this, you also want to make sure that the A/V company or event production company you choose has the equipment and expertise to handle your request. That’s why we’ve come up with this checklist- we hope it will be helpful when you’re putting out an RFP for your next event!

Want to make this checklist your own? Email heidi@technischcreative.com for an editable version that you can use to make all of your future RFPs more comprehensive, so you’ll get better bids!

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Heidi Brumbach, CMP, CEO of Technisch Creative, has served five times as an Event Chair for the conference. She continued this role in 2018, as well as serving as the technical producer for the general sessions, bringing a crew of 20 Technisch Creative team members.

The presentation featured 3 large screens to span over 100′ and scenic pieces provided by Atomic Design, Inc., which became projection surfaces for 3D video mapping. We worked with content producers from Innovative Entertainment at the Opening General Session and Animatic Media for the Gala Awards (both pictured below) . We combined rear projection utilizing stacked Epson laser projectors for the main screens, and 20k Barco projectors on the front projection for the mapped content. The result was a bright, vibrant and sharp picture.

Our amazing video crew, lead by Robert Carson, integrated a 9th projector and 7 additional media sources for showcases during Michael Cerbelli’s: The Hot List, an annual feature that introduces top entertainment acts and products for events.

Overall, the sessions showcased the expertise of seasoned professionals from more than 40 sponsors under the direction of Technisch Creative. Over 2000 meeting and event industry professionals attended with a critical eye, collecting ideas for their own events. We were thrilled with the outcome and look forward to next year in San Diego!

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We’ve all managed to stick our finger into an electrical outlet as a kid, and most of us still remember that experience. While we weren’t seriously injured, the shock we felt left a lasting impression on our brains for the rest of our lives. It’s time to stop demonizing power and put it into terms and a perspective that most industry professionals can easily understand. This may get a bit technical, but will make sense in the end.

Let’s start with power in the broadest sense. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, power is defined as the product of the effective values of the voltage and current with the cosine of the phase angle between current and voltage in an alternating-current circuit. Huh? Let’s make up our own definition and say power is the electricity we use to make our electronic stuff work.

There are two forms of electricity, alternating current and direct current, or AC and DC. Direct current is used primarily for electronic circuits and battery powered devices, which we will assume don’t apply to our discussion. We are left working with alternating current.

Anyone who has ever plugged an appliance into an outlet is accustomed to working with 110 outlets, but how many of us know how those little plugs get electricity, or what 110 even means?

In any electrical system, there is a minimum of three separate conductors. There’s a “hot”, a neutral, and a ground. The hot is the positive electric charge, for our purposes 110 volts. The neutral is just that, neutral, meaning it has a net electric charge of zero. See also Switzerland. The ground is a point of zero potential. This is often times the literal ground outside your building, sometimes referred to as the earth ground. If you hear someone refer to a single-phase service, this is what they mean.

When talking about a three-phase system, we have three hot conductors, a neutral, and a ground. In our business, the three-phase system is preferable, for reasons we will later explore.

When working with three-phase systems, there will be some sort of distribution box, or “distro”, which breaks out into the individual circuits. The distro will have breakers and various plugs for each circuit. Each conductor will have a distinct color, and in the United States, hot conductors are black, red, and blue. The neutral is always white, and the ground always green. The Europeans do things differently, so make sure whoever is working with the distro is familiar with current European standards.

Now that we’ve established some basics, we can get into more technical matters. Don’t fret, though. The practical stuff is coming right after the theory. Keep thinking of your happy place and this will be a breeze.

In 1827, Georg Simon Ohm (1789-1854) published his book, Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet, which spells out Ohm’s complete theory of electricity. Today, Ohm’s Law is one of the most important fundamental equations in electrical physics. By examining the basics of Ohm’s Law and related equations, we can more easily understand why plugging those extra lights into that one circuit pops the breakers.

Ohm’s Law focuses on current, voltage, and resistance. Current is the flow of an electric charge, measured in amperes, or amps (I or A). Think of current as the amount of water flowing through a hose. Voltage is electrical potential, or potential difference, measured in volts (V). Voltage would be the water pressure in our theoretical hose. Resistance is the opposition of a body or substance to current passing through it, resulting in a change of electrical energy into heat or another form of energy, measured in ohms (R). This would be the size or diameter of said hose.

Ohm’s Law is the relationship among voltage, resistance, and current in a circuit. The actual equation is I = E ÷ R. That’s great, but you’re wondering how this applies to figuring out the size and number of circuits to make sure the extra bar you ordered will work properly. In reality, it doesn’t apply.

The equation for power, though not actually part of Ohm’s Law, is related, and is defined as W = V x A (Think: West Virginia). “Hold on a minute,” you say. “Where’d that W come from in the new equation, and what does it mean?”

The W in the equation for power represents, wait for it, Power. Power is the energy used to do the work when an electrical current is made to flow through a load resistance, and is measured in watts (W). The load is whatever we happen to be plugging in at the time, nothing more. This is how fast the water is running through that same hose we were talking about earlier.

Okay, take a deep breath and relax. You’ve just learned more about power in a few minutes time than most people will learn in a lifetime. We hope you’ve enjoyed this introduction to Power, and if you’d like to find out about the practical side of Power for event planners, please check out Power Play Part 2!

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So you’ve decided to have an event, and you’re not sure whether or not you need professional assistance. A good event management company should be an asset to your event, not a liability. They will bring knowledge and experience to the table which can help you save time and money. But not all event managers are created equal. Here are a few tips to help you find the right professional.

Ask about their experience. Event planning sounds like a glamorous job, which is one reason why event planning and management companies are popping up all over the world. However, there is no licensing or education required for one to call themselves an event planner, so ask to see examples of past jobs. And if they have beautiful pictures to show you, make sure they explain what their involvement was in the event pictured. Did they actually manage the event, or were they a volunteer helping with a small portion of the event?

Ask for references and follow up with them. It’s invaluable to find out what a past client’s experience was like. Make sure that you get a list of past client references and not personal references. Also, does the company have a list of repeat clientele? Consider checking with these clients, because repeat business is a testament to the quality of their work.

Ask about the company’s relationship with venues that you are considering for your event. An experienced professional should be able to work in most environments, but it can be an added bonus if they are experienced working with a particular venue. This can help save you a lot of time and expense with labor scheduling, site visits, and any union issues that could arise.

Ask how the company will charge for their service. Is it an hourly charge or is it a percentage of the event? Are they contracting and paying the vendors or will you be responsible for payments? If the company is responsible for paying the vendors, do they have good credit terms? If they are not responsible for contracting and paying the vendors, you will need to make sure that each vendor is properly licensed and insured.

Ask if the company owns/operates their own equipment. Some event management companies are able to provide services such as audio/visual production, decor, rentals, etc. in house, which may help reduce the end price. If they do not own or operate the equipment themselves, find out who are their partners in service.

Ask about the company’s network. Do they have access to unique ideas and services for your event? Are they current on industry trends?

Ask the name of the individual on staff that will be in charge of your event. After the contract is signed, will you work with an event coordinator throughout the process? Will that individual be on site for the event? If there is an intern or assistant coordinating the details during the planning phase, how are they being supervised?

Ask if they will be responsible for assuring the load out and clean up will be completed according to the facility’s requirements. Every event has an ending, and the clean up is an important part of the production. There may be fees involved if anything is left behind, so someone needs to be in charge to be sure the job is complete.

Ask for an example of how they’ve handled an emergency. If there’s one thing all experienced event managers will agree on, it’s that things never go exactly as planned. A good event manager will be able to analyze the situation and make quick, informed decisions to keep the event on track. The ability to make good decisions is what makes a good event manager great.

The post Hiring an Event Management Partner appeared first on Technisch Creative.

The Free Dictionary says to Make Waves means to shock or upset people with something new or different and to change an existing situation in a way which causes problems or upsets people. At Technisch Creative, we think to Make Waves means to keep changing the way you do events so your audience stays engaged and also, to give your event’s mission a voice outside of the parameters of time. Like a ripple. Like a sound wave. A wave of emotion. We encourage you to be brave…Make Waves.

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